A report on John Buford, Battle of Gettysburg and Second Battle of Bull Run

Northern Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, 1861–1865

Second Battle of Bull Run, fought Augt. 29th 1862, 1860s lithograph by Currier and Ives

August 1863 – General Buford (seated) & staff

Second Bull Run Campaign, August 17–30, 1862 (Additional map).

This 1863 oval-shaped map depicts the Gettysburg Battlefield during July 1–3, 1863, showing troop and artillery positions and movements, relief hachures, drainage, roads, railroads, and houses with the names of residents at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg.

This November 1862 Harper's Magazine illustration shows Confiderate Army troops escorting captured African American civilians south into slavery. En route to Gettysburg, the Army of Northern Virginia kidnapped approximately 40 black civilians and sent them south into slavery.

Overview map of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg

Marker commemorating the first shot fired at the Battle of Gettysburg at 7:30 am on July 1, 1863 by Lt. Marcellus Jones

August 29, 12 noon: Longstreet arrives, Porter stalls

Robert E. Lee's plan for July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg

Overview map of the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863

August 29, 5–7 p.m., Kearny's attack, Hood vs. Hatch

Union Army breastworks on Culp's Hill, 1863

Stonewall Jackson's cannons on Henry House Hill

Overview map of the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863

The high water mark on Cemetery Ridge with the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument commemorating the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment at right and the Copse of Trees to the left, August 2005

August 30, 4 p.m.: Start of Longstreet's attack

"The Harvest of Death": Union dead on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, photographed July 5 or July 6, 1863, by Timothy H. O'Sullivan

August 30, 4:30 p.m.: Union defense of Chinn Ridge

John L. Burns, veteran of the War of 1812, civilian who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg with Union troops, standing with bayoneted musket. Mathew Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries, photographer. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

August 30, 5 p.m.: Final Confederate attacks, beginning of the Union retreat

Gettysburg Campaign (July 5 – July 14, 1863)

Bridge crossed by the Union troops retreating to Centreville

On November 19, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, considered one of the best-known speeches in American history. A crowd of citizens and soldiers surround Lincoln (with a red arrow pointing to his location in photo)

Soldiers stand next to a completely destroyed Henry House in 1862

<center>Soldiers stand next to a completely destroyed Henry House in 1862</center>

<center>Virginia, Bull Run. Ruins of Stone Bridge, 1862</center>

<center>A group of men stand near the Manassas Railroad Junction railroad tracks in 1862 with a train in the background</center>

The 1936 Battle of Gettysburg half dollar

<center>A group of men near Manassas Railroad Junction in 1862</center>

Gettysburg Centennial Commemorative issue of 1963

Gettysburg Campaign (through July 3) with cavalry movements shown with dashed lines Confederate
Union

<center>Men sit near the Manassas Junction railroad in 1862</center>

<center>Picking up debris of trains after Pope's retreat</center>

<center>Bull Run, Va. Dedication of the battle monument; Judge Abram B. Olin of the District of Columbia Supreme Court, who delivered the address, stands by the rail.</center>

Battle map drafted by Sneden, Robert Knox, with notes on Union and Confederate strengths, casualties, done in pen and ink and water color

Northern Virginia Campaign, August 7–28, 1862 Confederate
Union

Buford is best known for having played a major role in the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, by identifying, taking, and holding the "high ground" while in command of a division.

- John Buford

His first command was a cavalry brigade under Major General John Pope, and he distinguished himself at Second Bull Run in August 1862, where he was wounded, and also saw action at Antietam in September and Stoneman's Raid in spring 1863.

- John Buford

Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brigadier General John Buford, and soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry.

- Battle of Gettysburg

At this time, McDowell received a report from his cavalry commander, Brig. Gen. John Buford, who reported that 17 regiments of infantry, one battery, and 500 cavalry were moving through Gainesville at 8:15 a.m. This was Longstreet's wing arriving from Thoroughfare Gap, and it warned the two Union generals that trouble lay to their front.

- Second Battle of Bull Run

Prior to Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee had established a reputation as an almost invincible general, achieving stunning victories against superior numbers—although usually at the cost of high casualties to his army—during the Seven Days, the Northern Virginia Campaign (including the Second Battle of Bull Run), Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.

- Battle of Gettysburg

James Longstreet was criticized for his performance during the battle and the postbellum advocates of the Lost Cause claimed that his slowness, reluctance to attack, and disobedience to Gen. Lee on August 29 were a harbinger of his controversial performance to come on July 2, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg.

- Second Battle of Bull Run

2 related topics with Alpha

Abner Doubleday

1 links

Career United States Army officer and Union major general in the American Civil War.

Doubleday photo displayed at Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston harbor

Fort Sumter Medal bearing the likeness of Major Robert Anderson which was presented to Abner Doubleday

Doubleday's tombstone in Arlington National Cemetery

Abner Doubleday monument in Ballston Spa

He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg.

In the actions at Brawner's farm, just before the Second Battle of Bull Run, he took the initiative to send two of his regiments to reinforce Brigadier General John Gibbon's brigade against a larger Confederate force, fighting it to a standstill.

At the start of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, Doubleday's division was the second infantry division on the field to reinforce the cavalry division of Brigadier General John Buford.

John F. Reynolds

1 links

Career United States Army officer and a general in the American Civil War.

Major General John Fulton Reynolds. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

"The Fall of Reynolds" – drawing of Reynolds' death at Gettysburg

Possible location of General Reynolds' death

"Where Reynolds Fell," (from The Photographic History of the Civil War)

One of the Union Army's most respected senior commanders, he played a key role in committing the Army of the Potomac to the Battle of Gettysburg and was killed at the start of the battle.

On the second day of the Second Battle of Bull Run, while most of the Union Army was retreating, Reynolds led his men in a last-ditch stand on Henry House Hill, site of the great Union debacle at First Bull Run the previous year.

On the morning of July 1, 1863, Reynolds was commanding the "left wing" of the Army of the Potomac, with operational control over the I, III, and XI Corps, and Brig. Gen. John Buford's cavalry division.