The following morning, July 1, Buford's men faced west as the sun rose to their backs. Shortly after daylight, one of his troopers posted on the road to Cashtown, Lt. Marcellus Jones, fired at the advance of Maj. Gen. Henry Heth's entire Confederate division, sending up the alarm in Buford's camps. The dismounted cavalrymen, acting like infantry skirmishers, put up a stubborn, slow defense over the two miles to Buford's main battle line atop McPherson's Ridge. This was no Brandy Station—it did not call for relentless, thundering saber charges by two mounted opponents. Instead, the Union tactics here called for measured, deliberate resistance that traded ground for time. By the time Heth's men reached Herr's Ridge opposite Buford's main line, two hours of precious daylight had passed and supporting Federal infantry had approached to enter the brawl. Buford, and then infantry commander Maj. Gen. John Reynolds, had their eyes on the ultimate prize—higher, better ground to the east and south of the town. When two Union corps stepped in to replace their lines, Gamble and Devin continued to fight desperately on the flanks. When the blueclad soldiers in those corps were routed through Gettysburg to that higher ground, Buford—with "hell and damnation!" on his lips—lined up his troopers in one final show of defense in the face of the enemy. The sun dropped again, and the Federal line held, as it would for the following two days of brutal battle.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in America's Civil War magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

After the war one of his cavalrymen—who had fought and survived at Brandy Station and a hundred other horrific battlefields—looked back at July 1 at Gettysburg and affirmed, "We fought like wild cats all day." On July 2 Buford's two brigades were sent south from the battlefield, and when Merritt's brigade shared in the final day of fighting, Buford's division suffered nearly another 500 casualties.

Rejoined with Merritt's troopers as Lee began his retreat from defeat at Gettysburg, the Federal cavalry was sent ahead of its infantry to pursue the Gray Fox and his still-dangerous Southerners. There was no rest for man or beast during those 10 days of the retreat, causing one Rebel to call the retrograde "one continuous fight." At Williamsport, Md., on July 6, when Buford's cavalry burst upon Lee's ponderous collection of battle survivors, the Union troopers were held at bay by hundreds of walking wounded who took up muskets.

Buford turned his attention to Stuart's cavalry screen covering Lee's infantry—their backs against a swollen Potomac that they couldn't yet cross. With the Union cavalry division commanded by a young spitfire, Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, Buford's men clashed with Stuart's riders at sites that both armies had already crossed countless times—Boonsboro, Funkstown and Hagers­town. Buford lost nearly 100 more casualties over three days, which one of his troopers termed "the hardest fought" of the entire war. As the Union infantry under Maj. Gen. George Meade slowly advanced toward Lee's defenses in front of the river crossings, the soldiers glanced quietly at the hordes of cavalrymen and horses that lay upon their final battlefields. The onlookers were already hardy veterans, all but immune to carnage, but the old Army jab "Whoever saw a dead cavalryman?" no longer seemed funny.

Lee finally crossed his army over the river to safety late in the morning on July 14, leaving Buford and Kilpatrick to make a fruitless assault at the Falling Waters that came just a little too late. Having to watch helplessly across the river as the Confederates cut loose their pontoon bridge was perhaps a fitting end to the campaign for Buford and his men, who six weeks before had looked across another river while waiting to attack Stuart's cavalry on the plains of Brandy Station.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to