The famous cavalry clash between General J.E.B. Stuart & General David McMurtrie Gregg was fought here on July 3, 1863!
From the famous Rosensteel Gettysburg collection
Dropped .52 caliber bullet recovered at East Cavalry battlefield at Gettysburg, by the late Gettysburg relic hunter John Cullison, who excavated Civil War artifacts at Gettysburg from 1935-1959. Mr. Cullison passed it on to the famous Rosensteel family of Gettysburg where it remained in their private collection until it was released in 1996. Very popular Gettysburg relic.
WBTS Trivia: When infantry fighting was resumed on the morning of July 3, 1863, two brigades of Union cavalry under General David McMurtrie Gregg arrived on the field, and blocked the intersection of the Hanover Road, and the Low Dutch Road with their pickets, about three miles in the rear of the Union army's position at Gettysburg. A third cavalry brigade of Michiganders under the command of General George Armstrong Custer was close at hand, and they came to the support of Gregg’s troopers. Control of both roads would be extremely vital. If the Union cavalry was forced to withdraw from their positions, it may have opened up a path for the Confederate cavalry to attack General Meade from the rear.
Artillery fire signaled the opening of the Confederate attack followed by heavy dismounted fighting on the farm of John Rummell.
Three brigades of Confederate horsemen under General J.E.B. Stuart, had arrived on the battlefield the night before, much to the chagrin of General Robert E. Lee, who had been blind in the enemy's territory without the eyes and ears that were always provided to him by Stuart's veteran troopers. Stuart, trying to regain the confidence of his old commander Marse' Robert, launched a series of gallant mounted charges that morning, each of which were repulsed by a vicious counter-charge from the Federals. After suffering heavy losses, General Stuart withdrew his men. The Union cavalry under Generals' Gregg and Custer, the latter leading the charge of his Michigan Brigade with the famous words, "Come on you Wolverines!" had held the line, and stopped the Confederates from turning their flank, and threatening General Meade's Army of the Potomac from the rear. This Union cavalry victory secured Lee's defeat at Gettysburg! [Source: American Battlefield Trust].
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