July 3, 1863 - 11:00PM
Silence.
Relatively speaking, of course. The town of Gettysburg was still buzzing with activity, but for the first time in almost 72 hours, the battlefield was still. July 3rd had been quite a day for both the Army of Northern Virginia, as well as the Army of The Potomac. Lee had risked everything, just as he had at Chancellorsville two months before. Only this time, he lost.
Lee knew this campaign ran the risk of losing a significant amount of fighting men. He certainly did not expect to lose some of his best commanders; Barksdale was dead, Hood was seriously wounded, Avery was killed, Archer was captured, Longstreet had been borderline-insubordinate, and Pickett lost all three of his brigade commanders - not to mention Pickett himself was emotionally devastated. The veteran line officers the men relied upon were also picked apart. The Army of Northern Virginia was seriously wounded by July 4th, 1863, but it remained to be seen if the wound was mortal.
Meade had only been in command of the Army of The Potomac for a few days by the end of July 3rd. He had held Lee in check, and apparently defeated the invader. Before he declared a total victory, he waited for Lee’s next move. To be honest, neither commander knew if the fighting would resume on July 4th, so neither victory nor defeat was immediately declared.
Although Meade had not declared an immediate victory, Lee was already planning his retreat shortly after the repulse of the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble attack. Brigadier General John Imboden, a reliable cavalry officer, was ordered to Lee’s headquarters late on the evening of July 3rd. Imboden arrived, but Lee was not immediately available. Around 1:00AM on July 4th, Lee appeared in front of his headquarters. He was exhausted, and Imboden noted that Lee carried an “expression of sadness that I had never before seen upon his face.” Imboden also noted that Lee muttered “Too bad! Too bad! Oh! Too bad!”, seemingly to himself. Lee finally briefed Imboden on the task ahead of him. “We must now return to Virginia”, Lee said, “as many of our poor wounded as possible must be taken home.”
The Army of Northern Virginia’s route north went according to plan, except for losing contact with J.E.B Stuart. Retreating from Gettysburg would be another risky maneuver. His army was tired, lacked the proper ammunition, and would have a numerically superior army chasing it to the Potomac. Lee knew the consequences of defeat, and he took every precaution so that every commander would be on the same page.
Imboden was to take 2,100 cavalry and a 6-gun battery with him. Imboden mentioned that the force would benefit from more artillery, so Lee bumped another 17 cannon from different artillery battalions into Imboden’s force. Imboden had Lee’s orders; now it was time to execute them.
Imboden originally planned to leave Gettysburg early on July 4th. What Imboden hadn’t realized was the size of the convoy he would be protecting. It took nearly 7 hours for the wagon train to assemble. When it was ready to move out, Imboden was protecting around 12,000 wounded men in a column that stretched for an incredible 17 miles. The slow-moving column took off around 4:00PM, heading west on the Chambersburg Pike. Imboden placed the 18th Virginia Cavalry at the head of the column, along with a section of McClanahan’s artillery. More troopers and artillery were inserted every 1/3 of a mile in the transport column. The train moved all through the night. Imboden avoided Chambersburg, and took a road that lead to Greencastle, which was reached by day break on July 5th. Imboden recalled that “during this one night I realized more of the horrors of war than I had in all the two preceding years.”
Around 3:30AM on July 4th, Ewell’s II Corps supplies were moving south, using the Fairfield Road. Lt. General Ewell had personally met with Major John Harmon, his chief quartermaster. Ewell told him to get the supplies across the Potomac safely, or he “wanted to see his face no more.” Iverson’s Brigade, which had been completely destroyed on July 1st, was detached to protect the columns rear. By the evening of July 4th, J.E.B Stuart and his cavalry had branched out to screen the Confederate retreat.
Meade was anxious to intercept Lee’s retreating forces. He quickly dispatched his cavalry to meet the opportunity. Major General Alfred Pleasonton was the first to start out. Brigadier General Buford and his cavalry left Westminster, Maryland on July 4th, and moved towards the town of Williamsport to cut off the Confederate withdrawal. Judson Kilpatrick’s cavalry division rode towards Emmitsburg, Maryland, and briefly encountered Ewell’s supply train. Kilpatrick, who had ordered an ill-advised cavalry assault shortly after the Confederate infantry attack failed on the 3rd, was looking for a way to redeem himself. He claimed that “Ewell’s large train was completely destroyed”, which was entirely not true. The most significant raid that day was by Colonel Pennock Huey, who reported the capture of 1,500 Confederates and 150 of their wagons.
While the bulk of both armies stared at each other throughout July 4th, a heavy rain began to fall. As one soldier stated, it seemed as if the heavens were attempting to “rinse the blood from the ground.” A truce was in place by noon, and both sides began collecting the wounded and burying the dead. By nightfall, neither army had made an offensive maneuver, and Lee felt confident that if he left Meade alone, that Meade would leave him alone.
After dark on July 4th, Lee began putting his infantry on the Fairfield Road. Lt. General A.P. Hill’s III Corps was in the lead. When Hill and his men reached the town of Fairfield, Longstreet’s I Corps began to withdrawal. Longstreet’s men faced awful road conditions along the way. Due to the heavy rains, Ewell’s supply column and Hill’s Corps had turned the roads into mud pits. On top of that, Longstreet’s men had the responsibility of guarding approximately 4,000 Union prisoners along the way. As the majority of the Army of Northern Virginia faded away from Gettysburg, the infantry in Ewell’s II Corps remained behind, hoping the Federals would stay put.
The Battle of Gettysburg was over. Lee’s invasion of the north had failed.
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