Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into the 330th episode of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Welcome to the podcast.

Don had broken shortly after 4.30 a.m. on Wednesday morning July 1st, 1863.

In the first contact between Harry Heath's Confederates and John Buford's Union Horseman

came around 3 hours later, about 7.30 a.m., 3 miles west of Gettysburg on the Chamber's

Bird Pike.

It was just the start of what would prove to be a bitter day long fight.

Military terminology defines the first day's battle at Gettysburg as a meeting engagement,

with units of both armies arriving on the field at different times throughout the day.

And for the most part, entering the action either division by division or brigade by brigade.

The fighting began on a series of gently rolling ridge lines west of town, but is the hours

past that Wednesday.

Additional forces arrived on the scene until in the fields and woodlots, north and west

of Gettysburg, the soldiers of four Confederate divisions, two from AP Hillscore and two from

Dick Yolscore, had slugged it out with the soldiers of two federal corps, the first and

11th.

Neither Army Commander had intended for a major battle to break out at the Crossroads

town of Gettysburg on July 1st.

The Confederate Commander Robert E. Lee had even instructed his subordinates to avoid serious

...