Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to the 340th episode of our Civil War Podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Welcome to the podcast.

Thursday, July 2nd, 1863, Don Dwarm and humid at Gettysburg.

The spring mist covered the fields and thick clouds filled the sky while heavy dew or light

misting rain dampened the tens of thousands of men sleeping in the fields outside the

town, men who would shortly awake to the sounds of drums and bugles.

The temperature was a muggy 74 degrees at 7am with a light breeze from the south.

It was going to be a hot day.

As the skies continued to lighten, Major General George Gordon Mead was almost certainly

a bit worried.

Only a portion of his army had arrived and taken up positions by then.

And Mead had no idea whether his ever-aggressive counterpart across the way, Robert E. Lee,

was planning an early morning assault.

But with each passing hour, as more and more of his troops came up and took up their assigned

positions, and as the Confederate army remained quiet, Mead's anxiety would have lessened.

By mid-morning, George Mead could breathe a sigh of relief as most of his army was on

the field.

The twelfth Corps and portions of the first took up positions on Culp's Hill on the

right of the Federal Line, while the eleventh Corps maintained its position on Cemetery Hill,

...