The Man Who Saved the Day for the Union at Gettysburg
The Union was defeated in the Second Battle of Bull Run. Abner Doubleday led his division after its commander was wounded, and covered the army’s retreat. At the Battle of Antietam, the division commander was again wounded, and Doubleday again took charge, and led his men in fierce fighting in which he was wounded. By the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, Doubleday had been appointed to permanent command of his own division in the Army of the Potomac’s I Corps. That corps was the first to arrive at battlefield. It reinforced a cavalry brigade that had been fighting a delaying action west of Gettysburg, in order to buy Union forces enough time to reach and occupy strong defensive positions nearby. In the first day’s fighting, I Corps’ commander, General John F. Reynolds, was killed, and Doubleday took charge.
Leading 9000 men, he fought off nearly twice as many Confederates for five hours. His command sustained horrific casualties, before it was forced to retreat to defensive positions on the high ground south of Gettysburg. I Corps was effectively destroyed in that first day’s fighting, and shattered so badly that it would be decommissioned the following year, with its components sent off to reinforce other corps. However, Doubleday had bought the rest of the Union army enough time to reach the battlefield, and secure the high ground for whose possession he had sacrificed his corps. The remainder of the Battle of Gettysburg over the following days boiled down to the Confederates vainly attacking the Union forces in an attempt to knock them off those heights. The Rebels were beaten back each time, culminating in Picket’s Charge on the last day’s fighting, before admitting defeat and retreating to Virginia.