Gettysburg: The First Day

On July 1, 1863, two brigades of Union cavalry under John Buford held the ridges west of Gettysburg against Confederate infantry. They fought dismounted with breech-loading carbines until John Reynolds's I Corps came up the road. Reynolds was shot dead within minutes of arriving.

Through the afternoon the fight spread north of the town. The Iron Brigade held the woods on McPherson's Ridge and lost nearly two-thirds of its men doing it. By four o'clock the Union line had broken on both flanks and fell back through the streets, losing thousands of prisoners.

It was a defeat. But the survivors rallied on Cemetery Hill, on ground Buford and Reynolds had chosen that morning, and when Meade arrived that night he kept it. The next two days were fought on that line.

The fence line runs diagonally across the picture, and the whole Union line is bent over it, firing. Muzzle flashes are painted as hard white-orange bursts against the smoke. The national colors lean forward at the left edge as if the bearer is about to climb over.

The far field is a thicket of small figures and drifting smoke under a wide, warm sky — the Confederate lines crossing open farmland toward the fence. In the foreground a soldier lies where he fell, his cap beside him.