“I Told Him It Was Then Too Late”: Maj. Gen. Robert Rodes’s Failed Night Attack on Cemetery Hill

Abstract

By early in the morning on July 1, 1863, Maj. Gen. Robert Rodes’s troops were on the move from Heidlersburg toward the nearby town of Gettysburg. Th at division formed part of Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s newly reorganized Second Corps, which also included the troops commanded by Maj. Gens. Jubal A. Early and Edward “Old Allegheny” Johnson. Rodes had emerged at Chancellorsville as one of the biggest heroes in Robert E. Lee’s army, earning him promotion as permanent head of the division. His command included the brigades led by Brig. Gens. Dodson Ramseur, Alfred Iverson, George Doles, Junius Daniel, and Col. Edward O’Neal. Early’s troops trailed closely behind Rodes’s division, while Johnson’s troops remained on the western side of South Mountain near Scotland village. Th e action around Gettysburg began earlier that day, when Henry Heth’s division from Ambrose Powell Hill’s Th ird Corps encountered some enemy troops just northwest of town. Th ose men were fi rst thought to be nothing more than a small militia force. Th ey instead were veteran troopers from Brig. Gen. John Buford’s division, part of the Army of the Potomac. Using delaying tactics, Buford’s dismounted cavalrymen slowed down Heth’s advance long enough for the infantry from the Federal First Corps to arrive on the fi eld. Within a short time, the men from Henry Heth’s and Dorsey Pender’s divisions were engaged in a fi erce and growing battle along both sides of the turnpike leading into town from Chambersburg.1