M.A. Kleen

At approximately 7:30am on the morning of July 1, 1863, Lt. Marcellus Jones of Company E, 8th Illinois Cavalry, borrowed a sergeant’s carbine and fired at skirmishers from Confederate Maj. Gen. Henry Heth’s Division, which was coming down the Cashtown Pike toward Gettysburg. Jones wasn’t the only person who claimed to fire the opening shot of the Battle of Gettysburg, but he was the first to erect a monument. He purchased a plot of land near the former home of Ephraim Wisler and placed a small granite obelisk there in 1886. Regardless of who fired the first shot, it wasn’t long before Heth’s Division was fully engaged with dismounted cavalry commanded by Brig. Gen. John Buford. Buford was the first to arrive in Gettysburg from the Army of the Potomac, and recognized the danger if the Confederates were allowed to capture the town unopposed before the Union army was concentrated.

Units from both sides arrived on the battlefield piecemeal and were thrown into the fight. At around 11:30, Heth realized Union resistance was stiffening, so he halted his attack. Robert E. Lee’s orders were to not bring on a general engagement until his army could bring its entire strength to bear. But the senior Union commander on the field, Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds, had been killed, and more Confederate units were arriving from the north and northeast. As hours passed, the situation was looking more favorable for the Army of Northern Virginia.