Gen. Custer: "Come on you Wolverines!"

As we approach The Game, I’m reminded of another time when gray-clad invaders from the South tried to destroy the will of the people of the North.  Robert E. Lee invaded Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863 where his army could threaten Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC.  By bringing war to the North, and with a definitive triumph, he hoped to encourage the North to sue for peace.  Lee’s Army of Virginia met Gen. George Meade’s Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.  Two days of brutal fighting resulted in a stalemate.  Lee ordered a final charge against the Union center on the third day of battle in order to gain the definitive triumph he so desperately wanted.  Less well known is what happened three miles northeast of Gettysburg in what is now called the Battle of East Cavalry Field.  Here, a general by the name of George Armstrong Custer led his outnumbered Michigan troopers against the finest cavalry the world had ever seen.

Gen. JEB Stuart had reached Gettysburg the day before.  Eager to make amends for his perceived failure to support Lee during the first two days of battle, Stuart was determined to outflank Meade and drive into the Union rear to wreak havoc and cut off any Union retreat following Pickett’s charge.  At about 11:00 a.m. on July 3, Stuart’s three brigades reached Cress Ridge, joining the one already there, just north of East Cavalry Field, and signaled Lee that he was in position by ordering the firing of four guns, one in each direction of the compass. This was a foolish error because he also alerted Gen. David McM. Gregg, the Union commander in the region, to his presence.  Gregg had two cavalry brigades; one under Col. John B. McIntosh and the other was the newly formed "Michigan Brigade" of Brig. Gen. Custer. Custer was assigned to the division of Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick but happened to be on loan to David Gregg and requested permission from Gregg to join his fight.

Stuart's plan had been to pin down McIntosh's and Custer's skirmishers around the Rummel farm and swing over Cress Ridge, around the left flank of the defenders, but the Federal skirmish line pushed back tenaciously; the troopers from the 5th Michigan Cavalry were armed with Spencer repeating rifles, multiplying their firepower. Stuart decided on a direct cavalry charge to break their resistance. He ordered an assault by the 1st Virginia Cavalry, his own old regiment, now in Fitz Lee's brigade. The battle started in earnest at approximately 1:00 p.m.

Gregg ordered Custer to counterattack with the 7th Michigan. Custer personally led the regiment, shouting "Come on, you Wolverines!".  Waves of blue clad horsemen sporting the maize cavalry stripe, collided in furious fighting with gray southern troopers along the fence line on Rummel's farm. Seven hundred men fought at point-blank range across the fence with carbines, pistols and sabers. Custer's horse was shot out from under him, and he commandeered a bugler's horse.  Eventually enough of Custer's men were amassed to break down the fence, and caused the Virginians to retreat.

Stuart sent in reinforcements from three of his brigades: the 9th and 13th Virginia (Chambliss' Brigade), the 1st North Carolina and the Jeff Davis Legion (Hampton's) and squadrons from the 2nd Virginia (Fitz Lee's).  Custer was forced to pull back.

Stuart tried again for a breakthrough by sending in the bulk of Wade Hampton's brigade.  Hundreds of Confederate horsemen, accelerated in formation from a walk to a gallop, sabers flashing, calling forth "murmurs of admiration" from their Union targets.  Union horse artillery batteries attempted to block the advance with shell and canister, but the Confederates moved too quickly and were able to fill in for lost men, maintaining their momentum.  Then, once again, the cry "Come on, you Wolverines!" was heard as Custer and Col. Charles H. Town led the 1st Michigan Cavalry into the fray, also at a full gallop.  A trooper from one of Gregg's Pennsylvania regiments observed:

“As the two columns approached each other the pace of each increased, when suddenly a crash, like the falling of timber, betokened the crisis.  So sudden and violent was the collision that many of the horses were turned end over end and crushed their riders beneath them.”

As the horsemen fought desperately in the center, McIntosh personally led his brigade against Hampton's right flank while the 3rd Pennsylvania under Captain William E. Miller and 1st New Jersey hit Hampton's left from north of the Lott house. Hampton received a serious saber wound to the head; Custer lost his second horse of the day.  Assaulted from three sides, the Confederates withdrew.  The Federals had held.

So as The Game approaches, may we all get some inspiration from the maize and blue Michigan Cavalry at Gettysburg.  Although facing greater number and greater skill, the Michigan blue stopped the southern invaders dead in their tracks.  The Union, of course, would go on to win the battle of Gettysburg and eventually the war.  The tide had turned.  Go Blue!

[Source: Wikipedia and YouTube videos]