On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 3, 1863) during the disastrous infantry assault nicknamed Pickett's Charge, there were two cavalry battles: one approximately three miles (5 km) to the east, in the area known today as East Cavalry Field, the other southwest of the [Big] Round Top mountain (sometimes called South Cavalry Field).
The East Cavalry Field fighting was an attempt by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry to get into the Federal rear and exploit any success that Pickett's Charge may have generated. Union cavalry under Brig. Gens. David McM. Gregg and George Armstrong Custer repulsed the Confederate advances.
In South Cavalry Field, after Pickett's Charge had been defeated, reckless cavalry charges against the right flank of the Confederate Army, ordered by Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, were easily repulsed, resulting in the death of Brig. Gen. Elon J. Farnsworth.
Background and cavalry forces
Military situation
Cavalry forces played a significant role at Gettysburg only on the first and third days of the battle. On the first day (July 1), the Union cavalry division of Brig. Gen. John Buford successfully delayed Confederate infantry forces under Maj. Gen. Henry Heth until Union infantry could arrive on the battlefield. By the end of the day Buford's troopers had retired from the field.
On the Confederate side, most of Maj. Gen. Stuart's cavalry division was absent from the battlefield until late on the second day. Possibly misunderstanding orders from Gen. Robert E. Lee, Stuart had taken his three best brigades of cavalry on a pointless ride around the right flank of the Union Army of the Potomac and had been out of touch with the main body of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia since June 24, depriving Lee of critical intelligence information and screening services. Stuart arrived from Carlisle at Lee's headquarters shortly after noon on July 2 and his exhausted brigades arrived that evening, too late to affect the planning or execution of the second day's battle. Hampton's brigade camped to the north, following a relatively minor clash with Union cavalry at Hunterstown that afternoon.
Lee's orders for Stuart were to prepare for operations on July 3 in support of the Confederate infantry assault against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Stuart was to protect the Confederate left flank and attempt to move around the Union right flank and into the enemy's rear. If Stuart's forces could proceed south from the York Pike along the Low Dutch Road, they would soon reach the Baltimore Pike—the main avenue of communications for the Army of the Potomac—and they could launch devastating and demoralizing attacks against the Union rear, capitalizing on the confusion from the assault (Pickett's Charge) that Lee planned for the Union center.
Confederate cavalry forces under Stuart for this operation consisted of the three brigades he had taken on his ride around the Union Army (commanded by Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton, Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee and Col. John Chambliss) and the brigade of Col. Albert G. Jenkins (under the command of Col. Milton J. Ferguson following Jenkins' wounding on July 2). Although these four brigades should have amounted to approximately 5,000 men, it is likely that only 3,430 men and 13 guns saw action that day. And following their nine-day ride around Maryland and Pennsylvania, they and their horses were weary and not in prime condition for battle.