Prelude to Gettysburg: The Armies Move North
at Mococacy Junction, three miles to the south. The XI Corps under Howard was not far behind. All but the Union VI Corps had arrived in the general vicinity by the evening of the 28th (Coddington, 1968).
Meade's quick organization and alacritous response to Lee's northern presence no doubt was a monumental feat given his newness to command and rather ambiguous orders from Washington. But Meade recognized the import of the situation. He quickly devised a defense strategy And this certainly played havoc with Lee's strategy. The cavalry detachment assigned to guard Reynolds' movements had been scouting enemy movement for some time. Reports of Mississippi infantry were sent from General John Buford to Reynolds, who was in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Buford's troopers were riding northeast, under orders from Alfred Pleasonton, toward Gettysburg, and upon receiving orders from Meade, arrived there on 30 June.
And it was this cavalry presence that made Lee a little nervous and caused him to abandon any threat he posed for Harrisburg and York. He was afraid, and rightly so, that the enemy might be able to make battle on him before his army was fully concentrated, and therefore he ordered a concerted movement toward Cashtown. But making battle there was not necessarily Meade's plan. He issued a general circular to all corps commanders, saying:
The commanding general has received information that the enemy are advancing, probably in strong force, on Gettysburg. ...It is the intention to hold this army pretty nearly in the position it now occupies until the plans of the enemy shall have been more fully developed (Hassler, 1970).
Meade contemplated occupying a position just south of the Pennsylvania border at Pipe Creek. It would be here that a line of defense would be set up in the event that Lee attacks Union forces in and around Gettysburg. To prepare for the possibility of both an offensive and defensive scenario, Meade gave Reynolds the order to follow Buford's two cavalry brigades into Gettysburg with the I and XI Corps. The III Corps was ordered to Emmitsburg (Hassler, 1970).
Meade's wait-and-see policy, however, would ultimately allow Lee's forces to move more quickly toward Cashtown or Gettysburg from Chambersburg, Carslisle, Harrisburg, and York. A.P. Hill's III Corps arrived in Cashtown on 30 June with the divisions of Hood and McClaws of Longstreet's I Corps following at a distance. Richard H. Anderson's division of Hill's corps was to move toward Gettysburg
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