Gettysburg: The Morning of July 1
battles, even though they were fought concurrently. On the Union left in McPherson's Grove was Meredith's Iron Brigade, rushing forward while loading their muskets on the run to stop the advance of Archer's embattled troops. Meredith had a slight numerical advantage of about 800 men, but more important was the advantage of not having been in battle for two hours. Though certainly not fresh (having come straight off of a forced march), the men with black hats were in a good position to beat back Archer's growingly weary soldiers.
Archer's men began their advance across Willoughby Run up the western slope of McPherson's Ridge when they realized they were no longer facing carbine fire but that of muskets. It did not take long to realize they were running into infantry - tough, hard fighting infantry. A blaze of musket fire rose from both sides when they were a mere 40 yards apart, and Meredith was wounded by a shell fragment during this initial wave. As the Iron Brigade surged forward, the fighting became its heaviest of the morning - the flag of the 24th Michigan fell 14 times; nine men of the regimental color guard were wounded (Hassler, 1970).
Map of late morning engagement
Unable to sustain his advance against his powerful foe, Archer ordered his men to fall back across Willoughby Run. The Iron Brigade continued their pursuit across the creek and took about 75 prisoners, one of whom was an exhausted General Archer. Upon being presented to a regimental captain, Archer was then taken to see Doubleday, a former old army friend. "Archer! I'm glad to see you," Doubleday exclaimed with his hand extended. "Well, I'm not glad to see you by any damn sight," Archer replied sternly, refusing to shake Doubleday's hand. Archer was the first general under Robert E. Lee to be captured (Foote, 1994, p. 76). And with his capture ended the morning affair on the southern end of the Union line on McPherson's Ridge.
North of the Chambersburg Pike was the brigade of Lysander Cutler who was not seeing the kind of initial success Meredith experienced. They had to be rushed into line just as the Iron Brigade was, but they had a little further to travel and no natural cover from shells and minie balls. They faced the five regiments of Joseph Davis - a nephew of Confederate president Jefferson Davis - who had seen no
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