BUFORD: HOLD THE HIGH GROUND

Gen. Buford at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863

"They will attack in the morning and they will come booming," Brigadier General John Buford predicted. On the eve of battle, Buford and his hard-fighting cavalry arrived at Gettysburg in advance of the Confederate army. A veteran officer, Buford had quickly spotted strong defensive positions on the ridges near town. If Federal troops could hold those positions, Buford believed, Northern forces could prevail. But first, he and his thin force of cavalry had to hold back General Robert E. Lee's Confederates until the Northern army arrived.

Early on the morning of Thursday, July 1, 1863, the advance elements of Lee's army pushed up the road to Gettysburg - and were stopped by rapid fire from Buford's cavalry. Armed with breech-loading carbines, the dismounted horse soldiers waged a stubborn defense, giving ground grudgingly. Buford knew his men had to hold at all cost - and hold they did. Finally, Major General George Meade's Federal army began arriving and relieved Buford's battle-weary cavalrymen. When repulsed by Lee's army later that day, the Federal troops reformed on the strong positions Buford had noted the night before. Two days later, Lee's army had been defeated, the Confederate invasion had been turned back and the decisive battle of the war had ended in a Federal victory - due in no small measure to the valiant stand by General Buford's cavalry.

Mort Kunstier's Coments

In the painting, General John Buford and his staff have taken positions behind the dismounted cavalry-men on McPherson's Ridge, behind a small stone wall and some rail fencing. The firing has just begun at long range, as evidenced by the raised rear sights of the troopers' Sharps carbines. In portraying Buford's men, I wanted to show a defensive line in a long, narrow composition that would accommodate many cavalrymen.

With his men in a strong defensive position and the Confederate attack underway, Buford has done his job. He wears a sack coat with a black velvet collar, which enabled me to add some authentic and human touches, such as the watch chain and pipe. I faced a challenge in showing several cavalrymen up close. The problem is that all the troopers are dressed more or less alike and use the same weapons, which tends to make the picture boring. To address this problem, I emphasized the differences in their faces and varied their poses and uniforms wherever possible.

This scene shows almost every component of a Federal cavalry brigade - the commanding officer and staff, the horse soldiers on the front line, and the unit's guidon. The number ones on the red and white bars of the flag indicate that this detachment is part of the First Division of the First Corps.

I was fascinated with my subject while working on this painting. The architecture and the lighting were a challenge, and again I had an opportunity to portray Buford at one of the critical moments prior to the battle of Gettysburg. His foresight in choosing a strong defensive position came into play repeatedly throughout the three-day engagement and would ultimately decide the fate of not only the battle, but the outcome of the war.

Buford and innovative tactics

I made the acquaintance of General John Buford as he and his troops entered Gettysburg, in the late afternoon of June 30, 1863, within the pages of Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels. I knew many of the other participants of the Battle of Gettysburg, but Buford and his role were new. Shaara presented Buford as the man who observed the movement of the Confederate troops in and around Gettysburg, who on arrival decided he must occupy and hold the high ground. Buford defended it sporadically thoughout the night and held off strong Confederate forces from dawn until mid-morning July 1, 1863, when Union reinforcements under General John Reynolds arrived. Thus began the Battle of Gettysburg. But it was Buford and his unorthodox use of cavalry that held this most important high ground. What was this new use of cavalry? Was it the first time Buford throw the regulations to the wind, or had he developed it previously? What records are out there to establish a pattern? Did this new-style cavalry impact the army's use of cavalry or was it a one-man, one-time implementation?

From his earliest days in Indian country, Buford had observed the terrible toll taken by mounted troops (no matter how superior their numbers) when opposed by well-deployed foot soldiers with rifles. He observed the same high casualty rate in earlier battles of the Civil War, through the fighting at Salam, White Plains, Thoroughfare Gap, Lewis Ford, Second Manassas, Stoneman's Gap and the move into Pennsylvania and Gettysburg. In all of these battles he used his forces in a multiplicity of arrangements, mounted, dismounted and in combinations of the two. He used mounted forces facing a disorganized force or when harassing an enemy, but when faced with rifles or heavy guns he would use a combination of mounted and dismounted forces. At Gettysburg on July 1, he used mostly dismounted forces, even taking the wheels off his caissions so they would have better aim and his men would be more protected by the natural terrain. Buford liked to pick the battle site, using the natural terrain to its fullest advantage, if possible send in a lighting mounted attack that struck and raced to safety, backed by a well-dug in force that could hold and pick off the enemy with the least casualties to his own men. Buford's hallmark was flexibility and versatility, speed and mobility. As oppossed to the prevailing European or Napoleonic cavalry concepts of strict and tight mounted formation, which were practiced up through the Battle of Gettysburg by other cavalry units North and South.