By Harry W. Pfanz. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N.C., 2001. Hardcover with dust jacket. 472 pages, index, maps, illustrated. Brand new condition.

Though a great deal has been written about the battle of Gettysburg, much of it has focused on the events of the second and third days. With this book, the first day's fighting finally receives its due. Harry Pfanz, a former historian at Gettysburg National Military Park and author of two previous books on the battle, presents a definitive account of the events of July 1, 1863.

Pfanz begins by sketching the background of the Gettysburg campaign and recounting the events leading up to the opening of the battle. After depicting the advances the earliest skirmishes just west of Gettysburg, he details the fighting that took place west and north of the town, the retreat of the Union forces through Gettysburg, and the Federal rally on Cemetery Hill. Highlights of Pfanz's narrative include his descriptions of the decimation of Iverson's North Carolina brigade, the smashing of the Eleventh Corps at Blocher's Knoll, the decisive morning and afternoon fighting at the railroad cuts, the bloody battles at McPherson's Woods, and the final Union stand at the seminary.

Throughout the book, Pfanz challenges some of the most common assumptions about the battle as a whole, most notably that Union cavalry only delayed the Confederate forces by skirmishing, rather than held them off by hard fighting on the first day, and that Richard Ewell's late day failure to press an attack against Union troops at Cemetery Hill ultimately cost the Confederacy the battle.

Deeply researched and engagingly written, this book will ensure that the importance of the first day's battle at Gettysburg will be remembered in the ongoing exploration of the events that followed.


"With this installment, Harry Pfanz completes a three volume work that every serious student of the battle of Gettysburg must consult. Here is military history at its best." James I. Robertson

"Gettysburg; The First Day" continues Harry Pfanz's superbly researched, beautifully written, and exquisitely detailed study of the battle. The three volumes comprise a great classic, and the best Gettysburg material ever published." Robert K. Krick

"No one knows and understands the battle of Gettysburg better than Harry W. Pfanz. Since he joined the National Park Service as a historian in 1956, he has never been far from what for the public is America's best known and most controversial battle. His credentials as a researcher, raconteur, and historian par excellence are attested to by his applauded books on the battle's second and third days..."Gettysburg; The First Day" fills a void and completes in masterful fashion a trilogy long needed and guaranteed to stand the test of time." Edwin C. Bearss