Afternoon, July 3, 1863. Gettysburg.

Historians focus on the Confederate assault on the center of
the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. An entire division, and parts of two other
divisions of Longstreet’s Corps of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia,
after a two-hour artillery duel, began their ill-fated march across nearly a
mile of open fields.

While Pickett’s Charge gets all the attention when discussing
July 3 at Gettysburg, three other smaller, but significant battles took place
about the same time.

The cavalry battle three miles east of Gettysburg was discussed in Hidden, Haunted, Hotspots #2. There was also a Union cavalry charge against Confederate infantry on the south end of the battlefield. But it’s the cavalry battle at Fairfield I’ll be writing about today.

While Confederate cavalry leader Jeb Stuart gets the unwarranted post-war blame for leaving Robert E. Lee with no “eyes or ears” during the march northward in June, I believe I successfully defended Stuart’s actions in Saber and Scapegoat: Jeb Stuart and the Gettysburg Controversy. Stuart actually left Lee with more cavalry than he had taken with him in his “scout/distraction” to the east of the Union army. A brigade under Brigadier General William E. “Grumble” Jones was one of those several cavalry units he left directly under Lee’s command.

An 1848 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Jones served
with Jeb Stuart in the pre-Civil War Indian Wars where Stuart considered him
the best outpost officer in the Army. When his bride died tragically in a
shipwreck, Jones retired from the army and became a virtual hermit on his farm,
a changed man. Dour, mean-spirited, because of his loss, he received the
cognomen “Grumble” Jones. When the Civil War broke out, he raised a unit of
cavalry and served under Stuart at 1st Manassas.

After the Battle of Brandy Station (June 9, 1863) opened what
was to become the Gettysburg Campaign, Jones was ordered to guard the west
flank of the invading Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, while Stuart swung
wide to the east, distracting the northern command and drawing off northern
units to seek him out. Stuart especially panicked the bureaucrats in Washington,
worried about their own hides, as evidenced by their daily communications
concerning his whereabouts.

After operations against the railroads in West Virginia,
Jones was recalled by Lee to cross the Potomac and ordered to secure the
Hagerstown Road at Fairfield, Pennsylvania on July 3, as a precaution in the
event Lee needed a route to withdraw his army back to the Shenandoah Valley.

On that afternoon, the 6th United States Regular
Cavalry, about 400 strong, were sent after a large Confederate wagon train rumored
to be heading north from Fairfield toward Orrtanna and Cashtown. They received
confirmation from locals that the Confederate train was heading toward
Cashtown. Coming to within a couple of miles of Fairfield, the Yankees spotted
some Confederate pickets watching from the mountains. Major Samuel Starr,
commanding the Regulars, detached a squadron to the west to deal with any
larger Confederate contingent on that flank, thus decreasing his strength from
his original 400 troopers.

Riding through the countryside, the Union cavalrymen were
presented cakes, bread, pies and liquid refreshment by the locals. Starr sent a
small group of troopers under Lt. Christian Balder off to find the eight or so
wagons reported by the civilians.

Balder returned with a report that there was more Confederate
cavalry guarding the wagon train—enough to drive off his advanced force. Starr
decided to press on.

When the Regulars arrived east of Fairfield and turned north
on the road to Orrtanna, they saw a sight to make any cavalryman salivate.
About two miles up the fence-lined road was a slow-moving wagon train of
supplies and ordnance for the rebel army. It seemed like it would be easy to
capture the wagons, supplies and horses. But some Confederate cavalry was
riding south on the main road to rescue the wagon train.

Taking advantage of a narrow part of the valley down which
the Fairfield-Orrtanna Road runs, Starr positioned half his
troopers—dismounted—to the right of the road on a small ridge perpendicular to
the road. He left the others mounted at the road. Soon the rebels appeared, only
300 yards away near a farmhouse occupied by the Marshall family.

The 7th Virginia Cavalry attacked with sabers
drawn. They were no match for the Union cavalrymen armed with breech loading
carbines. As well, the Confederates were hindered by the patchwork of fields,
fenced with stout rail fences and fieldstone walls making mounted maneuvering
difficult.

According to historian Eric J. Wittenberg in his article “Battle of Fairfield: Grumble Jones’ Gettysburg Campaign Victory,” the men of the 7th Virginia felt they had blundered into an ambush, their unit entangled in the fenced-in fields. A Union trooper saw the fight as a cruel, close fight. Practically every shot left it’s mark in the packed whirl of Confederate horsemen, who finally withdrew.

Confederate horse artillery arrived from Cashtown, unlimbered
and opened on the Yankees from a ripe wheatfield. The Union line began to waver
and Starr decided to launch a charge to support the faltering line. The lines
were now so close together that the Union troopers could hear the rebel
officers ordering their men to draw sabers for the charge.

“Grumble” Jones, true to his nom de guerre cursed, asking his men if one damn regiment of
Yankees be allowed to rout his entire brigade. The men responded with a cheer
and a request to “let us try them!” A quick shouted order and the troopers of
the 6th Virginia Cavalry sailed into the fray.

Starr’s men, already on the verge of a disorganized retreat,
tumbled back from the saber-wielding onslaught and piled into their own
advancing men or escaped by maneuvering in small groups through the head-high
crops. Confederate sabers knocked Yankees off their mounts and dismounted Union
cavalrymen exchanged pistol-fire with their adversaries at only fifteen yards.

The fighting was often hand-to-hand, involving even the
officers. Starr was sabered in the head and shot in the arm. According to
Wittenberg, Lieutenant R. R. Duncan was the man who unhorsed Starr with his
saber, then turned to saber two more of Starr’s men, running one completely
through the body and knocking him off his horse with the force of the blow.

Confederates continued to press their advantage, riding down
dismounted Union troopers with the saber or shooting them with their pistols.
One high point for the Federals occurred when Sergeant George C. Platt saw the
regimental color-bearer pinned under his horse and a group of Confederates heading
toward him. Platt rode in, taking saber slashes, but saving the regimental
colors by ripping them from the staff. For his actions on July 3, 1863, outside
of Fairfield, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Casualties—killed, wounded and missing—for the Confederates
this afternoon amounted to 34 troopers taken out of action. For the 6th
U. S., casualties were catastrophic: 6 killed, 28 wounded, and an astounding
208 missing or captured. The fact that Jones’s Brigade numbered about 1,000 and
Starr’s regiment had less than 400 was the tide-turner. But the battle was of
far more importance for the Confederates than capturing a wagon train was for
the Federals.

Jones not only saved the wagon train, he secured the
Hagerstown Road for Lee’s Army, who would need it as their retreat route from
Gettysburg. Had Starr been reinforced and victorious, Lee might have had to
fight his way back to the Potomac. If Lee were trapped, the Confederate Army of
Northern Virginia would either have to fight its’ way out or surrender.

Directions to the Fairfield
Battlefield: From Gettysburg take route 116 west past the David Stewart
Farm, about 6 miles. Just before you get to the town of Fairfield, turn right
on Carroll’s Tract Road. Look for bronze government markers indicating units
that participated in the fighting. The battle took place in these fields.
Return on Carroll’s Tract Road and turn right to enter the village of
Fairfield.

Fairfield is a quiet small town. An evening visit might
produce some paranormally interesting photos of the street scene in front of
some of these buildings.

Several houses in town are marked as having been used as
hospitals after the battle. The Marshall farm on the battlefield, the Blythe
House, R. C. Swope House, and the St. John Lutheran Church on Main Street were
all used as hospitals. The Fairfield Inn, a tavern since before the Civil War
came to Fairfield, may have been used as a hospital as well.

One of the participants in the fight was involved in a
paranormal event just before the battle. A Confederate casualty was Lieutenant
John Allan, adjutant of the 6th Virginia Cavalry. The night before
the battle he wrote a note in his daybook requesting that if anything should
happen to him, his remains should be delivered to an address in Baltimore—his
wife’s—and the deliverer would receive $500. The Lieutenant’s body was left
with a citizen of Fairfield. Lieutenant John Allan, stepbrother by his father’s
adoption of famed poet Edgar Allan Poe, was delivered home per his written,
post-mortem request. Did he retain his sensitivity into the afterlife?

Captain George C. Cram—universally disliked by many of his
men—was captured, as was the commander of the Union 6th U. S.
Cavalry, Major Samuel Starr who, as a prisoner of the Confederates in Fairfield,
had his right arm amputated after being wounded in the battle.

EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) is another avenue for
investigation. One of the men who died of his wounds after the battle was Lt.
Christian Balder.

Since spirits are known to be mobile, you probably don’t have
to be directly on the battlefield to communicate with them. I attempted to
contact Major Starr from my office and was successful in garnering some EVP.
Was it he or some other entity? I need to do a little more historical research
on Starr and ask a few more pertinent questions before I can know.

Good luck!