Andrew Humphreys advance to Gettysburg

Humphreys advance into Gettysburg has always interested me. He started up the Emmitsburg Road and then was pulled onto Bull Frog Road by one of General Sickles staff. From there, they took a long way around the town of Gettysburg only to run head first into the Confederates. Fortunately, they weren't seen. So they snuck away. It was a long and difficult walk which only resulted in Humphreys men getting worn out. The original path would have been about 2 miles....the new and improved shortcut was about 8 miles. Here is General Humphreys words on telling the story of their advance into Gettysburg: When half-way to Gettysburg, a dispatch from General Howard to General Sickles, commanding the Third Corps, was delivered to me by Captain McBlair, of the staff, in which the latter general was warned to look out for his left in coming up to Gettysburg, and about the same time I learned from a citizen, who had guided part of General Reynolds' command that our troops occupied no ground near Gettysburg west of the road from that town to Emmitsburg. As we approached the crossing of Marsh Run, I was directed by General Sickles, through a staff officer, to take position on the left of Gettysburg soon as I came up. For reasons that will be apparent, from this statement I concluded that my division should from this point follow the road leading into the main road to Gettysburg, reaching the latter road in about a mile and a half, and at a distance from Gettysburg of about 2 miles; but Lieutenant-Colonel Hayden was positive that General Sickles had instructed him to guide the division by way of the Black Horse Tavern, on the road from Fairfield to Gettysburg. Accordingly, I moved the division in that direction, but, upon approaching the Black Horse Tavern, I found myself in the immediate vicinity of the enemy, who occupied that road in strong force. He was not aware of my presence, and I might have attacked him at daylight with the certainty of at least temporary success; but I was 3 miles distant from the remainder of the army, and I believed such a course would have been inconsistent with the general plan of operations of the commanding general. I accordingly retraced my steps, and marched by the route I have heretofore indicated, bivouacking at 1am on July 2 about 1 mile from Gettysburg and eastward of the Emmitsburg Road.

Now here is General Joseph Carr's (I Brigade II Division III Corps) version of the events: When about 1 mile from that town, General Humphreys joined the division, and resumed command. The column was guided by a civilian (a doctor) from Emmitsburg and Lieutenant-Colonel Hayden, assistant inspector-general of the corps. When about 3 miles from Gettysburg, we crossed Marsh Creek and advanced on the left-hand road about a miles, when we were suddenly halted by General Humphreys as a measure of precaution. Lieutenant-Colonel Hayden, who had been in advance with the guides, soon after rode up to General Humphreys, and stated that we were but 200 yards from the enemy's pickets. General Humphreys rode forward to the Black Horse Tavern, on the road from Fairfield to Gettysburg, and finding the information to be correct, and that the enemy occupied the road in heavy force, and believing that an engagement with him at the distance of 3 miles from the rest of the army, with the enemy between the army and his division, would be inconsistent with the plan of battle, faced the division about, and marched to the rear until striking the main road, upon which we proceeded to Gettysburg, reaching that place and going into bite bivouac at 1:30 am on Thursday, July 2.

Unfortunately, these are the only O.R. that I have been able to locate that talk about Humphreys advance. But in Harry Pfanz's book on the Second Day, I located just a bit more information. Here is what he says: Humphrey's caught up with his division a mile north of Emmitsburg and found it guided by Lt. Col. Julius Hayden, the inspector general of the 3rd Corps, and by a Dr. Anan of Emmitsburg. The division traveled northwest on a country road [Bull Frog Road] that angled from the main road [Emmitsburg Road] taken by Birney. At dusk the column reached Marsh Creek south of Black Horse Tavern on the Fairfield Road, where Wilcox's Confederate brigade waited. [1]

Finally, I have an excerpt from Richard Sauers book on the Meade-Sickles controversy: Humphreys was ordered to march via a road parallel to the Emmitsburg Road in an effort to prevent a clogging of the main artery. His men started off with no problems. Lt. Julius Hayden, inspector general on Sickles' staff, accompanied the column as guide. Sometime around 9pm, the head of the column approached Black Horse Tavern on the Hagerstown Road. By this time, Humphreys had become convinced that the road he was on was diverging too far from the reported Federal positions south of Gettysburg. He wanted to take a road that led off to the right, but Col. Hayden refused, maintaining that he had orders from Sickles to continue on to the assigned road.
Nevertheless, Humphreys was cautious about continuing so he and a small party went ahead to reconnoiter. The general noticed the glow of a number of campfires not far ahead, indicating the presence of troops. Suspecting that his brigades were about to encounter Confederates, Humphreys signaled a halt without the use of bugles. Lt. Francis W. Seeley, commanding Battery K, 4th U.S. Artillery, did not receive the order and his bugler sounded the halt. Shortly thereafter, a squad of Rebel artillerymen, thinking that the bugle call came from their battery, came up to report and were captured. Humphreys turned the column around as quietly as possible and eventually reached the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge at two o'clock in the morning of July 2, his soldiers thoroughly worn out and exhausted. This entire affair so disgruntled the General that he later wrote to a friend, "You see how things were managed in the Third Corps!" [2]

[1] Harry Pfanz's book on The Second Day, pg. 44
[2] Richard A. Sauer's book Gettysburg: The Meade-Sickles Controversy, pgs 26-27