On this date in 1865

[Bull Snipe]

Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee is the third Confederate General to surrender their army to Grant.

[Pikachu_Dad]

sure, because the war was over. All brevet positions ended then as the army massively downsized.

[Pikachu_Dad]

In part. Custer also helped save the day at Gettysburg...

Look at the battle in East Cavalry field.

Lees plan was a pincer movement .

Pickett’s charge was supposed to be supported by Confederate cavalry appearing in the Union rear.

Why did not Stuart arrive?

Custer stopped him.

[Pikachu_Dad]

This version of the story skips over the part where Custer gad been ordered to another location on the battle field. He disregards that order and stays to fight.

“The East Cavalry Field fighting was an attempt by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s Confederate cavalry to get into the Federal rear and exploit any success that Pickett’s Charge may have generated. Union cavalry under Brig. Gens. David McM. Gregg and George Armstrong Custer repulsed the Confederate advances.”

This paragraph gives too much credit to Gregg and not enough to Custer.

“Lee’s orders for Stuart were to prepare for operations on July 3 in support of the Confederate infantry assault against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Stuart was to protect the Confederate left flank and attempt to move around the Union right flank and into the enemy’s rear. If Stuart’s forces could proceed south from the York Pike along the Low Dutch Road, they would soon reach the Baltimore Pike—the main avenue of communications for the Army of the Potomac—and they could launch devastating and demoralizing attacks against the Union rear, capitalizing on the confusion from the assault (Pickett’s Charge) that Lee planned for the Union center.”

If Stuart makes it into the Union rear, the troops defending against Pickett should crumble.

The Union was not ready to receive!

“Union cavalry forces were from the corps of Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, who did not participate directly in the command of any cavalry actions during the Battle of Gettysburg. Since most of Buford’s division had retired to Westminster, Maryland (with the exception of his reserve brigade under Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt, which was deployed directly south of Gettysburg), only two divisions were ready for action. Stationed near the intersection of the Hanover Road and the Low Dutch Road—directly on Stuart’s path—was the division of Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg. “

So who us there to save the day... Custer.

This site puts it so drily...Custer ‘requested permission to join his fight’

Custer had been ordered away. He sees the fight forming. He knows Gregg needs the help, so he ‘asks’ for permission to stay and fight.

At 11, Stuart signals Lee he is ready (the site disapproves and calls this an ‘error’. Picket starts his charge at 2pm.

Stuart starts his charge at 1pm, when the conederate artillery starts up. He orders 1st Virginia cavalry to charge.

Custer counters with his 7th Michigan. Custer personally leads them in the charge. “, shouting “Come on, you Wolverines!””

Custer gets his horse shot out from under him. (first of several)

Stuart counters with 3 brigades - 9th Virginia & 13th Virginia (Cambliss) and 1st North Carolina and Jeff Davis Legion (Hamptons) and 2nd Virginia (Lees). Custer is forced back.

Stuart then sends i Hamptons brigade.

Custer counters with his 1st Michigan. Again personally leading the charge. Again with “Come on, you Wolverines!”

“Custer lost his second horse of the day. “

“The losses from the 40 intense minutes of fighting on East Cavalry Field were relatively minor: 254 Union casualties—219 of them from Custer’s brigade—and 181 Confederate. Although tactically inconclusive, the battle was a strategic loss for Stuart and Robert E. Lee, whose plans to drive into the Union rear were foiled.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg,_third_day_cavalry_battles