With Confederate forces converging on Gettysburg, PA, in their second attempt to invade the non-slave-holding states of the east, the U.S. Army’s First and Eleventh Corps were on hand to hold off the invaders until the rest of their army could unite in the town.
Part of the Eleventh Corps was the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. A private in that unit was Danbury’s James Montgomery Bailey, who would later be known as the “Danbury News Man.”
The 17th held this ground in the early afternoon as swarms of Confederates assailed them from the front and left flank.
The 17th were pushed back, made a brief stand and then were overrun as the enemy approached them from 3 sides. In the action, Bailey and many of his regiment were captured.
While the Confederates emerged the victors on the first day’s fighting, ~7,000 of the 30,000 Confederates , and ~9,000 of the 18,000 U.S. troops on July 1 were casualties – ~half the Union casualties were prisoners of war. U.S. forces had extracted a high price from the Confederates, who would be forced to retreat from the area on the evening of July 4.
