HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

1st US Artillery Battery K Graham

Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

July 3. Arrived on the field and took position on the left with cavalry and engaged during the attack of Brig. General E .J. Farnsworth’s and Brig. General W. Merritt’s Brigades on the Confederate right.

The Story

This tablet marks the position taken on July 3, 1863, by Battery K, 1st U.S. Artillery, on the southern end of the Gettysburg battlefield. Fighting alongside Union cavalry, the battery supported the attacks of the brigades of Brigadier Generals Elon J. Farnsworth and Wesley Merritt against the Confederate right flank in the closing hours of the battle.

Why it matters

It records the often-overlooked cavalry-and-artillery fighting on the army's flanks that unfolded even as the battle reached its famous climax at the center.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

By the summer of 1863 the Civil War had ground into its third exhausting year, and both armies were desperate for a decision. When Robert E. Lee marched his Confederate army north into Pennsylvania, he carried the war onto Union soil, hoping a victory there might finally break the North's will to fight. What he found instead, at a crossroads town called Gettysburg, was the largest battle ever waged on the American continent.

By July 3, the third and final day, the fighting had already cost tens of thousands of men. The center of the field is where the story is usually told — the great doomed infantry assault against the Union middle. But a battle this size sprawled for miles, and the armies grappled at both ends of the line as fiercely as they did at the center.

This ground, on the southern end of the field, is where the flank fighting played out. Here the Union army's horse soldiers and their supporting guns pressed against the Confederate right, in a corner of the battle that most visitors never learn about.

People & events

This tablet marks where Battery K of the 1st U.S. Artillery unlimbered its guns on the afternoon of July 3, taking position on the far left of the Union line alongside the cavalry. Artillery batteries like this one were the muscle behind a cavalry advance — the horsemen could probe and charge, but it was the guns that could shatter a defensive line or cover a retreat.

The inscription ties the battery to the attacks of two mounted brigades pushing at the Confederate right. One was led by Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth, a young officer only days into his new rank. In a charge across this broken, rocky ground on July 3, Farnsworth was killed — one of the war's vivid examples of the terrible cost paid by cavalry sent against infantry and stone walls.

The other brigade belonged to Brigadier General Wesley Merritt, a career soldier leading disciplined regular-army horsemen. Together their attacks kept pressure on the Confederate flank in the closing hours, and Battery K's guns were part of the weight behind them.

Its place in the American story

Gettysburg is remembered as the turning point of the Civil War, the high-water mark of the Confederacy. After three days here, Lee's army never again mounted a serious invasion of the North, and the long, grinding road toward Union victory ran downhill from this field.

What this quiet marker preserves is a reminder that the battle was not decided by one dramatic charge at the center alone. It was decided across a vast, sprawling landscape, where guns and horsemen fought on the flanks even as the famous assault unfolded a mile away.

The men of the regular artillery who served pieces like these were professionals of the small prewar army, and their steadiness under fire was part of what held the Union line together through three brutal days. This is where a small piece of that larger, less-celebrated struggle happened.

If you visit

You'll find this spot on the southern end of the battlefield, well away from the crowds that gather at the famous central landmarks. It is a quieter, greener corner, and that quiet is part of the point — this was the edge of the storm, not its eye.

Stand here and look across the rolling, rock-strewn fields toward the Confederate positions. Picture guns being wheeled into place by hand and horse, the crews working in the heat and smoke while cavalry formed up nearby. The ground itself tells you why a charge across it was so costly.

If you're touring Gettysburg, make time to drive the southern loop rather than only the central highlights. Markers like this one are how you feel the true scale of the battle — and how you meet the soldiers whose fight didn't make the history-book headlines but mattered all the same.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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Related people

  • · Elon J. Farnsworth
  • · Wesley Merritt

Related events

  • · Battle of Gettysburg

Themes & tags

Civil WarMonument

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