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Civil War

5th US Cavalry Regiment Mason

Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

July 3 Moved with the Brigade at 12m. under Brig. General W. Merritt from Emmitsburg and attacked the Confederate right and rear and was engaged for four hours until the action was brought to a close by a heavy rain.

The Story

On July 3, 1863, the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the regular-army troopers of the 5th U.S. Cavalry moved north from Emmitsburg with Brigadier General Wesley Merritt's Reserve Brigade and struck at the Confederate right and rear. The fighting rolled on for about four hours across the fields south of town until a heavy rain brought it to a close. This tablet in Cumberland Township records the regiment's role in that mounted engagement.

Why it matters

The cavalry clashes on the flanks of Gettysburg helped protect the Union position during the battle that marked the high-water mark of the Confederacy.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In the first days of July 1863, the largest battle ever fought in North America unfolded around the small crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had pushed north into Union territory, and the Army of the Potomac moved to stop it, the two forces colliding by chance and then feeding division after division into three days of escalating combat.

By July 3, the battle had reached its climax. The fighting is best remembered for the great Confederate infantry assault against the Union center that afternoon, but the struggle sprawled far beyond that famous field. On the flanks, out across the rolling farmland south of town, cavalry and horse artillery maneuvered and clashed in actions that shaped the edges of the battle.

This tablet belongs to that wider fight. It marks the part played by the 5th U.S. Cavalry — regular-army troopers, professional soldiers of the small standing army rather than state volunteers — as they came up from the south to press against the far Confederate flank on the battle's final, decisive day.

People & events

The marker records a specific movement on July 3: the regiment riding up from Emmitsburg, just over the Maryland line to the south, as part of a Reserve Brigade led by Brigadier General Wesley Merritt. Their task was to strike at the Confederate right and rear — to threaten the flank of an army already committed to heavy fighting elsewhere.

Merritt was one of the young cavalry officers whose reputations rose during this campaign, and the brigade he led was made up of disciplined regulars. According to the inscription, the regiment was engaged for about four hours in this action on the southern end of the field, pressing the attack until the day's fighting on this part of the line was finally broken off by a heavy summer rain.

That detail — the fight ending not in a clean victory but in a downpour — is a reminder of how real battles actually close. Weather, exhaustion, and the failing light did as much to end a day's combat as any order. The troopers had done their work on the flank; then the sky opened, and the guns fell quiet for the night.

Its place in the American story

Gettysburg is often called the high-water mark of the Confederacy, the farthest reach of Lee's ambitions on Northern soil and the point from which his army began the long retreat. The battle's outcome, coming at the same moment as the fall of Vicksburg in the West, marked a turning of the war's tide toward the Union.

The famous infantry assault at the center is what most people picture, but battles are won and lost on their flanks as much as their middle. The cavalry and horse artillery clashes out on the wings — like the action this regiment fought south of town — helped guard the edges of the Union position and kept pressure on the Confederate army during the crisis of the battle.

There is also a quieter significance in who these men were. As regulars in a war overwhelmingly fought by hastily raised volunteers, the troopers of the 5th U.S. Cavalry represented the thin professional core of the United States Army. This tablet, set among the many memorials on the Gettysburg fields, insists that their steady flank action be remembered alongside the grander, more storied moments of those three days.

If you visit

This tablet stands in Cumberland Township, out among the farm fields and rolling ground south of the town of Gettysburg, away from the crowded center of the battlefield where most visitors cluster. Reaching it takes you into the quieter margins of the park — and that is exactly where its story happened, on the flank rather than at the famous center.

As you read it, picture the direction of the action: mounted troopers coming up from the south, from the Emmitsburg road country, to press against the end of the Confederate line. Look out across the open farmland and you can begin to see why this was cavalry ground — the space to maneuver horses, the long sightlines, the flank waiting to be turned. The land itself explains the tablet.

A stop here fits well into a fuller day of touring the battlefield, especially if you want to understand the whole battle rather than only its most celebrated hour. The southern fields reward unhurried driving and walking. Stand a while in the quiet; if the weather turns and a summer rain comes on, you'll have your own small echo of how the fighting recorded here finally came to its close.

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

  • · Wesley Merritt

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  • · Battle of Gettysburg

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