First Day Fire

On July 1, 1863, units of both armies first met to the west and north of town. Union cavalry slowed the Confederate advance until infantry from the First and Eleventh Corps arrived. More Southern reinforcements reached the scene, however, and by the end of the day roughly 30,000 Confederates had defeated about 20,000 Federals, driving them back through Gettysburg and on to the high ground of Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill.