Why Hancock?

[whitworth]

One of the questions I've never seen raised is why the 11th Corps was one of the lead corps into Gettysburg. Of all the corps to put in the lead and go on the attack.

On the first day, with Reynolds dead, Howard is in command of the battle and MG Carl Schurz is in command of the 11th corps and leads them through Gettysburg and gets overwhelmed by a frontal and flank attack. I don't think the competence of Howard and Schurz was ever severely questioned by this move.
I think Howard was on a very short leash after the battle. Meade wanted to break up the 11th Corps and transfer Howard to a new Corps. BG Schimmellfinnig and Col. von Gilsa were sent with some of the 11th Corps to South Carolina in a few months.
MG Carl Schurz and BG von Steinwehr, a fairly capable general and military school graduate in Germany, were pushed out of command when the 11th Corps was combined with the 12th Corps to form the 20th Corps in early 1864.

Col. Krzyzanowski who commanded a brigade in the 11th Corps at Gettysburg, also lost his command when the corps was combined and he returned to command his former regiment, which spent the remainder of the war on garrison duty.

[Jamieva]

Off the top of my head the reason I and XI got there first was they were the closest geographically.

Problem with the XI corps is they put commanders in place of the same national background of the troops cause a significant portion of the XI corps would not fight for an "American" division or brigade commander.

[Rebel2276]

The 11th Corps was not the lead Corps into Gettysburg, had they been first into Gettysburg they would have been fighting Archer and Davis's brigades from Heth's division.

MG. Reynolds was on the field before MG Howard was. Reynold's and Buford had their famous chat, if Howard was there at that time, i'm sure the three of them would have been recorded in history.

The first infantry to arrive at Gettysburg was BG. Wadsworth's division of the Iron Brigade and Cutler's brigade. Cutler's men could see the shell's from Heth's brigade engaged with the Union Cav. Cutler had paused to rest his men for 10 mins to let the Iron Brigade catch up. Before any infantry had fought yet, Wadsworth was told my one of Reynold's couriers "Gen. Reynold's desires you to turn your leading brigade (Cutler) into the field, following along the ridge at the double quick toward the woods yonder."

Cutler's column with the 76th New York leading, 56th Pa, 147th Ny, 95th Ny and then the 14th Brooklyn followed by the 6 guns of Hall's 2nd Maine battery. (In order on the field) by 10:30am Cutler's brigade was already in position. The Iron brigade came up and formed on the left of Cutler's brigade. (14th Brooklyn was the left flank regiment and the 76th Ny was the right flank regiment).

The first infantry shots fired was from the 56th Pa at the 55th Nc. The 56th Pa commander, Col Hofmann, had fired to soon and 55th Nc was not in range. The 56th Pa's first volly only wounded two men of the 55th Nc's color guard.

Archer's brigade was at this time fighting against the Iron Brigade. Hence the 2nd Wisconsin captured BG.Archer and about 75 men.

Howard's Corps was still on the road at this point. Barlow's division was on the Emmitsburg Road, while the divisions led by Schurz and Von Steinwehr were marching a few miles to the east. They intended to hook onto the less congested Taneytown Road. Howard and his staff rode ahead of Barlow's division and saw the tail end of one of Wadsworth's brigades (Iron Brigade). Howard then asked Reynold's were he wanted the 11th Corps placed.

So as you can see, Howard's 11th Corps did not reach Gettysburg "First."

For a further study on this, go to "Gettysburg, A testing of Courage" by Noah Andre Trudeau. Page 181 clearly shows Howard's Corps came up later then Wadsworth's division.

Shawn

[gettysburgerrn]

The puzzling thing is that in spite of Chancellorsville and Day1 at Gettysburg, Howard kept getting promoted go figure..

ken

[M E Wolf]

Dear gettysburgrrn,

I submit for consideration the bio of General Howard;


Name HOWARD, Oliver Otis
Born November 8 1830, Leeds ME
Died October 26 1909, Burlington VT
Pre-War Profession Graduated West Point 1854, teacher of mathematics at West Point.
War Service May 1861 Col. of 3rd Maine, June 1861 resigned Regular commission, commanded 3rd Bde/3rd Divn at First Manassas, September 1861 appointed Brig. Gen. of Volunteers, commanded 1st Bde/1st Divn/II Corps in Peninsula campaign, Seven Pines (w) awarded the Medal of Honor, commanded 2nd Bde/2nd Divn/II Corps at Antietam, commanded 2nd Divn/II Corps at Fredericksburg, November 1862 promoted Maj. Gen. of Volunteers, commanded XI Corps at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, commanded IV Corps in Atlanta campaign, commanded Army of the Tennessee in March to the Sea, Carolinas campaign, December 1864 Brig. Gen. in Regular Army.
Brevet Promotions Maj. Gen. U.S.A. March 13 1865.
Post War Career Headed the Freedmen's Bureau, helped establish Howard University, fought Indians, superintendent of West Point, commanded the Division of the East, retired 1894, educator.
Notes A Christian soldier.
On the Internet Major General Oliver Otis Howard
Further reading
Carpenter, John Alcott Sword and olive branch / Oliver Otis Howard Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964
Weland, Gerald O.O. Howard, Union general Jefferson NC, McFarland & Co., 1995
--------------------------------------------
It seems, that General Howard was already holding the rank of Maj. General before Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf