Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
25 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
Artist's Note:  Folks, I’m excited to announce that we will be taking pre-orders for a fine-art piece that will be released over the July 4th weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to offer something worthy of an extremely limited edition, and this one is it!  It’s a cold cast bronze bas relief depicting the cavalry action between U.S. Gen. Custer’s and C.S. Gen. Hampton’s troopers as part of the Gettysburg campaign.  The tablet is for a proposed monument soon to be erected near Hunterstown.  As each of these pieces is hand-cast and finished, there is a fair amount of work and time involved, so because of this, we will begin the pre-orders this weekend during History Meets the Arts, with the orders being ready for pick up at the gallery or shipping on July 2nd.  As a special treat for those of you in town this weekend, one of the finished pieces will be on display at the gallery.  (For those of you who can’t make it this weekend, don’t fret, I will be displaying this piece until July 2nd.)  Now, for the fine print details—when you place your pre-order, just indicate whether you want to pick up the piece or have it shipped to you. 
 
 
The Battle of Hunterstown was a minor cavalry skirmish fought on July 2, 1863, about four miles northeast of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the same day as the second day of fighting at Gettysburg.  As Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s exhausted cavalry finally rejoined Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia after a lengthy raid, Stuart ordered Gen. Wade Hampton’s brigade to screen the Confederate left rear.  Hampton positioned his troopers astride the Hunterstown Road to block any Union attempt to swing around Lee’s flank.  Meanwhile, two Union cavalry brigades from Gen. Judson Kilpatrick’s division—commanded by Generals George Armstrong Custer and Elon J. Farnsworth—were actively probing for the end of the Confederate line.
 
Late that afternoon, around 4:30 p.m., Custer’s Michigan brigade slammed into Hampton’s rear guard near Beaverdam Creek.  The Confederates initially drove the Federals back toward Hunterstown, aggressively pursuing through the village.  Union troops, concealed behind barns and tall wheat fields, then sprang an ambush, pouring fire into the charging Southern cavalry.  The fight was intense and at close-quarters, with troops trading saber clashes and pistol fire amid the narrow streets and farm lanes.  Hampton’s men regrouped for a counterattack, but the arrival of Farnsworth’s brigade bolstered the Union line and forced the Confederates to pause.
 
A dramatic moment occurred when Custer’s horse was shot out from under him during the encounter; pinned beneath the animal, the young Union general narrowly escaped death when a Confederate trooper charged with a saber.  Private Norvell Churchill of the 1st Michigan Cavalry, Custer’s orderly, shot the attacker, saving Custer’s life.  The clash, though brief—lasting roughly two hours—proved costly, with several officers killed or wounded on each side.  As darkness fell, Hampton, unwilling to commit further against the reinforced Union position while his men were already fatigued from days of hard marching, ordered a withdrawal through Hunterstown toward the main Confederate lines, allowing Union cavalry to occupy the area temporarily.
 
The Battle of Hunterstown ended in a tactical draw; though it is sometimes viewed as a tactical success for the Union cavalry in disrupting Stuart's screening efforts.  Though overshadowed by the massive fighting at Gettysburg itself, the engagement kept Confederate cavalry occupied and delayed their ability to reinforce other sectors, indirectly aiding Union defenses on Culp’s Hill later that evening.  It marked one of Custer’s first notable charges of the war and highlighted the fluid, opportunistic nature of cavalry operations on the Gettysburg Campaign’s periphery.  Today, the skirmish is sometimes referred to as the “North Cavalry Field” action and is recognized as part of the broader Gettysburg operations.