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At around 7:30 AM, July 1, 1863, a small patrol of the 8th IL Cav led by Lieutenant Marcellus Jones spots the glint of morning light off burnished barrels of rifled muskets. It is as they had expected - Heth's division is marching on Gettysburg. Jones levels his carbine and fires
The first shot echoes through the still, humid July morning air, the smoke drifting down the slope over the Chambersburg Pike. Fields rich with crops lie gleaming in the sun; light glinting off bedewed spider webs. More carbines pop & crackle, the pickets now adding their fire.
A scant 2700 blue-coated and dusty horsemen are arrayed on ridgelines to the west of the town, dismounted, so as to force their enemies to deploy in line to fight them back. One in every four men holds the reins of their steeds, taking more carbines out of the fight.
