Union First Corps Headquarters Marker – July 1

Army and Corps Headquarters Markers

The marker is a 4.5 inch Siege Rifle (sometimes called a 4.5 inch Ordnance Rifle) cast in 1863 by the Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburgh. It was placed in 1913 by the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission.

Monument to Major General Abner Doubleday's Headquarters for the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg

Text from the Union First Corps July 1 monument:

Army of the Potomac
1st Corps Headquarters,
Major General Abner Doubleday,
July 1 1863
were located 230 yards s.e.
from here near the Pike

Commanding the Union First Corps at Gettysburg

Major General John Reynolds was the commander of the Union First Corps at the start of the Gettysburg Campaign. But when Major General George Meade took command of the Army of the Potomac three days before the battle he gave Reynolds temporary command of the left wing of the army. Major General Abner Doubleday (West Point class of 1842) was senior division commander and temporarily became First Corps commander. This should have become permanent with the death of Reynolds on July 1. But Meade had no confidence in Doubleday and replaced him by transferring Major General John Newton from another corps and giving Newton permanent command of the First Corps.

Doubleday, angry and ashamed, reverted to division command under Newton even though he had seniority over Newton. Doubleday was lightly wounded on July 2, and after Meade refused to reconsider his decision, left the Army of the Potomac. He was mostly involved with administrative details for the rest of the war, an implacable enemy of Meade.

Location of the monument

The headquarters marker for Abner Doubleday’s First Corps is west of Gettysburg on the east side of Reynolds Avenue 125 yards south of Chambersburg Road (U.S. 30). Reynolds Avenue is one way northbound. (39°50’08.1″N 77°14’58.5″W)