Major General Henry ("Harry") Heth (pronounced "heath"). Heth commanded a division in the 3rd Corps of Lee's Army. Heth sought and obtained permission from his corps commander, Lieutenant General A. P. Hill, to take his division to Gettysburg to secure a supply of shoes they thought would be at the shoe factory in town, not knowing the shoes were already gone, taken by soldiers who had passed through Gettysburg days before. Heth was told not to bring on a "general engangement" - a large battle.

Major General John Buford, commanding a cavalry division in the Union Army of the Potomac. Heth's men collided with Buford's troopers as they approached Gettysburg from the west. Buford realized the importance of the high ground around Gettysburg and sought to deny the high ground to the Confederates. He deployed his two brigades of cavalry and forced Heth to do the same. Heth saw that he was opposed only by cavalry, which could not stand long against infantry in the Civil War. Heth deployed his men in line of battle, but Buford's stubborn defense delayed Heth long enough for more Union troops to arrive.

Major General John Reynolds, commanding the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Reynolds commanded the first Union infantry to reach Gettysburg to reinforce Buford. He took command of all Union troops then on the field and those arriving at that time. By this time more of A. P. Hills Confederates were arriving and Reynolds deployed his men to oppose them. Despite Lee's orders a "general engagement" was beginning to develop as both sides fed in more men. Reynolds was a brave man and was giving encouragement to the troops around him , saying "Why, they couldn't hit an elephant at this di-" when he fell dead from a bullet through his head.

Lieutenant General General Richard S. Ewell, commanding the Second Corps of Lee's Army. Ewell's men had penetrated deeper than any other Confederates into Pennsylvania. They had been on the banks of the Susquehanna, looking across at the state capital, Harrisburg, when they were recalled to concentrate with the rest of the Confederate army. They were coming down a road from the north. In front of them a "general engagement" was well under way between A. P. Hill's Confederate Third Corps and the First and Second Corps of the Union Army. Ewell's road from the north brought him in on the flank of the Union's troops engaged with Hill, causing the Union line to collapse. The Union troops fled the battlefield and streamed back through Gettysburg onto a ridge south of town, called Cemetery Ridge. This would be the Union position for the last two days of the Battle.

Major General Jubal Early, commanding a division in Ewell's Second Corps. Ewell's Second Corps was Stonewall Jackson's old corps, but Jackson had been dead nearly two months. Ewell had been absent from the army for nearly a year, recovering from losing a leg at the Second Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). Many fellow officers thought Ewell was not the same man as he had been before his wounding. When the Yankee fugitives took up a position on Cemetery Ridge, Lee sent orders to Ewell to drive the Yankees from this new position, "if practicable". Lee was not near and always felt his commanders on the scene were the best judges of what was possible, so his orders often gave such latitude. Ewell and his subordinate Early conferred, grew concerned over reports (which proved unsubstantiated) of possible Union reinforcements approaching from the southeast, and together decided that attacking the Yankees on Cemetery Ridge was "not practicable". Many historians feel that had Jackson still commanded the Second Corps there would have been no hesitation and the Yankees would have been driven from the Ridge, making Gettysburg a one-day battle and the further destruction of the Army of the Potomac much more likely.

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