General Robert E. Lee planned his army’s retreat to Virginia after the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge failed. Protecting his extensive wagon trains was foremost on his mind. He summoned Brig. Gen. John Imboden to his headquarters, where Lee arrived to greet him about 1:00 a.m. on July 4. Lee nearly sagged with fatigue. There was an “expression of sadness that I had never before seen upon his face,” Imboden later wrote. He heard Lee utter, almost to himself, “Too bad! Too bad! Oh! Too Bad!"1
"We must now return to Virginia,” the commanding general told Imboden. “As many of our poor wounded as possible must be taken home." With his 2,100 troopers and Capt. J. H. McClanahan’s six-gun battery, Imboden was to escort the wagon train loaded with the wounded. Lee bolstered his command with seventeen guns from other artillery battalions. The cavalryman hoped to set out early on July 4, but it took a long time to assemble the wagons and he could not move out until 4:00 p.m. Imboden headed west along Chambersburg Pike. The slow-moving train of misery carried more than 12,000 wounded men. It stretched seventeen miles.2
Imboden placed the 18th Virginia Cavalry and a section of McClanahan’s battery at the head of the column. Guns and a contingent of cavalry were inserted every one-third of a mile throughout the train. The wagons and troopers traveled through the night. Imboden avoided Chambersburg by taking a road to Greencastle, which the head of his column reached at daybreak on July 5. “During this one night I realized more of the horrors of war than I had in all the two preceding years,” admitted Imboden.3
While Imboden gathered his wagon train, another long train filled with Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell’s Second Corps supplies was rolling south along Fairfield Road. Ewell told Maj. John Harmon, his chief quartermaster, to get the train safely across the Potomac or “he wanted to see his face no more." The train began moving at 3:00 a.m. on July 4 with Brig. Gen. Iverson’s Brigade rushing after it to provide support.4
Jeb Stuart left Gettysburg at nightfall on July 4 to screen the main army’s retreat. Generals Fitz Lee and Wade Hampton led their brigades along Chambersburg Pike to guard the army’s right and support Imboden. The brigades of Brig. Genls. Beverly Robertson and “Grumble” Jones rode toward the mountain passes near Fairfield, while Stuart rode with the brigades of Brig. Gens. Albert Jenkins and John Chambliss toward Emmitsburg, Maryland, to guard the army’s left.5
The Federal army was also active. General George Meade was anxious to intercept Lee’s slow and lightly defended trains. He sent Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton’s cavalry in pursuit. Brigadier General John Buford’s division left Westminster for Williamsport to cut off the Confederate retreat on July 4. Judson Kilpatrick’s division rode to Emmitsburg, which he reached about 3:00 p.m. He was joined there by Col. Pennock Huey’s brigade of Brig. Gen. David Gregg’s division. Kilpatrick rode to Monterey and attacked Ewell’s wagons. He claimed (falsely) that “Ewell’s large train was completely destroyed.” Colonel Huey reported the capture of 150 wagons and 1,500 men.6
The bulk of the two armies remained on the battlefield, warily eyeing each other. Neither commanding general was sure the fighting was at an end. A truce permitted burial details to throw some of the dead into rough trenches and deliver the wounded to makeshift hospitals. Torrential rains soaked the field about noon.7
When darkness began to descend on Gettysburg it was clear to Lee that Meade was not going to attack. He began withdrawing his army to Fairfield Road, the shortest route to Hagerstown. Lieutenant General A. P. Hill’s Third Corps led the retreat, which began after dark. When Maj. Gen. Richard Anderson’s Division reached Fairfield at midnight, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s First Corps, with the added responsibility of guarding some 4,000 Federal prisoners, began its retreat from Gettysburg. Its march was more difficult because Ewell’s wagon train had cut deep grooves in the muddy road. Ewell’s Second Corps impatiently waited for orders to begin its retreat.8