The news of this conflict borne to Meade had changed his whole prearranged order of battle. When informed of Reynolds's death he had despatched General Hancock to the field, giving him discretionary power to order the battle at Gettysburg if that place appeared to him propitious for the general conflict. Followed by General Warren, chief of engineers, Hancock reached the town at the moment of the Federal retreat. His opinion of the feasibility of the ground for Meade's operations already had been formed, and he so disposed the forces then available as to hold the commanding heights of Cemetery and Culp's hills. But, before receiving the reports of Hancock and Warren regarding the situation, Meade had ordered forward all the troops within ready call - the Twelfth and Second corps. The Fifth and Sixth corps were instructed by messengers to hasten to the same point. The Third, moving from Emmetsburg, was on the ground by 6 P.M. The Sixth, being at Machester, bad thirty miles to march, hence Sedgwick was instructed (at 7.30 P.M., July 1st to make a forced march by the shortest route.
Lee's concentration was equally rapid. The fight of Wednesday had been, to him, a surprise. Moving his columns by easy marches, he expected to occupy Gettysburg unmolested, the absence of his cavalry, under Stuart, leaving him uninformed of Meade's advance upon the same point. When the booming of guns along Willoughby Run - announced the Federal presence, the Confederate commander found his second projection impeded, and it remained for him at once to decide there to fight the decisive battle or to retire by Chambersburg and Fairfield to the Potomac. The choice, indeed, was made for him. He therefore ordered forward his commands, and during the night the divisions were getting into position.
The ground over which the conflict of July 2d was to rage may be thus described: Two roads coming into Gettysburg - one from Emmetsburg on the west and the Baltimore turnpike on the cast - form the two sides of a A, their point of junction being on the south side of the village. Cemetery Ridge runs from near the point of junction directly south, dividing the A in two nearly equal divisions. Along this ridge runs the Taneytown road. Thus three roads converge at the point called Cemetery Hill, overlooking the town. Within the angles of these roads the main Union formation was made, on the night of July 1st and during the morning of the 2d. Culp's Hill, an important elevation, commanding Cemetery Hill, lay off to the right, between the Baltimore pike and Rock Creek. This was held as the Union extreme right. The general position was one of exceeding strength: the two roads from Taneytown and Emmetsburg being almost wholly within the Federal lines, offered unusual facilities for rapid intercommunication, with commanding elevations for the artillery. Nor could the location be readily turned, for the two crests called Great and Little Round Top, lying south of Cemetery Ridge, about three miles away, acted as Malakoffs, whose proper armament would give the National army's left perfect security.
The enemy had Seminary Ridge, which, in its southerly extension, enveloped the Emmetsburg road, thus making it feasible to project their right out to Meade's left, and offering the natural line for a flank movement upon the Federal position. Or, if battle was declined by the Confederates, it gave them an open way to Emmetsburg and Frederick. Hence, while in a stronghold, if the enemy assailed, Meade was in no condition to "cover" Washington and Baltimore.
The morning of July 2d found the belligerents confronting each other nearly in full force. Lee's divisions were well on the ground. Of Meade's army, the Sixth Corps was not up, until after noon; but, no assault being offered by Lee prior to that time, it was in season for duty. The Confederates passed the morning in determining their point of attack. Their line, forming a crescent five miles in length, swept around from Rock Creek, in front of Culp's Hill, through the town and along the western slope of Seminary Ridge, down to the Emmetsburg road; or, in this order by divisions: Johnson, Early, Rodes of Ewell's Corps constituting the left; Heth, Pender, and Anderson of A. P. Hill's corps constituting the centre; McLaws and Hood of Longstreet's corps constituting the right. Meade's assignment, as determined upon at noon, was: Twelfth Corps (Slocum's) on Culp's Hill; then Wadsworth's division of the First Corps; then what was left of Howard's Eleventh Corps occupying the cemetery, Doubleday's and Robinson's division acting as a reserve at that point; next Hancock's corps (Second) stretched along Cemetery Ridge; then Sykes's corps (Fifth) advancing to the Round Top hills, to be conjoined there with Sedgwick's Sixth Corps.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds”
– James 1:2