"Suicidal Bravery"

— Gettysburg Campaign —

In June, 1863, as Gen. Robert E. Lee's infantry marched through Maryland on its second invasion of the North, Lee lost contact with Gen. J.E.B. Stuart as the cavalry commander led his force east and north around the Union army. Here, on the afternoon of June 29, Federal and Confederate cavalrymen clashed on the street before you.

A detachment of the 150th New York Infantry and 108 officers and men of the 1st Delaware Cavalry, including Capt. Charles Corbit's Co. C, guarded the road junction and Western Maryland Railroad line at Westminster. When advance elements of Stuart's column approached from Sykesville, Corbit's command with part of Co. D charged east on Main Street and struck them at the Washington Road intersection, driving them back briefly. The Westminster postmaster wrote that Corbit's men displayed "an almost suicidal bravery." A 4th Virginia Cavalry trooper later recalled, "I was in the first set of fours [in front to meet Corbit's charge]. There has never been, in my knowledge, a more terrific fight with pistols than was fought then. I emptied every barrel of my pistol as did others."

The fighting surged back and forth on Main Street until Confederate reinforcements overwhelmed the Federals. The 1st Delaware suffered 55 percent casualties (killed, wounded, and captured) and the New York infantrymen were taken prisoner. The Confederates lost two officers killed and twelve men wounded. That night, Stuart's column rested along the Littlestown Pike near Union Mills, about six miles north.

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