On June 29, 1863, Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill's Confederate 3rd Corps reached Cashtown, eight miles west of the town of Gettysburg. With Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart unusually silent, both his whereabouts and that of the Federal Army remained unknown to Lee.

Remind me, the Federals were approaching from the south or where? I seem to remember something about Chambersburg pike or Harrisonburg pike or some such.

Largely from the south. 6th Corps in particular had an insane march and covered 37 miles in roughly 18 hours to arrive just before Hood's assault on Little Round Top. It's something folks never seem to remember. If Hood had gone around Little Round Top he would have been crushed by an entire corps sitting in reserve.

If they had gone in the morning and had not waited until after noon they would not have found anyone on Little Round Top.

Rabid Cougar said:

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If they had gone in the morning and had not waited until after noon they would not have found anyone on Little Round Top.

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Except there were Union Signal Corps stations across the route of Longstreet's march. If he was going to have an element of surprise, he had to go around them. Additionally, Sickles was in position in the morning and Sykes was close by. Longstreet was actually helped by Sickles' decision at noon to move forward.