The 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry would be organized in Philadelphia between July, and August, 1861. They would be promptly moved to Washington D.C. and assigned to US Brigadier General Fitz John Porter’s Division, in the Army of the Potomac.
(Quaker guns were tree trunks painted to look like large artillery). From Manassas Junction, the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry would move to the Virginia peninusula and participate in McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days battles.
In February, 1863, with the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry, into one cavalry corps, the 3rd Pennsylvania would be assigned to the Second Brigade (Colonel John B McIntosh) of the Second Division (Brigadier General William Averell) of Brigadier General George Stoneman’s Cavalry Corps. The 3rd would participate in the cavalry engagement at Kelly’s Ford, on March 17, as the Army of the Potomac participated in St. Patrick’s Day festivities.
In early June 1863, with Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia pushing north, the 3rd Pennsylvania would be engaged in the cavalry fight at Brandy Station (Fleetwood Hill). The regiment would take part in actions against CS Major General J.E.B. Stuart, as he pushed north, east of the Shenandoah Mountains, including Aldie, Upperville and Westminster.
Arriving at Gettysburg, they would take part in the fighting at Brinkerhoff’s Ridge, on July 2, 1863. In command of the regiment was Lieutenant Colonel Edward S. Jones. Fighting both Confederate cavalry, and the famed Stonewall Brigade, the 3rd would be pressed hard at a stone wall. As Lieutenant William Brooke-Rawle tells, “The wall was the key to our position, as both the enemy and ourselves at once perceived.” ¹ On July 3, the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry would be involved in the fighting at the East Cavalry Field, and suffered severely. After Gettysburg, the 3rd would participate in the action as the Federal Army pushed south after Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, including Auburn and Bristoe Station. Closing out 1863, they would be engaged in the battles of the Mine Run campaign.
¹ Wittenberg, Protecting the Flank: The Battles for Brinkerhoff’s Ridge and East Cavalry Field, p. 36.