July 1st
On July 1st General Heath was ordered to send the Tennessee brigade and General Joe Davis' Mississippi brigade to Gettysburg, eight miles distant, to occupy that town. When within a few miles of the town our advance guard ran on to the Federal pickets, with long picket and skirmish lines, beyond which Reynold's corps of 12,000 men were strongly posted. General Archer deployed a battalion of skirmishers, 5th Alabama, attached to the Tennessee brigade, and the other four regiments, 1st, 7th and 14th Tennessee and 13th Alabama formed in line of battle on the right of the Cashtown and Gettysburg road. While this movement was going on, with our Tennessee brigade, General Joe Davis was taking similar action on the left of the turnpike, only a few hundred yards from us. As these two brigades marched as if on dress parade to the assault of Reynold's corps, no other troops were in supporting distance of Archer's and Davis' troops. The enemy's line of battle in plain view in open country, the artillery of their batteries playing on the two brigades, but replied to vigorously by our own artillery just behind our lines.
Now the enemy's lines extended both east and west beyond our own, our two brigades striking the enemy about the center of his line. When we advanced, driving them back at the center, each of their long wings advanced, unopposed, and almost before we were aware of it we were nearly entirely surrounded. The brigades, to rescue themselves, fought their way out the best they could, those who failed to escape being made prisoners. Archer was in a few yards of me, where I was commanding two companies, K and L. General Archer gave orders for every man to take care of himself He and I were made prisoners at the same time. The same thing was happening to Davis' Mississippi brigade, enveloped by the enemy's right wing. Had the other two brigades of Heath's division been in supporting distance we would have pushed the Federals beyond the town with small cost.
July 2nd
Marching all night of July 1st, until 3:00 p.m. July 2nd, in a most terrible July sun, and without rations except a few men like myself with a portion of our rations reserved from our preparations while in bivouac at Cashtown, before we brought on the Battle of Gettysburg, most of the men were exhausted and half starved for water and food, quite a number of men fainted and fell by the wayside, including General Archer. The Federal officer in charge of the prisoners, the young lieutenant from West Point, without experience or judgment as to marching men, was cruel, tyrannical and inhuman, ordering the guards to use their bayonets freely on the weak, fainting and exhausted marchers. Quite a number of men were painfully and seriously injured by the bayonet of the guards. As for myself my own health was perfect, and by dividing my own scant rations with my friend, General Archer, it kept him from a great deal of suffering that fell to a lot of others. About 4:00 p.m. of July 2nd, we were entrained for Baltimore, reaching the city some time during the night of July 2nd, where a meager allowance of rations was served, the first food quite a number of men had received for thirty@ six hours. We remained over in the city in bivouac under guard until the morning of July 3rd, when we were placed aboard a large coasting steamer and transferred to Fort Delaware in Delaware Bay.
See Ordeal by Fire: A History of the Fourteenth Tennessee (Wallace Cross)