Who reportedly fired the first Union shot at Gettysburg?

Marcellus Jones reportedly fired the first Union shot at the Battle of Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, Jones was a lieutenant commanding an 8th Illinois Cavalry picket post along the Chambersburg Pike, west of Gettysburg.

At roughly 7:30 a.m., Jones spotted dust from the approaching Confederate column. He borrowed Corporal Levi Shafer’s carbine, rested it on a fence rail, and fired at an officer on a light-colored horse. The shot alerted nearby Union cavalrymen that Henry Heth’s Confederate division was advancing.

The claim is often phrased carefully because other soldiers and units have been associated with the battle’s opening fire, and the exact first shot cannot be proved beyond doubt. Nevertheless, Jones’s account became the established Gettysburg tradition, and the National Park Service identifies the Wisler property as the place where he fired it.

Jones later helped establish a memorial at the site. The opening skirmish soon expanded into a three-day battle that ended with Robert E. Lee’s retreat and a major Union victory.