2 Jones' marker is located on the north side of Route #30 West, where
it is entered by Knoxlyn Road. The face reads "First Shot at Gettysburg,
July 1, 1863, 7:30 AM." Other sides are inscribed: "Fired by Capt Jones
with Sergt Shafer's carbine, Co E 8th ILL Cavalry" and "Erected 1886 by
Capt Jones, Lieut Riffler & Srgt Shafer, Napierville." The 1886 date is
contradicted by JL Beveridge's speech during February 1885 which drescribed
it placement at Gettysburg. Other authors have determined it was raised
during 1883. Although Shafer was a sergeant at Gettysburg, Jones was not
commissioned as captain nor Riddler as lieutenant until December 10, 1864.
Though multiple accounts mention the stone to be 700 feet from Marsh Creek,
it is three times that distance. From the monument, a shot at the mounted
officer west of Marsh Creek bridge would have been more than half a mile
and rather long range for a carbine.
3 Alpheus Hodges, Co F, 9th NY Cavalry "The Westfield Cavalry" - Born May 4, 1843, near Jamestown NY, he enlisted during September of 1861. He
broke his ankle in going down with his dying horse at Brandy Station on
August 1, 1863, and was captured. Sent to Belle Isle and exchanged within
two months, Hodges was hospitalized in Washington. There is a family
anecdote concerning a visit made by Abe Lincoln to the hospital and asking
young Hodges what he could do for him. Hodges got a laugh out of the
President when he asked to be left alone until he got well enough to rejoin
his unit. A "cowhand in Kansas for a few years after the war," Hodges
returned to Lakewood NY where he raised a family. He lived in East
Rochester NY from 1908 until his death in 1924.
Sources
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Years 1861-1865. 1865.
- The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the
Union and Confederate Armies. Washington DC: Gov't Printing Office, 1889.
- Bean, Theo W. "Dedication of Monument - Seventeenth Pennsylvania
Volunteer Cavalry" (given on September 11, 1889), Pennsylvania at
Gettysburg - Volume II. Harrisburg: WS Ray, 1904.
- Bentley, Wilber G. "Dedication of Monument - Ninth New York Volunteer
Cavalry" (given on July 1, 1888), New York at Gettysburg - Volume III.
Albany, NY: JB Lyon Company, 1900.
- Bentley, Wilber G. Letter to Illinois MOLLUS Commandrey. October, 1903.
- Beveridge, John Lourie. "The First Gun at Gettysburg" (1885 MOLLUS paper,
Illinois Commandery) in The Gettysburg Papers, Volume I. Dayton, Ohio:
Morningside Bookshop, 1978.
- Beveridge, JL, Vaughan DB, & Greenhut, JB. Illinois at Gettysburg.
Springfield: HW Rokker, 1892.
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Gettysburg. Hightstown NJ: Longstreet House, 1986.
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Poland Center NY, 1901.
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Final Report on the Battlefield of Gettysburg. Albany: JB Lyon Company,
1900.
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Memorials. 1987.
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Number One, March 1955.
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York: Chas Scribner's Sons, 1944.
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Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1923.
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on Gettysburg Battlefield. Eastern Natl Park & Monument Assn, 1984.
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Gettysburg. University of Alabama Press, 1970.
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I. Dayton, Ohio: Morningside Bookshop, 1978.
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Civil War, Buel, Clarence Clough, & Johnson, Robert Underwood (eds). 1887.
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Magazine, Volume V, Issue #2, November 1987.
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Hightstown NJ: Longstreet House, 1986.
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Magazine, 1925.
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Cavalry. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 1911.
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Lyon Co, 1912.
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Warrior. NY: Random House, 1987.
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Issue #4 - January 1991.
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Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.
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A Military History of Confederate and Union Units with available Rosters of
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called the "Bachelder Map." 1876.
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