Huntingdon Hero — Huntingdon County Information Page

Did you know? A man born right here in Huntingdon, Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg, helped hold the Union right at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, the final day of the battle. While most folks remember Pickett's Charge, they miss the cavalry fight that happened about three miles east of town that same afternoon. On what is now called East Cavalry Field, Gregg's division and George Custer's brigade collided with J.E.B. Stuart's horsemen in a long mounted battle that came down to hand to hand fighting. Stuart never got around behind the Union line. A Huntingdon native was in the middle of one of the most important cavalry actions of the war, and most people here have no idea.

What the fact check changed. Gregg's Huntingdon birth is solid. Four problems in the original. (1) The quote 'one of the most conspicuous cavalry victories of the war' is attributed only to 'one military historian' and the check could not source it to any named historian. An unattributed quotation is the single riskiest thing in the post; removed. (2) The original gives Gregg sole credit. Custer's brigade fought the same action and is inseparable from it; added. (3) 'Three miles northeast of town' should be about three miles east. (4) 'Stopped Stuart cold' and 'turned the tide of the entire Civil War' overstate it. The standard account records a lengthy mounted battle in which both sides claimed victory; the defensible claim is that Stuart did not get into the Union rear.

Sources

David McMurtrie Gregg (Wikipedia article text) (2026)

Checked 2026-07-29 · County history, independently fact checked

← All stories from Huntingdon borough