<P> General Reynolds was shot and killed early in the fighting while directing troop and artillery placements just to the east of the woods . Shelby Foote wrote that the Union cause lost a man considered by many to be "the best general in the army ." Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday assumed command . Fighting in the Chambersburg Pike area lasted until about 12: 30 p.m. It resumed around 2: 30 p.m., when Heth's entire division engaged, adding the brigades of Pettigrew and Col. John M. Brockenbrough . </P> <P> As Pettigrew's North Carolina Brigade came on line, they flanked the 19th Indiana and drove the Iron Brigade back . The 26th North Carolina (the largest regiment in the army with 839 men) lost heavily, leaving the first day's fight with around 212 men . By the end of the three - day battle, they had about 152 men standing, the highest casualty percentage for one battle of any regiment, North or South . Slowly the Iron Brigade was pushed out of the woods toward Seminary Ridge . Hill added Maj. Gen. William Dorsey Pender's division to the assault, and the I Corps was driven back through the grounds of the Lutheran Seminary and Gettysburg streets . </P> <P> As the fighting to the west proceeded, two divisions of Ewell's Second Corps, marching west toward Cashtown in accordance with Lee's order for the army to concentrate in that vicinity, turned south on the Carlisle and Harrisburg roads toward Gettysburg, while the Union XI Corps (Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard) raced north on the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road . By early afternoon, the U.S. line ran in a semicircle west, north, and northeast of Gettysburg . </P> <P> However, the U.S. did not have enough troops; Cutler, whose brigade was deployed north of the Chambersburg Pike, had his right flank in the air . The leftmost division of the XI Corps was unable to deploy in time to strengthen the line, so Doubleday was forced to throw in reserve brigades to salvage his line . </P>

Who was the union commander that faced the confederates near harpers ferry