Jubal Early commanded the First Division of Richard Ewell's II Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. He was born on November 3, 1816, and was a member of the Class of '37 at West Point, as were Joseph Hooker and John Sedgwick. After destroying the Caledonia Iron Works west of Gettysburg that belonged to the Radical Republican congressman Thaddeus H. Stevens, Early's troops moved through Gettysburg on June 26th. There John B. Gordon's brigade and E. V. White's 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion defeated William W. Jennings' 26th Pennsylvania Militia in a minor skirmish.

Early requisitioned provisions of 1000 pairs of shoes and 500 hats or $10,000 in cash from the Gettysburg town fathers. The citizens responded that they could not meet these demands. They offered instead to have Gettysburg merchants open their shops to Confederate troops knowing that most of the stock had already been sent to Philadelphia to keep it out of Confederate hands. Jubal Early relented and agreed.

Jubal Early's requisition was reenacted in front of the Gettysburg Court House on Baltimore Street this year on Thursday, July 3, 2008. Hundreds of Confederate reenactors marched down Baltimore Street to the Court House in formation in such a convincing display that it was impossible not to get caught up in the spirit of the moment and believe that you were watching the original event.