A group of postwar veteran images featuring Marcellus Jones, who fired the first shot at the Battle of Gettysburg. Views include: 

1. Full-length silver gelatin studio portrait of Marcellus Jones, Col. W. Marion McCarty, and Pvt. Thomas B. Kelley. [Gettysburg, PA], [July 1891]. Numbered in negative. 

2. Another copy of the same portrait as #1 on larger cardstock mount with extensive typed captions identifying the three subjects with details of the roles during the Battle of Gettysburg. 

3. Outdoor silver gelatin view of the First Shot Monument. [Gettysburg, PA], [July 1891]. With extensive typed captions.

Marcellus Ephraim Jones (1834 - 1900) was an officer of the 8th Illinois Cavalry who is regarded as the soldier who fired the first shot at the Battle of Gettysburg. Jones enlisted as a Sergeant in Company E of the 8th Illinois Cavalry, called "Farnsworth's Abolitionist Regiment" by President Lincoln. He was commissioned a second lieutenant on 5 December 1862, the rank he held at the start of the Gettysburg Campaign.

On 1 July 1863, Jones was in command of one of the regiment's sentry posts on the Chambersburg Pike, the main road of approach for General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. A cloud of dust to the west was spotted by Private Thomas B. Kelly, also pictured here, who raised the alarm of approaching Confederates. Jones borrowed Corporal Levi S. Shafer's carbine and fired a shot at "an officer on a white or light gray horse." The 8th and its brigade then performed a fighting withdrawal to McPherson's Ridge, delaying Henry Heth's Confederate Division. 

In this remarkable image of postwar reconciliation, Jones shakes the hand of Colonel W. Marion McCarty, who had served in the 1st Texas Legion. The caption notes that the Legion "led the advancing Confederate column, and was riding a gray horse at the left of the colors at the time Lieut. Jones fired the shot aiming at him at the crossing of Cashtown creek bridge on the Chambersburg Pike." The caption additionally notes that McCarty lived in Hagerstown, Maryland, and came to the dedication of the 8th Illinois Cavalry Monument in 1891, where the portrait was captured. 

[Gettysburg, Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, Pickett's Charge, Devil’s Den] [Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards, Stereographs]