A Gettysburg man by the name of Rev. Dr. Michael Jacobs, a math professor at what was then called Pennsylvania College, had a strong interest in weather and recorded his observations three times a day, every day, even during the battle. As a result, the "Meteorology of the Battle", was published, and it gives very specific details on the weather at the Battle of Gettysburg and the role it may have played in battle.The bad weather came after the battle, on July 4th -- though some of the surviving soldiers may have found the rain's coolness a welcome relief after the battle heat of the previous days and nights. But --
Some wounded soldiers had still not been moved from low-lying areas by the Plum Run Creek, however, which overflowed its banks. Those stranded near the flood waters, reportedly all Confederates, drowned.
According to AccuWeather's Vice President of Marketing and Civil War historian Dr. Lee Rainey, an even larger issue that was faced as a result of the rain was the retreat attempts made by the Confederate Army on July 4.
"They had to move a 17-mile-long train of wagons filled with wounded soldiers over the dissolving dirt roads back to Virginia," he said. "And the rains caused the Potomac River--easily fordable on the march north--to flow so high that the army was trapped on the north side with the Union forces in pursuit. The Confederates dug in for a desperate battle, but in the end were able to escape across the river on the 13th, the day before Meade's planned attack."Full story here, on the AccuWeather site, with a link to the Rev.'s report.
This being a weather report the Rev. leaves out the 1000 or so free Pennsylvania blacks -- men, women and children -- the army had kidnapped to return to former owners, put in prison or auction off. The consequences of those few contrabands who were brought back to Virginia and returned to their 'owners' was terrible.
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I am a great great grandson of Michael Jacobs and a great grandson of his oldest son Henry Eyster Jacobs. The accuweather account confuses the two, who were both Lutheran clergy and Professors. Michael Jacobs made the original weather observations, Henry extracted the Battle data and added comments in 1885. Both left accounts of the battle, Michael Jacobs published "Notes on the Rebel Invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania" in August 1863 and does indeed comment on the local blacks, including a woman who escaped from here captors near Hagerstown MD and hoofed it back to Gettysburg across the mountains. Henry wrote Lincoln's Gettysburg World Message which includes chapters on the events before the battle and the battle itself, as well as an eyewitness account of the Gettysburg Address.
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