Editing Abner Doubleday (section)

===Gettysburg===
[[File:DoubledayBirthplace.jpg|thumb|Birthplace in Ballston Spa]]
[[File:Doubleday and wife (1).jpg|thumb|right|Doubleday and his wife, Mary]]
At the start of the [[Battle of Gettysburg]], July 1, 1863, Doubleday's division was the second infantry division on the field to reinforce the cavalry division of Brigadier General [[John Buford]]. When his corps commander, Major General [[John F. Reynolds]], was killed very early in the fighting, Doubleday found himself in command of the corps at 10:50 am. His men fought well in the morning, putting up a stout resistance, but as overwhelming Confederate forces massed against them, their line eventually broke and they retreated back through the town of [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania|Gettysburg]] to the relative safety of [[Cemetery Hill]] south of town. It was Doubleday's finest performance during the war, five hours leading 9,500 men against ten Confederate brigades that numbered more than 16,000. Seven of those brigades sustained casualties that ranged from 35 to 50 percent, indicating the ferocity of the Union defense. On Cemetery Hill, however, the I Corps could muster only a third of its men as effective for duty, and the corps was essentially destroyed as a combat force for the rest of the battle; it would be decommissioned in March 1864, its surviving units consolidated into other corps.<ref name=Tagg/>

On July 2, 1863, Army of the Potomac commander Maj. Gen. [[George G. Meade]] replaced Doubleday with Major General [[John Newton (engineer)|John Newton]], a more junior officer from another corps. The ostensible reason was a false report by [[XI Corps (Union Army)|XI Corps]] commander Major General [[Oliver O. Howard]] that Doubleday's corps broke first, causing the entire Union line to collapse, but Meade also had a long history of disdain for Doubleday's combat effectiveness, dating back to South Mountain. Doubleday was humiliated by this snub and held a lasting grudge against Meade, but he returned to division command and fought well for the remainder of the battle.<ref name=Tagg/> He was wounded in the neck on the second day of Gettysburg and received a brevet promotion to colonel in the regular army for his service.<ref name=Eicher/> He formally requested reinstatement as I Corps commander, but Meade refused, and Doubleday left Gettysburg on July 7 for Washington.<ref>Coddington, pp. 690–691.</ref>

Doubleday's staff nicknamed him "Forty-Eight Hours" as a compliment to recognize his tendency to avoid reckless or impulsive actions and his thoughtfulness and deliberateness in considering circumstances and possible responses.<ref name=Barthel>Barthel, p. 127</ref>  In recent years, biographers have turned the nickname into an insult, incorrectly claiming "Forty-Eight Hours" was coined to highlight Doubleday's supposed incompetence and slowness to act.<ref name=Barthel />