During the Gettysburg Campaign, the 2nd Vermont Brigade was one of four brigades sent from the Capital to join the Army of the Potomac as it pursued Robert E. Marching 18 miles a day for a week, the brigade reported to the 3rd Division of the I Corps. The I Corps had fought, and lost, heavily in the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863. Three regiments of Stannard's men arrived only
after the fighting ceased that day, adding to the division's depleted ranks. On July 2, Stannard was brigade officer of the day, leaving immediate command of his troops to Col. Randall of the 13th Vermont. Although the brigade was withdrawn behind Cemetery Hill, not participating in the initial defense against the attack by Confederate Brig. Wright on Cemetery Ridge, it was sent to recover guns lost to Confederate attacks. The Vermonters recovered these guns despite resistance from Wright's Georgians. The brigade's greatest fight, however, was on July 3, where it was one of the principal defenders against Pickett's Charge. The Vermonters lost men to sharpshooter fire and to the bombardment preceding the Confederate attack. As the assault approached Cemetery Ridge, Stannard swung two of his regiments (the 13th and 16th Vermont) out at a 90° angle, pouring deadly flanking fire into Brig. James L. Kemper's brigade, one of the critical factors that defeated the Confederate attack. Minutes later, the unconnected assaults by the Confederate brigades of Brig. Cadmus M. Wilcox and Col. David Lang approached the Union line to the south of the Vermont Brigade. Stannard once again wheeled two regiments (the 14th and 16th Vermont) and repeated his tactic of flanking fire to repulse the assault. Stannard was wounded in his right thigh by an artillery shell fragment but stayed on the field until the end of the battle. Col. Randall commanded the brigade until it was mustered out of service. Maj. Winfield S. Hancock, commander of the II Corps (who was in operational command of the defense against Pickett) wrote in his report, "The troops of General Stannard behaved with spirit at the Battle of Gettysburg. They were well ordered and well and vigorously handled by General Stannard and his subordinate officers, who did not hesitate to put them in front of the fight, and to keep them there until the battle was decided." In the middle of the battle, Stannard's corps commander, Maj. Abner Doubleday observed the repulse of Pickett's advance, waved his hat in excitement, and exclaimed "Glory to God! Glory to God! See the Vermonters go it!". After the battle, he wrote "I can only say that they performed perhaps the most brilliant feat during the war. For they broke the desperate charge of Pickett, saved the day and with it, the whole North from invasion and devastation." The Battle of Gettysburg and Stannard's Brigade are mentioned in the third chapter of MacKinlay Kantor's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Andersonville" (1955). In January 1863, Stannard returned to Vermont. He was appointed brigadier general on March 11, 1863, and given command of the 2nd Vermont Brigade in April, joining it in its camps in the defenses of Washington, D.C. The brigade consisted of the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th Vermont Infantry regiments. Stannard drilled his new brigade strenuously and his "quiet but effective" command style made him well respected by the men and significantly improved morale in the Brigade.
