New Jersey and the Gettysburg Campaign
http://49njrvs.tripod.com/49newjerseyregimentvolunteerscivilwarsociety2/id15.html
"Who can tell what a march it was?," recalled Haines.
"None who were on it would ever consent to make it over again."

The March of The Sixth Corps to Gettysburg
BY J. S. ANDERSON
5th Wisconsin, 3rd Bgd, 1st Div.
http://www.gettysburgguide.com/march6.html
"One incident that I shall never forget. At a large farm house stood near the pike with rare thoughtfulness the people had brought out a number of tubs and pails and placed them along the side of the road. An old man and a boy were busy drawing water from the well and a portly matron and two handsome girls were keeping the tubs and pails filled with cool sweet water. Their faces were flushed and they trembled with the exertion. I said to the lady, "Madam, that work is very hard on you." She said, "God bless you, I don’t feel it. I have two boys somewhere among you and I would not want them or their friends to pass their mother’s house without at least a cup of cold water." I passed on, I trust she met her boys and that they lived to be a comfort to her in her old age. I do not think she and her girls ever realized how their acts, and the acts of others like them, nerved the men of the Army of the Potomac to stand in the breach at Gettysburg."

The March to Gettysburg by Delevan Bates
The Otsego Republican - Aurora, Neb., Jan 20, 1894
http://www.rootsweb.com/~necivwar/CW/bates/batenws1.html
(See the last section on the page linked to above.)
"The words of a better writer than I am will be used in describing this march, and every comrade who was there will testify to the truthfulness of the description: Moving in quick time, the long line splashed through the dust, which rose in clouds, and where it touched the skin it burned like particles of molten brass. The hard yellow glare of the burning sunbeams seemed to eat into one's brain, and the temptation was strong to lie down in the cool recesses of some one of the copses of timber through which we passed, and abandon all else to bodily comfort. Here and there a man reeled and fell or staggered into the shade of the trees, and was left as we hurried on. Along the road under our feet articles of clothing, haversacks, blankets, and even guns and cartridge boxes were thickly strewn, but no canteens. Those tin receptacles of lukewarm water are the last thing a soldier throws away."

61st Penn. Vol.
http://www.littlemoon.com/acg/history.html
"After a series of exhausting marches, for the most part performed beneath a burning sun, it reached Manchester, Maryland, on the 1st of July, where, at evening, tidings were received of the opening of the battle of Gettysburg, and orders to move with all possible dispatch to the field. The corps was immediately put in motion. After a wearisome march of upwards of thirty miles, it arrived in the midst of the desperate fighting of the second day, and the tired and footsore troops were hurried into action."

Sixth Corps history
http://www.civilwararchive.com/CORPS/6thcorp.htm
A history of the Corps from formation to the end of the war.

Sixth Corps Flags
http://pre1900prints.com/CivilWar/battleflags1.htm
1. Flag of the 11th. Regiment Connecticut Volunteers
2. Headquarters Guidon of the Old Vermont Brigade
3. Major-General John Sedgwick's Sixth Corps Headquarters Flag

June 30, 1863 - The Armies Gather
http://www.gdg.org/overview/june30gather.htm
A good overview of the movements of the armies on this date.

Pvt. Robert H. Clark - The first casualty?
http://www.gdg.org/june30.html
In his book "Killed in Action," Gregory Coco recounts the story of Private Robert H. Clark (Company B, 7th Maine Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 6th Corps), who might be considered the 'first casualty' of the Gettysburg Campaign. The AoP's 6th Corps marched northward for nearly 40 miles in order to reach the other Northern forces in time to render aid.
"...R.H. Clark was from Presque Isle, Maine, and was at the time of his death in the U.S. Army. He was brought in an ambulance to McAllen's Hotel, corner of Baltimore & South Streets, with the 6th Army Corps June 30th, 1863 and died the same night. He was sun struck on the march from VA to PA from the effects of which with exhaustion, he seems to have died. ...He was buried at about 3:00 pm. He was a member of Co. B 7th Maine Volunteers..."

The Pipe Creek Circular
http://www.gdg.org/dtpipecr.html
This is a page from the Gettysburg Discussion Group regarding the Pipe Creek Circular which Gen. Meade drafted on the night of June 30. This was a strategic concept that Meade proposed before he knew exactly where the Confederate Army was and before the battle was joined on July 1 at Gettysburg. This strategy placed the Union Army roughly parallel to the Maryland / Pennsylvania border to protect Baltimore and the Federal Capitol. For this reason the Sixth Corps was placed so far east in Manchester and had to make the forced march to Gettysburg once Meade knew where the enemy was.

Report of Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick - Commanding Sixth Corps
HEADQUARTERS SIXTH ARMY CORPS,
Warrenton, Va., August 8, 1863.
http://home.sprynet.com/~carlreed/FRJS01.html
"During the operations herein reported, the conduct of the troops was admirable. The marches were very severe, and the hardships undergone were greater than in any previous campaign."

Lt. Col. Frederick C. Newhall, Sixth Pa. Cavalry
from a speech October 14, 1888
http://www.gdg.org/newhall.htm
"a fine-looking major on Meade’s staff galloped up with a vivid expression on his face which you do not often see in everyday life, and ordered Sedgwick to hasten forward; matters were evidently serious just in front. There was a fearful crash of musketry, and through the smoke I saw some men with clubbed muskets in their hands. It was just the time when Longstreet’s famous charge of the second day had reached its climax. Sedgwick turned to his leading brigade commander and said, "Hurry up there; never mind forming your brigade; pitch in by regiments!" and nothing could be finer than the way they did it. "

The Sixth Corps at Gettysburg
More Points in Regard to the Time of the Arrival of Sedgwick's Command
By James L. Bowen, June, 1882
http://www.gdg.org/v6pt1g.html
"In the course of much association with ex-soldiers, and discussion of the battle of Gettysburg, the alarm caused among the troops already engaged by the cloud of dust which our advance occasioned, and which was at first thought to be caused by the Confederate Cavalry coming up in the Union rear, has been often referred to, and always spoken of as occurring at 5 or 6 o'clock."

   

Vermont Civil War Flags
http://www.vermontcivilwar.org/flags/index.shtml
This page has photographs of many Vermont regimental flags. Some of them were carried by the Vermont Brigade (Second Brgd, Second Div, Sixth Corps) on the march to Gettysburg. The bottom of the page has a wonderful lengthy quote describing the love of flag these veterans bore. It closes with:

"The war and all its precious memories--soul-lifting or sad--seems now like some strange dream. The mighty host of armed men, whose tramp caused the nations to tremble, has gone from our sight. Their wild battle cry will be heard no more forever; their battle flag will come forth no more to war. Our flag is furled,--a precious relic for future generations, and a proud fact to us that only men brave, daring, heroic, and, better still, loyal to the core, ever bore aloft the colors and flag of that grand old regiment, the Eighth Vermont Volunteers."

The Eighth Vermont was not in the Sixth Corps but I'm sure many Sixth Corps veterans could echo the sentiment.

Roads to Gettysburg
By John W. Schildt
McClain Printing, 1978
Pages 504-514
http://www.dougdobbs.com/cwr/6c2g/schildt.htm

July 1,1863 - The final push...

"Pappy" Sedgwick was still going over his reports when out of the darkness came the sounds of a galloping rider. "Reynolds had fallen. A crisis was at hand, the Sixth Corps must be in Gettysburg by afternoon of the morrow."

Even the staff officer felt the mission was impossible. "No troops, not even the best can march that far that fast." Sedgwick had other thoughts, "Say to General Meade, my Corps shall be at Gettysburg at two o'clock."

Even in the suffering there was humor and comradeship. General Sedgwick, mounted on "Cornwall," pulled over to the side of the road to watch some of his men go by and to observe their physical condition. One of the men said, "Get a fresh horse, Uncle John, and try to catch us." This touched the brave leader from Cornwall Hollow in the Berkshires, he lifted his hand, and smiled in acknowledgment.