Download The Battle of Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg
The next decisive battle in 1863 was a
Union victory, but it was an accident kind of. General Lee wanted to keep up
the momentum following his victory at
Chancellorsville. He believed that a
successful invasion of a Northern city
would turn popular opinion (and
therefore politicians) against Lincoln and
the Civil war, ending it for good.
So Lee started to gather the
Confederate forces in southern
Pennsylvania, under strict orders
not to engage the enemy until the
entire army was in place. While they
waited, one of Lee's commanders
sent a brigade of soldiers east to a
town called Gettysburg for supplies.
They didn't expect to run into the
Union cavalry.
President Lincoln had gotten wind of
the planned invasion and sent the
U.S. Army to cut off the invasion
force. The two sides surprised each
other on July 1, starting the threeday Battle of Gettysburg.
Confederate troops forced the Union
soldiers back through town, and
both generals immediately sent for
reinforcements.
By nightfall, they faced each other
on parallel ridges outside the town.
The armies pounded each other the
following morning, but a series of
leadership errors on both sides
dragged the conflict out for yet
another day. Lee might have been
successful if he'd had a skilled leader
like Stonewall Jackson.
Stonewall Jackson
But he didn't, and a less
competent general ordered what
is infamously known as Pickett's
Charge - a gutsy but suicidal
march across a mile-wide open
field, up a hill and into the face of
a crouching Union artillery and
infantry.
When the North opened fire, they
killed more than half of the
13,000 charging Confederate
soldiers in less than an hour. The
Southern cavalry, which was to
have attacked the rear of the
Union line, had also been
contained.
General Lee retreated, and the
deadliest campaign of the war was
finally over. More than 57,000
American men were dead, wounded
or missing, including nearly a third
of General Lee's Southern officers.
Many historians agree that the
Battle of Gettysburg was the most
decisive turning point for the Union.
Lee had lost thousands of troops
and officers that he couldn't
replace, and he never again
attempted an invasion of the
North. The defeat also led to a
sell-off of Confederate bonds,
dealing a huge blow to the
economy and morale of the
Southern population.
Later that year, Lincoln would
dedicate the battlefield as a
national cemetery, delivering his
famous Gettysburg Address.