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Battle of Gettysburg

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Pre 1900 Military

   Battle of Gettysburg
   Part of the American Civil War
   The battle of Gettysburg, Pa. July 3d. 1863, by Currier and Ives

     Date   July 1 – July 3, 1863
   Location Adams County, Pennsylvania
    Result  Union victory
   Combatants
   United States of America ( Union) Confederate States of America
   Commanders
   George G. Meade Robert E. Lee
   Strength
   93,921 71,699
   Casualties
   23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured/missing) 22,231
   (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured/missing)
                               Gettysburg Campaign
   Brandy Station – Winchester II – Aldie – Middleburg – Upperville –
   Hanover – Gettysburg – Carlisle – Hunterstown – Fairfield –
   Williamsport – Boonsboro – Manassas Gap

   The Battle of Gettysburg ( July 1 – July 3, 1863), fought in and around
   the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as part of the Gettysburg
   Campaign, was the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War and is
   frequently cited as the war's turning point. Union Major General George
   G. Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General
   Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the
   North.

   Following his brilliant success at Chancellorsville in May 1863, Lee
   led his army through the Shenandoah Valley for his second invasion of
   the North, hoping to reach as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even
   Philadelphia, and to influence Northern politicians to give up their
   prosecution of the war. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Maj. Gen.
   Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved almost on the
   eve of battle and replaced by Meade.

   The two armies began to collide at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, as Lee
   urgently concentrated his forces there. Low ridges to the northwest of
   town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division, which was
   soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry. However, two large
   Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north,
   collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders
   retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south.

   On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The
   Union line was laid out resembling a fishhook. Lee launched a heavy
   assault on the Union left flank and fierce fighting raged at Little
   Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard. On the
   Union right, demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on
   Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. Across the battlefield, despite
   significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines.

   On the third day of battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill and
   cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a
   dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the centre of
   the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Pickett's Charge was repulsed by
   Union rifle and artillery fire at great losses to the Confederate army.
   Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between
   46,000 and 51,000 Americans were casualties in the three-day battle.
   That November President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the
   Gettysburg National Cemetery to honour the Union dead and redefine the
   purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.

Background and movement to battle

   Gettysburg Campaign (through July 3); cavalry movements shown with
   dashed lines. ██ Confederate ██ Union
   Enlarge
   Gettysburg Campaign (through July 3); cavalry movements shown with
   dashed lines. ██ Confederate ██ Union

   Shortly after Lee's army won a decisive victory over the Army of the
   Potomac at the Battle of Chancellorsville ( April 30 – May 6, 1863),
   Robert E. Lee decided upon an invasion of the North, his second since
   the unsuccessful Maryland Campaign of September 1862. Such a move would
   upset Federal plans for the summer campaigning season and possibly
   relieve the besieged Confederate garrison at Vicksburg, and it would
   allow the Confederates to live off the bounty of the rich Northern
   farms while giving war-ravaged Virginia a much needed rest. In
   addition, Lee's 72,000-man army could threaten Philadelphia, Baltimore,
   and Washington and strengthen the growing peace movement in the North.

   Thus, on June 3 Lee's army began to shift northward from
   Fredericksburg, Virginia. In order to attain more efficiency in his
   commands, Lee had reorganized his two large corps into three new corps.
   Lt. Gen. James Longstreet retained command of his First Corps. The old
   corps of recently deceased Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was divided
   into two, with the Second Corps going to Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell and
   the new Third Corps to Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill. The Cavalry Corps was
   commanded by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart.

   The Union Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, consisted
   of seven infantry corps, a cavalry corps, and an Artillery Reserve, for
   a combined strength of about 94,000 men. However, President Lincoln
   would soon replace Hooker with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, due to
   Hooker's defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville and his timid
   response to Lee's second invasion north of the Potomac.

   The first major action of the campaign took place on June 9 between the
   opposing cavalry forces at Brandy Station, near Culpeper, Virginia. The
   Confederate cavalry under Stuart was surprised and nearly routed by the
   Federal troopers, but Stuart eventually prevailed. This battle, the
   largest cavalry engagement of the war, proved that for the first time,
   the Union horse soldier was equal to his Southern counterpart.

   By mid-June, the Army of Northern Virginia was poised to cross the
   Potomac River and enter Maryland. After defeating the Federal garrisons
   at Winchester and Martinsburg, Ewell's Second Corps began crossing the
   river on June 15. Hill's and Longstreet's corps followed on June 24 and
   June 25. Hooker's army pursued, keeping between the U.S. capital and
   Lee's army. The Federals crossed the Potomac from June 25 to June 27.

   Lee gave strict orders to his army to minimize any negative impacts on
   the civilian population. Food, horses, and other supplies were
   generally not seized outright, although quartermasters reimbursing
   northern farmers and merchants using Confederate money were not well
   received. Various towns, most notably York, Pennsylvania, were required
   to pay indemnities in lieu of supplies, under threat of destruction.
   The most controversial of the Confederate actions during the invasion
   was the seizure of some forty northern African Americans, a few of whom
   were escaped slaves, but most of them freemen, sending them south into
   slavery under guard.

   On June 26, elements of Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's division of Ewell's
   Corps occupied the town of Gettysburg, after chasing off newly raised
   Pennsylvania militia in a series of minor skirmishes. Early laid the
   borough under tribute, but did not collect any significant supplies.
   Soldiers burned several railroad cars and a covered bridge, and
   destroyed nearby rails and telegraph lines. The following morning,
   Early departed for adjacent York County.

   Meanwhile, in a controversial move, Lee allowed J.E.B. Stuart to take a
   portion of the army's cavalry and ride around the east flank of the
   Union army. Lee's orders gave Stuart much latitude, and both generals
   share the blame for the long absence of Stuart's cavalry, as well as
   for the failure to assign a more active role to the cavalry left with
   the army. Stuart and his three best brigades were absent from the army
   during the crucial phase of the approach to Gettysburg and the first
   two days of battle. By June 29, Lee's army was strung out in an arc
   from Chambersburg, 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Gettysburg, to
   Carlisle, 30 miles (48 km) north of Gettysburg, to near Harrisburg and
   Wrightsville on the Susquehanna River.

   In a dispute over the use of the forces defending the Harpers Ferry
   garrison, Hooker offered his resignation, and Abraham Lincoln and
   General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck, who were looking for an excuse to
   get rid of him, immediately accepted. They replaced him early on the
   morning of June 28 with Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade, commander of the
   V Corps.

   On June 29, when Lee learned that the Army of the Potomac had crossed
   its namesake river, he ordered a concentration of his forces around
   Cashtown, located at the eastern base of South Mountain and eight miles
   (13 km) west of Gettysburg. On June 30, while part of Hill's Corps was
   in Cashtown, one of Hill's brigades, North Carolinians under Brig. Gen.
   J. Johnston Pettigrew, ventured toward Gettysburg. The memoirs of Maj.
   Gen. Henry Heth, Pettigrew's division commander, claimed that Pettigrew
   was in search of a large supply of shoes in town, but this explanation
   may have been devised in retrospect to justify an overly heavy
   reconnaissance force.

   When Pettigrew's troops approached Gettysburg on June 30, they noticed
   Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. John Buford arriving south of town, and
   Pettigrew returned to Cashtown without engaging them. When Pettigrew
   told Hill and Heth about what he had seen, neither general believed
   that there was a substantial Federal force in or near the town,
   suspecting that it had been only Pennsylvania militia. Despite General
   Lee's order to avoid a general engagement until his entire army was
   concentrated, Hill decided to mount a significant reconnaissance in
   force the following morning to determine the size and strength of the
   enemy force in his front. Around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, July 1, two
   brigades of Heth's division advanced to Gettysburg.

First day of battle

   Map of battle, July 1.
   Enlarge
   Map of battle, July 1.

   General Buford realized the importance of the high ground directly to
   the south of Gettysburg, knowing that if the Confederates could gain
   control of the heights, Meade's army would have a hard time dislodging
   them. He decided to utilize three ridges west of Gettysburg: Herr
   Ridge, McPherson Ridge, and Seminary Ridge (proceeding west to east
   toward the town). These were appropriate terrain for a delaying action
   by his small division against superior Confederate infantry forces,
   meant to buy time awaiting the arrival of Union infantrymen who could
   occupy the strong defensive positions south of town, Cemetery Hill,
   Cemetery Ridge, and Culp's Hill.

   Heth's division advanced with two brigades forward, commanded by Brig.
   Gens. James J. Archer and Joseph R. Davis. They proceeded easterly in
   columns along the Chambersburg Pike. Three miles (5 km) west of town,
   about 7:30 a.m. on July 1, Heth's two brigades met light resistance
   from cavalry vedettes and deployed into line. Eventually, they reached
   dismounted troopers from Col. William Gamble's cavalry brigade, who
   raised determined resistance and delaying tactics from behind fence
   posts with fire from their breechloading carbines. By 10:20 a.m., the
   Confederates had pushed the Union cavalrymen east to McPherson Ridge,
   when the vanguard of the I Corps (Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds) finally
   arrived.

   North of the Pike, Davis gained a temporary success against Brig. Gen.
   Lysander Cutler's brigade, but was repulsed with heavy losses in an
   action around an unfinished railroad bed cut in the ridge. South of the
   Pike, Archer's brigade assaulted through Herbst (also know as
   McPherson's) Woods. The Federal Iron Brigade under Brig. Gen. Solomon
   Meredith enjoyed initial success against Archer, capturing several
   hundred men, including Archer himself.

   Early in the fighting, while General Reynolds was directing troop and
   artillery placements just to the east of the woods, he fell from his
   horse, killed instantly by a bullet striking him behind the left ear.
   Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday assumed command. Fighting in the Chambersburg
   Pike area lasted until about 12:30 p.m. It resumed around 2:30 p.m.,
   when Heth's entire division engaged, adding the brigades of Pettigrew
   and Col. John M. Brockenbrough.

   As Pettigrew's North Carolina Brigade came on line they flanked the
   19th Indiana and drove the Iron Brigade back. The 26th North Carolina
   (the largest regiment in the army with 839 men) lost heavily, leaving
   the first day's fight with around 212 men. By the end of the three-day
   battle, they would have about 152 men standing, the highest casualty
   percentage for one battle of any other regiment, north or south. Slowly
   the Iron Brigade was pushed out of the woods toward Seminary Ridge.
   Hill added Maj. Gen. William Dorsey Pender's division to the assault
   and the I Corps was driven back through the grounds of the Lutheran
   Seminary and Gettysburg streets.

   As the fighting to the west proceeded, two divisions of Ewell's Second
   Corps, marching west toward Cashtown in accordance with Lee's order for
   the army to concentrate in that vicinity, turned south on the Carlisle
   and Harrisburg Roads toward Gettysburg, while the Union XI Corps (Maj.
   Gen. Oliver O. Howard) raced north on the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown
   Road. By early afternoon, the Federal line ran in a semi-circle west,
   north, and northeast of Gettysburg.

   However, the Federals did not have enough troops; Cutler, who was
   deployed north of the Chambersburg Pike, had his right flank in the
   air. The leftmost division of the XI Corps was unable to deploy in time
   to strengthen the line, so Doubleday was forced to throw in reserve
   brigades to salvage his line.

   Around 2:00 p.m., the Second Corps divisions of Maj. Gens. Robert E.
   Rodes and Jubal Early assaulted and out-flanked the Union I and XI
   Corps positions north and northwest of town. The brigades of Col.
   Edward A. O'Neal and Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson suffered severe losses
   assaulting the I Corps division of Brig. Gen. John C. Robinson south of
   Oak Hill. Early's division profited from a blunder made by Brig. Gen.
   Francis C. Barlow, when he advanced his XI Corps division to Blocher's
   Knoll (directly north of town and now known as Barlow's Knoll); this
   represented a salient in the corps line, susceptible to attack from
   multiple sides, and Early's troops overran his division, which
   constituted the right flank of the Union Army's position. Barlow was
   wounded and captured in the attack.

   As Federal positions collapsed both north and west of town, Gen. Howard
   ordered a retreat to the high ground south of town, Cemetery Hill,
   where he had left the division of Brig. Gen. Adolph von Steinwehr as a
   reserve.

   Gen. Lee understood the defensive potential to the Union if they held
   this high ground. He sent orders to Ewell that Cemetery Hill be taken
   "if practicable." Ewell chose not to attempt the assault, considered by
   historians to be a great missed opportunity.

   The first day at Gettysburg, more significant than simply a prelude to
   the bloody second and third days, ranks as the 23rd biggest battle of
   the war by number of troops engaged. About one quarter of Meade's army
   (22,000 men) and one third of Lee's army (27,000) were engaged.

Second day of battle

   Lee's Plan for July 2.
   Enlarge
   Lee's Plan for July 2.

Plans and movement to battle

   Throughout the evening of July 1 and morning of July 2, most of the
   remaining infantry of both armies arrived on the field, including the
   Union II, III, V, VI, and XII Corps. Longstreet's third division,
   commanded by George Pickett, had begun the march from Chambersburg
   early in the morning; it would not arrive until late on July 2.

   The Union line ran from Culp's Hill southeast of the town, northwest to
   Cemetery Hill just south of town, then south for nearly two miles (3
   km) along Cemetery Ridge, terminating just north of Little Round Top.
   Most of the XII Corps was on Culp's Hill, the remnants of I and XI
   Corps defended Cemetery Hill, II Corps covered most of the northern
   half of Cemetery Ridge, and III Corps was ordered to take up a position
   to its flank. The shape of the Union line is popularly described as a
   "fishhook" formation. The Confederate line paralleled the Union line
   about a mile (1600 m) to the west on Seminary Ridge, ran east through
   the town, then curved southeast to a point opposite Culp's Hill. Thus,
   the Federal army had interior lines, while the Confederate line was
   nearly five miles (8 km) in length.

   Lee's battle plan for July 2 called for Longstreet's First Corps to
   position itself stealthily to attack the Union left flank, facing
   northeast astraddle the Emmitsburg Road, and to roll up the Federal
   line. The attack sequence was to begin with Maj. Gens. John Bell Hood's
   and Lafayette McLaws's divisions, followed by Maj. Gen. Richard H.
   Anderson's division of Hill's Third Corps. The progressive en echelon
   sequence of this attack would prevent Meade from shifting troops from
   his centre to bolster his left. At the same time, Maj. Gen. Edward
   "Allegheny" Johnson's and Jubal Early's Second Corps divisions were to
   make a "demonstration" against Culp's and Cemetery Hills (again, to
   prevent the shifting of Federal troops), and to turn the demonstration
   into a full-scale attack if a favorable opportunity presented itself.

   Lee's plan, however, was based on faulty intelligence, exacerbated by
   Stuart's continued absence from the battlefield. Instead of moving
   beyond the Federals' left and attacking their flank, Longstreet's left
   division, under McLaws, would face Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles's III Corps
   directly in their path. Sickles, dissatisfied with the position
   assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge, and seeing higher
   ground more favorable to artillery positions a half mile (800 m) to the
   west, had advanced his corps—without orders—to the slightly higher
   ground along the Emmitsburg Road. The new line ran from Devil's Den,
   northwest to the Sherfy farm's Peach Orchard, then northeast along the
   Emmitsburg Road to south of the Codori farm. This created an untenable
   salient at the Peach Orchard; Brig. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys's division
   (in position along the Emmitsburg Road) and Maj. Gen. David B. Birney's
   division (to the south) were subject to attacks from two sides and were
   spread out over a longer front than their small corps could defend
   effectively.

   Longstreet's attack was to be made as early as practicable; however,
   Longstreet got permission from Lee to await the arrival of one of his
   brigades, and, while marching to the assigned position, his men came
   within sight of a Union signal station on Little Round Top.
   Countermarching to avoid detection wasted much time, and Hood's and
   McLaws's divisions did not launch their attacks until just after 4 p.m.
   and 5 p.m., respectively.

Attacks on the Union left flank

   Map of battle, July 2.
   Enlarge
   Map of battle, July 2.

   As Longstreet's divisions slammed into the Union III Corps, Meade had
   to send 20,000 reinforcements in the form of the entire V Corps, Brig.
   Gen. John C. Caldwell's division of the II Corps, most of the XII
   Corps, and small portions of the newly arrived VI Corps. The
   Confederate assault deviated from Lee's plan as Hood's division moved
   more easterly than intended, losing its alignment with the Emmitsburg
   Road, attacking Devil's Den and Little Round Top. McLaws, coming in on
   Hood's left, drove multiple attacks into the thinly stretched III Corps
   in the Wheatfield and overwhelmed them in Sherfy's Peach Orchard.
   McLaws's attack eventually reached Plum Run Valley (the "Valley of
   Death") before being beaten back by the Pennsylvania Reserves division
   of the V Corps, moving down from Little Round Top. The III Corps was
   virtually destroyed as a combat unit in this battle and Sickles's leg
   was amputated after it was shattered by a cannonball. Caldwell's
   division was destroyed piecemeal in the Wheatfield. Anderson's division
   assault on McLaws's left, starting around 6 p.m., reached the crest of
   Cemetery Ridge, but they could not hold the position in the face of
   counterattacks from the II Corps.

   As fighting raged in the Wheatfield and Devil's Den, Col. Strong
   Vincent of V Corps had a precarious hold on Little Round Top, an
   important hill at the extreme left of the Union line. His brigade of
   four relatively small regiments was able to resist repeated assaults by
   Brig. Gen. Evander Law's brigade of Hood's division. Meade's chief
   engineer, Brig. Gen. Governor K. Warren, had realized the importance of
   this position, and dispatched Vincent's brigade, an artillery battery,
   and the 140th New York to occupy Little Round Top mere minutes before
   Hood's troops arrived. The defense of Little Round Top with a bayonet
   charge by the 20th Maine was one of the most fabled episodes in the
   Civil War and propelled Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain into prominence
   after the war.

Attacks on the Union right flank

   About 7:00 p.m., the Second Corps' attack by Johnson's division on
   Culp's Hill got off to a late start. Most of the hill's defenders, the
   Union XII Corps, had been sent to the left to defend against
   Longstreet's attacks, and the only portion of the corps remaining on
   the hill was a brigade of New Yorkers under Brig. Gen. George S.
   Greene. Due to Greene's insistence on constructing strong defensive
   works, and with reinforcements from the I and XI Corps, Greene's men
   held off the Confederate attackers, although the Southerners did
   capture a portion of the abandoned Federal works on the lower part of
   Culp's Hill.

   Just at dark, two of Jubal Early's brigades attacked the Union XI Corps
   positions on East Cemetery Hill where Col. Andrew L. Harris of the 2nd
   Brigade, 1st Division, came under a withering attack, losing half his
   men; however, Early failed to support his brigades in their attack, and
   Ewell's remaining division, that of Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes, failed
   to aid Early's attack by moving against Cemetery Hill from the west.
   The Union army's interior lines enabled its commanders to shift troops
   quickly to critical areas, and with reinforcements from II Corps, the
   Federal troops retained possession of East Cemetery Hill, and Early's
   brigades were forced to withdraw.

   Jeb Stuart and his three cavalry brigades arrived in Gettysburg around
   noon, but had no role in the second day's battle. Brig. Gen. Wade
   Hampton's brigade fought a minor engagement with George Armstrong
   Custer's Michigan cavalry near Hunterstown to the northeast of
   Gettysburg.

Third day of battle

   Map of battle, July 3.
   Enlarge
   Map of battle, July 3.

   General Lee wished to renew the attack on Friday, July 3, using the
   same basic plan as the previous day: Longstreet would attack the
   Federal left, while Ewell attacked Culp's Hill. However, before
   Longstreet was ready, Union XII Corps troops started a dawn artillery
   bombardment against the Confederates on Culp's Hill in an effort to
   regain a portion of their lost works. The Confederates attacked and the
   second fight for Culp's Hill ended around 11 a.m., after some seven
   hours of bitter combat.

   Lee was forced to change his plans. Now Longstreet would command
   Pickett's Virginia division of his own First Corps, plus six brigades
   from Hill's Corps, in an attack on the Federal II Corps position at the
   right centre of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Prior to the attack,
   all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the Federal
   positions would bombard and weaken the enemy's line.
   The "High Water Mark" on Cemetery Ridge as it appears today. The
   monument to the 72nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment
   ("Baxter's Philadelphia Fire Zouaves") appears at right, the Copse of
   Trees to the left.
   Enlarge
   The "High Water Mark" on Cemetery Ridge as it appears today. The
   monument to the 72nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment
   ("Baxter's Philadelphia Fire Zouaves") appears at right, the Copse of
   Trees to the left.

   Around 1:00 p.m., from 150 to 170 Confederate guns began an artillery
   bombardment that was probably the largest of the war. In order to save
   valuable ammunition for the infantry attack that they knew must follow,
   the Army of the Potomac's artillery at first did not return the enemy's
   fire. After waiting about 15 minutes, 80 or so Federal cannon added to
   the din. The Army of Northern Virginia was critically low on artillery
   ammunition, and the cannonade did not significantly affect the Union
   position. Around 3:00 p.m, the cannon fire subsided, and 12,500
   Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the
   three-quarters of a mile (1200 m) to Cemetery Ridge in what is known to
   history as " Pickett's Charge". Due to fierce flanking artillery fire
   from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top,
   and musket and canister fire from the II Corps as the Confederates
   approached, nearly one half of the attackers would not return to their
   own lines. Although the Federal line wavered and broke temporarily at a
   jog in a low stone fence called the "Angle", just north of a patch of
   vegetation called the Copse of Trees, reinforcements rushed into the
   breach and the Confederate attack was repulsed.

   There were two significant cavalry engagements on July 3. Stuart was
   sent to guard the Confederate left flank and was to be prepared to
   exploit any success the infantry might achieve on Cemetery Hill by
   flanking the Federal right and hitting their trains and lines of
   communications. Three miles (5 km) east of Gettysburg, in what is now
   called "East Cavalry Field" (not shown on the accompanying map, but
   between the York and Hanover Roads), Stuart's forces collided with
   Federal cavalry: Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg's division and George A.
   Custer's brigade. A lengthy mounted battle, including hand-to-hand
   sabre combat, ensued. Custer's charge, leading the 1st Michigan
   Cavalry, blunted the attack by Wade Hampton's brigade, blocking Stuart
   from achieving his objectives in the Federal rear. After Pickett's
   Charge, Meade ordered Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick to launch a cavalry
   attack against the infantry positions of Longstreet's Corps southwest
   of Big Round Top. Brig. Gen. Elon J. Farnsworth protested against the
   futility of such a move, but obeyed orders; Farnsworth was killed in
   the attack and his brigade suffered significant losses.

Aftermath

   Gettysburg Campaign (July 5 – July 14).
   Enlarge
   Gettysburg Campaign ( July 5 – July 14).

   The armies stared at one another across the bloody fields on July 4,
   the same day that the Vicksburg garrison surrendered to Maj. Gen.
   Ulysses S. Grant. Lee reformed his lines into a defensive position,
   hoping that Meade would attack. The cautious Union commander, however,
   decided against the risk, a decision for which he would later be
   criticized. He did order a series of small probing actions, including
   sending the U.S. Regulars over a mile towards the right of the
   Confederate lines, but they withdrew under artillery fire and Meade
   decided not to press an attack. A series of sharp exchanges between the
   opposing skirmish lines merely added more names to the casualty lists.
   By mid-afternoon, the firing at Gettysburg had essentially stopped and
   both armies began to collect their remaining wounded and bury some of
   the dead. A proposal by Lee for a prisoner exchange was rejected by
   Meade.

   On July 5, in a driving rain, the bulk of the Army of Northern Virginia
   left Gettysburg on the Hagerstown Road; the Battle of Gettysburg was
   over, and the Confederates headed back to Virginia. Meade's army
   followed, although the pursuit was half-spirited at best. The recently
   rain-swollen Potomac trapped Lee's army on the north bank of the river,
   but by the time the Federals caught up, the Confederates were ready to
   cross back to Virginia. The rear-guard action at Falling Waters on July
   14 ended the Gettysburg Campaign and added some more names to the long
   casualty lists, including General Pettigrew, mortally wounded.

   Throughout the campaign, General Lee seemed to have entertained the
   belief that his men were invincible; most of Lee's experiences with the
   army had convinced him of this, including the great victory at
   Chancellorsville in early May and the rout of the Federals at
   Gettysburg on July 1. Although high morale plays an important role in
   military victory when other factors are equal, Lee could not refuse his
   army's desire to fight. To the detrimental effects of their collective
   blind faith was added the fact that the Army of Northern Virginia had
   many new and inexperienced commanders. (Neither Hill nor Ewell, for
   instance, though capable division commanders, had commanded a corps
   before.) It had lost its most competent offensive general, Stonewall
   Jackson. Also, Lee's habit of giving generalized orders and leaving it
   up to his lieutenants to work out the details contributed to his
   defeat. Although this method may have worked with Jackson, it proved
   inadequate when dealing with corps commanders unused to Lee's loose
   style of command. Lee faced dramatic differences in going from defender
   to invader—long supply lines, a hostile local population, and an
   imperative to force the enemy from its position. Lastly, after July 1,
   the Confederates were simply not able to coordinate their attacks. Lee
   faced a new and very dangerous opponent in George Meade, and the Army
   of the Potomac stood to the task and fought well on its home territory.

   The news of the Union victory electrified the North. A headline in The
   Philadelphia Inquirer was "VICTORY! WATERLOO ECLIPSED!" New York
   diarist George Templeton Strong wrote:

     The results of this victory are priceless. ... The charm of Robert
     E. Lee's invincibility is broken. The Army of the Potomac has at
     last found a general that can handle it, and has stood nobly up to
     its terrible work in spite of its long disheartening list of
     hard-fought failures. ... Copperheads are palsied and dumb for the
     moment at least. ... Government is strengthened four-fold at home
     and abroad.

     —George Templeton Strong, Diary, p. 330.

   "The Harvest of Death": Union dead on the battlefield at Gettysburg,
   Pennsylvania, photographed July 5 or July 6, 1863, by Timothy H.
   O'Sullivan.
   Enlarge
   "The Harvest of Death": Union dead on the battlefield at Gettysburg,
   Pennsylvania, photographed July 5 or July 6, 1863, by Timothy H.
   O'Sullivan.

   The Confederates had lost politically as well as militarily. During the
   final hours of the battle, Confederate vice president Alexander
   Stephens was approaching the Union lines at Norfolk, Virginia, under a
   flag of truce. Although his formal instructions from Confederate
   President Jefferson Davis had limited his powers to negotiations on
   prisoner exchanges and other procedural matters, historian James M.
   McPherson speculates that he had informal goals of presenting peace
   overtures. Davis had hoped that Stephens would reach Washington from
   the south while Lee's victorious army was marching toward it from the
   north. President Lincoln, upon hearing of the Gettysburg results,
   refused Stephens's request to pass through the lines. Furthermore, when
   the news reached London, any lingering hopes of European recognition of
   the Confederacy were finally abandoned. Henry Adams wrote, "The
   disasters of the rebels are unredeemed by even any hope of success. It
   is now conceded that all idea of intervention is at an end."

   The armies would move on, but Gettysburg had much cleaning up to do.
   The two armies had suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties. Union
   casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or
   missing). Confederate casualties are difficult to estimate exactly.
   Many authors cite 28,000 overall casualties, but Busey and Martin's
   definitive 2005 work, Regimental Strengths and Losses, documents 22,231
   (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing). The
   casualties for both sides during the entire campaign were 57,225. There
   was one documented civilian death during the battle: Ginnie Wade, 20
   years old, shot by a stray bullet that passed through her kitchen in
   town while she was making bread.

   More than 7,000 soldiers had been killed outright; these bodies, lying
   in the hot summer sun, needed to be buried quickly. Over 3,000 horse
   carcasses were burned in a series of piles south of town; townsfolk
   became violently ill from the stench. Pennsylvania and New York state
   militia patrolled the Gettysburg battlefield and secured as much of the
   remaining military property as possible, often arresting souvenir
   hunters and forcing them to assist in the disposal of the dead horses.
   The ravages of war would still be evident in Gettysburg more than four
   months later when, on November 19, the Soldiers' National Cemetery was
   dedicated. During this ceremony, President Abraham Lincoln with his
   Gettysburg Address would re-dedicate the nation to the war effort and
   to the ideal that no soldier at Gettysburg—North or South—had died in
   vain.

   Today, the Gettysburg National Cemetery and Gettysburg National
   Military Park are maintained by the U.S. National Park Service as two
   of the nation's most revered historical landmarks.

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