Patterson, Angela
History 1301
Gooding, M.
October 12, 2017
Charles Reed at Gettysburg
In this source analysis paper, I will be exploring the battle of Gettysburg. This clash between the Union armies and the Confederate armies would happen over three hot summer days in July 1863, would be a critical turning point in the American Civil War. This battle was fought from July first through the third and it would have staggering casualties for both sides with the Union losing some twenty-three thousand deaths and the Rebels losing some twenty-eight thousand soldiers. General Robert E. Lee would lead his second advancement into the north to a small market town named Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to search for more supplies. Only to find out that General George G. Meade and his
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Charles Reed was a Bugler with the 9th Mass Light Artillery for the union. In the thirteen pages, he tells us in great detail how the fighting happened for three days. In one part, he quotes General Humphries " one shell killed and disabled thirty men out of thirty-five in one company.". Reed write of the different vantage points that both sides would fight for advancing or losing ground to the other side. The secondary source that I chose to use was Histoy.com. The article that I read breaks the battle of Gettysburg down for each of the three days. Day one was the day that Lee and his army arrived and the confederates where able to drive the outnumbered Union defenders back through town to Cemetery Hill. By night fall, a Union corps had arrived and extended the defensive line along Cemetery Ridge to the hill known as Little Round Top; three more Union corps arrived during the night to strengthen its defenses. As the next day dawned, the Union Army had established strong positions from Culp’s Hill to Cemetery Ridge. Lee would dismiss advice to attack the Union where they were but, would instead ordered