Gettysburg Turning Point

The Battle of Gettysburg was the largest and the bloodiest battle fought in the Civil War. It is regarded as one of the most famous battle of the war. From July 1st to July 3rd 1863 the Battle of Gettysburg occurred between the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. It lasted three days and resulted in more than 50,000 casualties. The Confederate Army was led by Robert E Lee, while George Meade commanded the Union. The battle was a result of Lee’s second invasion of the Union. Both armies used many different weapons and battle tactics. The battle would determine the future of the Country. The battle had significant effects on both the South and the North making the Battle of Gettysburg the turning point in

Hill’s third Corps to charge into Gettysburg. Their first hostile encounter was at Willoughby’s Run, three miles west of Gettysburg. Initially they thought they were battling Pennsylvanian Militia. Unfortunately the resistance was actually a part of a more skilled brigade of Union cavalry. The cavalry slowed Hill’s division for some time before retreating. The Confederates followed and met a line of Union infantry on MacPherson’s Ridge. The Union forces arrived in waves. The first infantry to reach Gettysburg was a brigade of Western regiments. Union Major General John Reynolds took command upon his arrival in Gettysburg. Reynolds was killed during the

On July 4th Lee started a 27 mile long hospital wagon train down the road to Virginia. They stopped at the flooded banks of the Potomac River and dug in for another battle, but Meade did not pursue Lee because his men were also battered, exhausted and low on ammunition. The Union Army had 23,000 casualties. The Confederate Army suffered between 23,000 to 28,000 casualties. Throughout the entire battle there was only one civilian killed. After the battle Lee offered his resignation to the Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis refused to accept his resignation and Lee remained in command for the remainder of the war. On November 19, 1863 Abraham Lincoln gave his now famous Gettysburg Address. The Confederates never fully recovered from the defeat at Gettysburg. Lee admitted that the decision to charge Cemetery Ridge and the defeat at Gettysburg was entirely his fault. In three day’s time the Confederate Army went from full confidence from the victory at Chancellorsville and having a great commander to being a badly weakened. They could not recover from the casualties sustained and did not go on another offensive campaign for the rest of the