How Did The Battle Of Gettysburg Affect The Civil War

Effects Gettysburg had on the Civil War

The Battle of Gettysburg was one of the most important wars of the Civil War. Lasting from July 1st to July 3rd in 1863, the battle of Gettysburg began as just a skirmish between two scout groups, one from the Union, one from the Confederacy. General Robert E. Lee led his Confederate army up into Pennsylvania after a huge winning streak. He was met by General George Meade who followed him from the south. Their convergence point was at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This Battle between one of the most prestigious confederate armies and a well-trained, well equipped, Union army would prove to be one of the most important battles of the American Civil War. The effects this battle had on the overall war were detrimental

It is often argued that General Meade made a huge mistake by not pursuing Lee’s army in an attempt to finish them completely. With the moral of Lee and his men at an all-time low, and exhausted after fighting in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, why would Meade not attack? Meade had won the battle of Gettysburg, but in doing so he had lost around 20,000 troops. Which was very close to the amount of troops Lee had lost. The only difference was Meade had a larger infantry so his losses were not as devastating. Gettysburg had done both armies in. Meade needed time to account for his losses and clean up the mess at Gettysburg. He also had strategic reasons for not pursuing Lee after the battle. Meade knew that Lee had sometimes performed fake retreats in order to swing around the back of his opponent’s army and attack from all sides. Meade knew if he did this he would surely be decimated by his opponents. So he barred up his defenses, and waited in case of another attack. An attack that General Lee would not

Lee. He had high hopes for the invasion as it was his second planned invasion of the North. General Lee attempted to resign from his position completely but was stopped. The Confederate president would not let him quit as a general. Instead he was assigned to a defensive hold in the South. During the Battle of Gettysburg, General Lee lost a vast majority of his high ranking field officers. This made it more difficult for the South to fight the rest of the war because there was not as much authority on the battle field. His infantries also had to be more condensed from that point on. This went against Lee’s war tactics, he preferred to have a number of infantries that were separated and attacked various points on an opponent’s