War Turning Point

The American Civil War has the greatest death toll over any other war in the United State’s history. The Civil War had over 750,000 causalities during four bloody years, with the Battle of Gettysburg, a three-day battle, contributing 50,000 of those fatalities (Gugliotta 2012, p. D1). These battles were bloody, dirty, uncompassionate, and unforgiving. The Union fought the Confederacy for four years, trying to restore the country back to one piece, and diminish slavery from the United States (Rugemer 2009, p.58). One of the most well known pieces of the war, The Battle of Gettysburg, was one of these arduous battles. It was considered the turning point of the Civil War, not only because of the amount of militia that was killed, but because it

President Lincoln held a national conference (Rugemer 2009, p, 68). This refusal set off a fuse of anger in the North. Historian, Allan Nevins (1953), says that the South’s refusal to surrender Fort Sumter had the Union feeling passionately angry, feeling, “Anger that swept the land. From every side came news of mass meetings, speeches, resolutions, tenders of business support, the muster of companies and regiments, the determined action of governors and legislatures.” This anger and discontent that the Union felt, ultimately lead Lincoln to send troops below the Mason-Dixon line to take back Fort Sumter, as well as other forts. Once the Union arrived down in Charleston, where Fort Sumter is located, the battle commenced. The Confederacy ended up winning and keeping the fort, but this battle was the official start of the American Civil War (Rugemer 2009,

The Confederacy has won battles, as well as the Union, but both have made minimal progress. It is May 1863 and the Confederacy does have an upper hand in the fact that they just beat the Union in Chancellorsville. The Union had failed to take over Chancellorsville and decided to retreat back up north (Norton 2001, p.15). Meantime, General Lee began heading up to the north. They headed up to Virginia and through Western Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania was mostly farmland, and General Lee saw that to his advantage. General Lee purposefully went through that area because he wanted to collect supplies from the farms there. General Lee’s goal, as well as the Confederacy’s goal, was to weaken the Union, not only in numbers, but emotionally as well. Stealing supplies was just another tactic of the Rebels. On the other side of things, the Union was recovering from their loss in Chancellorsville (p16). They retreated back above the Mason-Dixon line; they soon heard that General Lee and his army were heading up to Pennsylvania. In order to protect Washington D.C., General Meade, a Union general, set his army between the Confederates and the capitol. General Lee marched up to and surrounded Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on July 1st, 1863, just one month after the battle of Chancellorsville (Gettysburg