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Battle of Gettysburg

February 07, 2023

For other uses, see Battle of Gettysburg (disambiguation).

The Battle of Gettysburg (locally /ˈɡɛtɪsbɜːrɡ/ (listen))[11] was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, halting Lee's invasion of the North. The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war's turning point due to the Union's decisive victory and concurrence with the Siege of Vicksburg.[12][13]

Battle of Gettysburg
Part of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War

The Battle of Gettysburg by Thure de Thulstrup
DateJuly 1–3, 1863
Location
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
39°48′41″N 77°13′33″W / 39.81139°N 77.22583°W / 39.81139; -77.22583
Result Union victory[1]
Belligerents
United States (Union) Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
George G. Meade Robert E. Lee
Units involved
Army of the Potomac[2] Army of Northern Virginia[3]
Strength
104,256[4][5]
360 artillery pieces
36 cavalry regiments		 71,000–75,000[6]
270 artillery pieces
9,500 cavalry
Both sides combined: 80,000 horses
Casualties and losses
23,049[7][8] 23,000–28,000[9][10]
Both sides combined: 3,000–5,000 horses killed
The Battlefield of Gettysburg, 1863

After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863, Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley to begin his second invasion of the North—the Gettysburg Campaign. With his army in high spirits, Lee intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war-ravaged northern Virginia and hoped to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war by penetrating as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even Philadelphia. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Major General Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved of command just three days before the battle and replaced by Meade.

Elements of the two armies initially collided at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there, his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it. Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brigadier General John Buford, and 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 the town to the hills just to the south.[14] On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon of July 2, 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, Confederate demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. All across the battlefield, despite significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines.

On the third day of battle, 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 center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge. The charge was repelled by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great loss to the Confederate army.[15] Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle, the most costly in US history. On November 19, President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor the fallen Union soldiers and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.

Background

Military situation

Main articles: Gettysburg campaign and Gettysburg Battlefield
Further information: Battle of Chancellorsville, Eastern theater of the American Civil War, and American Civil War
 
Gettysburg Campaign (through July 3) with cavalry movements shown with dashed lines
  Confederate
  Union
 
This 1863 oval-shaped map depicts the Gettysburg Battlefield during July 1–3, 1863, showing troop and artillery positions and movements, relief hachures, drainage, roads, railroads, and houses with the names of residents at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg.
 
This November 1862 Harper's Magazine illustration shows Confederate Army troops escorting captured African American civilians south into slavery. En route to Gettysburg, the Army of Northern Virginia kidnapped approximately 40 black civilians and sent them south into slavery.[16][17][18]

Shortly after the Army of Northern Virginia won a major victory over the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30 – May 6, 1863), General Robert E. Lee decided upon a second invasion of the North (the first was the unsuccessful Maryland campaign of September 1862, which ended in the bloody Battle of Antietam). Such a move would upset the Union's plans for the summer campaigning season and possibly reduce the pressure on the besieged Confederate garrison at Vicksburg. The invasion 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[6] could threaten Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and possibly strengthen the growing peace movement in the North.[19]

Initial movements to battle

Thus, on June 3, Lee's army began to shift northward from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Following the death of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Lee reorganized his two large corps into three new corps, commanded by Lieutenant General James Longstreet (First Corps), Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell (Second), and Lieutenant General A.P. Hill (Third); both Ewell and Hill, who had formerly reported to Jackson as division commanders, were new to this level of responsibility. The cavalry division remained under the command of Major General J.E.B. Stuart.[20]

The Union Army of the Potomac under Major General Joseph Hooker consisted of seven infantry corps, a cavalry corps, and an artillery reserve, for a combined strength of more than 100,000 men.[5]

The first major action of the campaign took place on June 9 between cavalry forces at Brandy Station, near Culpeper, Virginia. The 9,500 Confederate cavalrymen under Stuart were surprised by Major General Alfred Pleasonton's combined arms force of two cavalry divisions (8,000 troopers) and 3,000 infantry, but Stuart eventually repelled the Union attack. The inconclusive battle, the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the war, proved for the first time that the Union horse soldier was equal to his Southern counterpart.[21]

By mid-June, the Army of Northern Virginia was poised to cross the Potomac River and enter Maryland. After defeating the Union 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 25. Hooker's army pursued, keeping between Washington, D.C. and Lee's army. The Union army crossed the Potomac from June 25 to 27.[22]

Lee gave strict orders for his army to minimize any negative effects on the civilian population.[23] Food, horses, and other supplies were generally not seized outright, although quartermasters reimbursing Northern farmers and merchants with 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. During the invasion, the Confederates seized some 1,000 northern African Americans. A few of them were escaped fugitive slaves, but most were freemen; all were sent south into slavery under guard.[16][17][18][24]

On June 26, elements of Major General 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.[25]

Meanwhile, in a controversial move, Lee allowed 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 mi (45 km) northwest of Gettysburg) to Carlisle (30 mi (48 km) north of Gettysburg) to near Harrisburg and Wrightsville on the Susquehanna River.[26]

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 rid themselves of him, immediately accepted. They replaced Hooker early on the morning of June 28 with Major General George Gordon Meade, then commander of the V Corps.[27]

On June 29, when Lee learned that the Army of the Potomac had crossed the Potomac River, he ordered a concentration of his forces around Cashtown, located at the eastern base of South Mountain and eight mi (13 km) west of Gettysburg.[28] On June 30, while part of Hill's corps was in Cashtown, one of Hill's brigades (North Carolinians under Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew) ventured toward Gettysburg. In his memoirs, Major General Henry Heth, Pettigrew's division commander, claimed that he sent Pettigrew to search for supplies in town—especially shoes.[29]

When Pettigrew's troops approached Gettysburg on June 30, they noticed Union cavalry under Major General John Buford arriving south of town, and Pettigrew returned to Cashtown without engaging them. When Pettigrew told Hill and Heth what he had seen, neither general believed that there was a substantial Union force in or near the town, suspecting that it had been only Pennsylvania militia. Despite 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.[30]

Opposing forces

Union

Senior commanders of the Army of the Potomac
Further information: Gettysburg Union order of battle

The Army of the Potomac, initially under Hooker (Meade replaced Hooker in command on June 28), consisted of more than 100,000 men in the following organization:[31]

During the advance on Gettysburg, Reynolds was in operational command of the left, or advanced, wing of the Army, consisting of the I, III, and XI Corps.[32] Note that many other Union units (not part of the Army of the Potomac) were actively involved in the Gettysburg Campaign, but not directly involved in the Battle of Gettysburg. These included portions of the Union IV Corps, the militia and state troops of the Department of the Susquehanna, and various garrisons, including that at Harpers Ferry.

Confederate

Senior commanders of the Army of Northern Virginia
Further information: Confederate order of battle

In reaction to the death of Jackson after Chancellorsville, Lee reorganized his Army of Northern Virginia (75,000 men) from two infantry corps into three.[33]

First day of battle

Further information: Battle of Gettysburg, first day
 
Overview map of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg

Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge

 
Marker commemorating the first shot fired at the Battle of Gettysburg at 7:30 am on July 1, 1863, by Lt. Marcellus Jones

Anticipating that the Confederates would march on Gettysburg from the west on the morning of July 1, Buford laid out his defenses on three ridges west of the town: Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge. These were appropriate terrain for a delaying action by his small cavalry 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 at Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and Culp's Hill. Buford understood that if the Confederates could gain control of these heights, Meade's army would have difficulty dislodging them.[34]

Heth's division advanced with two brigades forward, commanded by brigadier generals James J. Archer and Joseph R. Davis. They proceeded easterly in columns along the Chambersburg Pike. Three mi (5 km) west of town, about 7:30 a.m. on July 1, the two brigades met light resistance from vedettes of Union cavalry, and deployed into line. According to lore, the Union soldier to fire the first shot of the battle was Lt. Marcellus Jones.[35] Lt. Jones later returned to Gettysburg, in 1886 erecting a monument marking the spot where he fired the first shot.[36] Eventually Heth's men encountered dismounted troopers of Col. William Gamble's cavalry brigade. The dismounted troopers resisted stoutly, delaying the Confederate advance by firing their breechloading carbines from behind fences and trees.[37] Still, by 10:20 a.m., the Confederates had pushed the Union cavalrymen east to McPherson Ridge, when the vanguard of the I Corps (Major General John F. Reynolds) finally arrived.[38]

North of the pike, Davis gained a temporary success against Brigadier General Lysander Cutler's brigade but was repelled 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 known as McPherson's) Woods. The Union Iron Brigade under Brigadier General Solomon Meredith enjoyed initial success against Archer, capturing several hundred men, including Archer himself.[39]

General Reynolds was shot and killed early in the fighting while directing troop and artillery placements just to the east of the woods. Shelby Foote wrote that the Union cause lost a man considered by many to be "the best general in the army."[40] Major General 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.[41]

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 had about 152 men standing, the highest casualty percentage for one battle of any regiment, North or South.[42] Slowly the Iron Brigade was pushed out of the woods toward Seminary Ridge. Hill added Major General 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.[43]

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 (Major General Oliver O. Howard) raced north on the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road. By early afternoon, the Union line ran in a semicircle west, north, and northeast of Gettysburg.[44]

However, the Union did not have enough troops; Cutler, whose brigade 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.[45]

Around 2 p.m., the Confederate 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 Confederate brigades of Colonel Edward A. O'Neal and Brigadier General Alfred Iverson suffered severe losses assaulting the I Corps division of Brigadier General John C. Robinson south of Oak Hill. Early's division profited from a blunder by Brigadier General 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[46] in the corps line, susceptible to attack from multiple sides, and Early's troops overran Barlow's division, which constituted the right flank of the Union Army's position. Barlow was wounded and captured in the attack.[47]

As Union positions collapsed both north and west of town, Howard ordered a retreat to the high ground south of town at Cemetery Hill, where he had left the division of Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr in reserve.[48] Major General Winfield S. Hancock assumed command of the battlefield, sent by Meade when he heard that Reynolds had been killed. Hancock, commander of the II Corps and Meade's most trusted subordinate, was ordered to take command of the field and to determine whether Gettysburg was an appropriate place for a major battle.[49] Hancock told Howard, "I think this the strongest position by nature upon which to fight a battle that I ever saw." When Howard agreed, Hancock concluded the discussion: "Very well, sir, I select this as the battle-field." Hancock's determination had a morale-boosting effect on the retreating Union soldiers, but he played no direct tactical role on the first day.[50]

General 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, who had previously served under Stonewall Jackson, a general well known for issuing peremptory orders, determined such an assault was not practicable and, thus, did not attempt it; this decision is considered by historians to be a great missed opportunity.[51]

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.[52]

Second day of battle

Further information: Battle of Gettysburg, second day; Little Round Top; Culp's Hill; and Cemetery Hill
 
Robert E. Lee's plan for July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg

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. Two of Longstreet's divisions were on the road: Brigarier General George Pickett, had begun the 22 mile (35 km) march from Chambersburg, while Brigadier General Evander M. Law had begun the march from Guilford. Both arrived late in the morning. Law completed his 28-mile (45 km) march in eleven hours.[53]

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 mi (3 km) along Cemetery Ridge, terminating just north of Little Round Top.[54] 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.[55][56]

The Confederate line paralleled the Union line about a mile (1,600 m) to the west on Seminary Ridge, ran east through the town, then curved southeast to a point opposite Culp's Hill. Thus, the Union army had interior lines, while the Confederate line was nearly five mi (8 km) long.[57]

Lee's battle plan for July 2 called for a general assault of Meade's positions. On the right, Longstreet's First Corps was to position itself to attack the Union left flank, facing northeast astraddle the Emmitsburg Road, and to roll up the Union line. The attack sequence was to begin with Maj. Gens. John Bell Hood's and Lafayette McLaws's divisions, followed by Major General Richard H. Anderson's division of Hill's Third Corps.[58]

On the left, Lee instructed Ewell to position his Second Corps to attack Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill when he heard the gunfire from Longstreet's assault, preventing Meade from shifting troops to bolster his left. Though it does not appear in either his or Lee's Official Report, Ewell claimed years later that Lee had changed the order to simultaneously attack, calling for only a "diversion", to be turned into a full-scale attack if a favorable opportunity presented itself.[59][60]

Lee's plan, however, was based on faulty intelligence, exacerbated by Stuart's continued absence from the battlefield. Though Lee personally reconnoitered his left during the morning, he did not visit Longstreet's position on the Confederate right. Even so, Lee rejected suggestions that Longstreet move beyond Meade's left and attack the Union flank, capturing the supply trains and effectively blocking Meade's escape route.[61]

Lee did not issue orders for the attack until 11:00 a.m.[58] About noon, General Anderson's advancing troops were discovered by General Sickles's outpost guard and the Third Corps—upon which Longstreet's First Corps was to form—did not get into position until 1:00 p.m.[62]

Hood and McLaws, after their long march, were not yet in position and did not launch their attacks until just after 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.[63]

Attacks on the Union left flank

 
Overview map of the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863

As Longstreet's left division, under Major General Lafayette McLaws, advanced, they unexpectedly found Major General Daniel Sickles's III Corps directly in their path. Sickles had been dissatisfied with the position assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge. Seeing ground better suited for artillery positions a half mile (800 m) to the west—centered at the Sherfy farm's Peach Orchard—he violated orders and advanced his corp to the slightly higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road, moving away from Cemetery Ridge. The new line ran from Devil's Den, northwest to the Peach Orchard, then northeast along the Emmitsburg Road to south of the Codori farm. This created an untenable salient at the Peach Orchard; Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys's division (in position along the Emmitsburg Road) and Major General 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.[64] The Confederate artillery was ordered to open fire at 3:00 p.m.[65] After failing to attend a meeting at this time of Meade's corps commanders, Meade rode to Sickles's position and demanded an explanation of the situation. Knowing a Confederate attack was imminent and a retreat would be endangered, Meade refused Sickles' offer to withdraw.[66]

Meade was forced to send 20,000 reinforcements:[67] the entire V Corps, Brigadier General John C. Caldwell's division of the II Corps, most of the XII Corps, and portions of the newly arrived VI Corps. Hood's division moved more to the east than intended, losing its alignment with the Emmitsburg Road,[68] 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, coming from McLaws's left and starting forward around 6 p.m., reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge, but could not hold the position in the face of counterattacks from the II Corps, including an almost suicidal bayonet charge by the 1st Minnesota regiment against a Confederate brigade, ordered in desperation by Hancock to buy time for reinforcements to arrive.[69]

As fighting raged in the Wheatfield and Devil's Den, Colonel 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 Law's brigade of Hood's division. Meade's chief engineer, Brigadier General Gouverneur 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, ordered by Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain but possibly led by Lieutenant Holman S. Melcher, was one of the most fabled episodes in the Civil War and propelled Chamberlain into prominence after the war.[70][71]

Attacks on the Union right flank

Ewell interpreted his orders as calling only for a cannonade.[60] His 32 guns, along with A. P. Hill's 55 guns, engaged in a two-hour artillery barrage at extreme range that had little effect. Finally, about six o'clock, Ewell sent orders to each of his division commanders to attack the Union lines in his front.[citation needed]

Major General Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's Division had contemplated an assault on Culp's Hill, but they were still a mile away and had Rock Creek to cross. The few possible crossings would make significant delays. Because of this, only three of Johnson's four brigades moved to the attack.[72] Most of the hill's defenders, the Union XII Corps, had been sent to the left to defend against Longstreet's attacks, leaving only a brigade of New Yorkers under Brigadier General George S. Greene behind strong, newly constructed defensive works. With reinforcements from the I and XI Corps, Greene's men held off the Confederate attackers, though giving up some of the lower earthworks on the lower part of Culp's Hill.[73]

Early was similarly unprepared when he ordered Harry T. Hays's and Isaac E. Avery's brigades to attack the Union XI Corps positions on East Cemetery Hill. Once started, fighting was fierce: Colonel Andrew L. Harris of the Union 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, came under a withering attack, losing half his men. Avery was wounded early on, but the Confederates reached the crest of the hill and entered the Union breastworks, capturing one or two batteries. Seeing he was not supported on his right, Hays withdrew. His right was to be supported by Robert E. Rodes's Division, but Rodes—like Early and Johnson—had not been ordered up in preparation for the attack. He had twice as far to travel as Early; by the time he came in contact with the Union skirmish line, Early's troops had already begun to withdraw.[74]

Jeb Stuart and his three cavalry brigades arrived in Gettysburg around noon but had no role in the second day's battle. Brigadier General Wade Hampton's brigade fought a minor engagement with newly promoted 23-year-old Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer's Michigan cavalry near Hunterstown to the northeast of Gettysburg.[75]

Third day of battle

Further information: Culp's Hill; Pickett's Charge; and Battle of Gettysburg, third day cavalry battles
 
Overview map of the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863
 
The high water mark on Cemetery Ridge with the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument commemorating the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment at right and the Copse of Trees to the left, August 2005

Lee's plan

Lee wished to renew the attack on Friday, July 3, using the same basic plan as the previous day: Longstreet would attack the Union left, while Ewell attacked Culp's Hill.[76] 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. Harry Pfanz judged that, after some seven hours of bitter combat, "the Union line was intact and held more strongly than before."[77]

Lee was forced to change his plans. Longstreet would command Pickett's Virginia division of his own First Corps, plus six brigades from Hill's Corps, in an attack on the Union II Corps position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Prior to the attack, all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the Union positions would bombard and weaken the enemy's line.[78]

Much has been made over the years of General Longstreet's objections to General Lee's plan. In his memoirs, Longstreet described their discussion as follows:

[Lee] rode over after sunrise and gave his orders. His plan was to assault the enemy's left centre by a column to be composed of McLaws's and Hood's divisions reinforced by Pickett's brigades. I thought that it would not do; that the point had been fully tested the day before, by more men, when all were fresh; that the enemy was there looking for us, as we heard him during the night putting up his defences; that the divisions of McLaws and Hood were holding a mile [1,600 m] along the right of my line against twenty thousand men, who would follow their withdrawal, strike the flank of the assaulting column, crush it, and get on our rear towards the Potomac River; that thirty thousand men was the minimum of force necessary for the work; that even such force would need close co-operation on other parts of the line; that the column as he proposed to organize it would have only about thirteen thousand men (the divisions having lost a third of their numbers the day before); that the column would have to march a mile [1,600 m] under concentrating battery fire, and a thousand yards [900 m] under long-range musketry; that the conditions were different from those in the days of Napoleon, when field batteries had a range of six hundred yards [550 m] and musketry about sixty yards [55 m]. He said the distance was not more than fourteen hundred yards [1280 m]. General Meade's estimate was a mile or a mile and a half [1.6 or 2.4 km] (Captain Long, the guide of the field of Gettysburg in 1888, stated that it was a trifle over a mile). He then concluded that the divisions of McLaws and Hood could remain on the defensive line; that he would reinforce by divisions of the Third Corps and Pickett's brigades, and stated the point to which the march should be directed. I asked the strength of the column. He stated fifteen thousand. Opinion was then expressed that the fifteen thousand men who could make successful assault over that field had never been arrayed for battle; but he was impatient of listening, and tired of talking, and nothing was left but to proceed.[79]

Largest artillery bombardment of the war

Around 1 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 would follow, the Army of the Potomac's artillery, under the command of Brigadier General Henry Jackson Hunt, at first did not return the enemy's fire. After waiting about 15 minutes, about 80 Union cannons opened fire. The Army of Northern Virginia was critically low on artillery ammunition, and the cannonade did not significantly affect the Union position.[80]

Pickett's Charge

Around 3 p.m., the cannon fire subsided, and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the three-quarters of a mile (1,200 m) to Cemetery Ridge in what is known to history as "Pickett's Charge". As the Confederates approached, there was fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top, and musket and canister fire from Hancock's II Corps. In the Union center, the commander of artillery had held fire during the Confederate bombardment (in order to save it for the infantry assault, which Meade had correctly predicted the day before), leading Southern commanders to believe the Northern cannon batteries had been knocked out. However, they opened fire on the Confederate infantry during their approach with devastating results. Nearly one half of the attackers did not return to their own lines.[81]

Although the Union line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the "Angle" in a low stone fence, just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees, reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was repelled. The farthest advance, by Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead's brigade of Pickett's division at the Angle, is referred to as the "high-water mark of the Confederacy".[82] Union and Confederate soldiers locked in hand-to-hand combat, attacking with their rifles, bayonets, rocks and even their bare hands. Armistead ordered his Confederates to turn two captured cannons against Union troops, but discovered that there was no ammunition left, the last double canister shots having been used against the charging Confederates. Armistead was wounded shortly afterward three times.

Cavalry battles

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 Union right and hitting their trains and lines of communications. Three mi (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 Union cavalry: Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg's division and 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 Union rear.[83]

Meanwhile, after hearing news of the day's victory, Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick launched a cavalry attack against the infantry positions of Longstreet's Corps southwest of Big Round Top. Brigadier General 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.[84]

Aftermath

Casualties

 
"The Harvest of Death": Union dead on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, photographed July 5 or July 6, 1863, by Timothy H. O'Sullivan
 
John L. Burns, veteran of the War of 1812, civilian who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg with Union troops, standing with bayoneted musket. Mathew Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries, photographer. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

The two armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties, nearly one third of all total troops engaged, 28% of the Army of the Potomac and 37% of the Army of Northern Virginia.[85] Union casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing),[8] while Confederate casualties are more difficult to estimate. Many authors have referred to as many as 28,000 Confederate casualties,[86] and Busey and Martin's more recent 2005 work, Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, documents 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing).[9] Nearly a third of Lee's general officers were killed, wounded, or captured.[87] The casualties for both sides during the entire campaign were 57,225.[88]

Other losses include 3,000-5,000 equines killed.[89] Confederates lost over 31-55 battle flags, with the Union possibly having slightly lost less than 40.[90]

In addition to being the deadliest battle of the war, Gettysburg also had the highest number of generals killed in action. The Confederacy lost generals Paul Jones Semmes, William Barksdale, William Dorsey Pender, Richard Garnett, and Lewis Armistead, as well as J. Johnston Pettigrew during the retreat after the battle. The Union lost Generals John Reynolds, Samuel K. Zook, Stephen H. Weed, and Elon J. Farnsworth, as well as Strong Vincent, who after being mortally wounded was given a deathbed promotion to brigadier general. Additional senior officer casualties included the wounding of Union Generals Dan Sickles (lost a leg), Francis C. Barlow, Daniel Butterfield, and Winfield Scott Hancock. For the Confederacy, Major General John Bell Hood lost the use of his left arm, while Major General Henry Heth received a shot to the head on the first day of battle (though incapacitated for the rest of the battle, he remarkably survived without long-term injuries, credited in part due to his hat stuffed full of paper dispatches). Confederate Generals James L. Kemper and Isaac R. Trimble were severely wounded during Pickett's charge and captured during the Confederate retreat. General James J. Archer, in command of a brigade that most likely was responsible for killing Reynolds, was taken prisoner shortly after Reynolds' death.[91]

The following tables summarize casualties by corps for the Union and Confederate forces during the three-day battle.[92]

Union Corps Casualties (k/w/m)
I Corps 6059 (666/3231/2162)
II Corps 4369 (797/3194/378)
III Corps 4211 (593/3029/589)
V Corps 2187 (365/1611/211)
VI Corps 242 (27/185/30)
XI Corps 3801 (369/1922/1510)
XII Corps 1082 (204/812/66)
Cavalry Corps 852 (91/354/407)
Artillery Reserve 242 (43/187/12)
Confederate Corps Casualties (k/w/m)
First Corps 7665 (1617/4205/1843)
Second Corps 6686 (1301/3629/1756)
Third Corps 8495 (1724/4683/2088)
Cavalry Corps 380 (66/174/140)

Bruce Catton wrote, "The town of Gettysburg looked as if some universal moving day had been interrupted by catastrophe."[93] But there was only one documented civilian death during the battle: Ginnie Wade (also widely known as Jennie), 20 years old, was hit by a stray bullet that passed through her kitchen in town while she was making bread.[94] Another notable civilian casualty was John L. Burns, a 69-year old veteran of the War of 1812 who walked to the front lines on the first day of battle and participated in heavy combat as a volunteer, receiving numerous wounds in the process. Despite his age and injuries, Burns survived the battle and lived until 1872.[95] Nearly 8,000 had been killed outright; these bodies, lying in the hot summer sun, needed to be buried quickly. Over 3,000 horse carcasses[96] were burned in a series of piles south of town; townsfolk became violently ill from the stench.[97] Meanwhile, the town of Gettysburg, with its population of just 2,400, found itself tasked with taking care of 14,000 wounded Union troops and an additional 8,000 Confederate prisoners.[98]

Confederate retreat

Further information: Retreat from Gettysburg
 
Gettysburg Campaign (July 5 – July 14, 1863)

The armies stared at one another in a heavy rain across the bloody fields on July 4, the same day that, some 900 miles (1,500 km) away, the Vicksburg garrison surrendered to Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee had reformed his lines into a defensive position on Seminary Ridge the night of July 3, evacuating the town of Gettysburg. The Confederates remained on the battlefield, hoping that Meade would attack, but the cautious Union commander decided against the risk, a decision for which he would later be criticized. 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.[99]

Lee started his Army of Northern Virginia in motion late the evening of July 4 towards Fairfield and Chambersburg. Cavalry under Brigadier General John D. Imboden was entrusted to escort the miles-long wagon train of supplies and wounded men that Lee wanted to take back to Virginia with him, using the route through Cashtown and Hagerstown to Williamsport, Maryland. Meade's army followed, although the pursuit was half-spirited. The recently rain-swollen Potomac trapped Lee's army on the north bank of the river for a time, but when the Union troops finally caught up, the Confederates had forded the river. The rear-guard action at Falling Waters on July 14 added some more names to the long casualty lists, including General Pettigrew, who was mortally wounded.[100] General James L. Kemper, severely wounded during Pickett's charge, was captured during Lee's retreat.[101]

In a brief letter to Major General Henry W. Halleck written on July 7, Lincoln remarked on the two major Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. He continued:

Now, if General Meade can complete his work so gloriously prosecuted thus far, by the literal or substantial destruction of Lee's army, the rebellion will be over.[102]

Halleck then relayed the contents of Lincoln's letter to Meade in a telegram. However, the Army of the Potomac was exhausted by days of fighting and heavy losses. Furthermore, Meade was forced to detach 4,000 troops north to suppress the New York City Draft Riots,[103] further reducing the effectiveness of his pursuit. Despite repeated pleas from Lincoln and Halleck, which continued over the next week, Meade did not pursue Lee's army aggressively enough to destroy it before it crossed back over the Potomac River to safety in the South. The campaign continued into Virginia with light engagements until July 23, in the minor Battle of Manassas Gap, after which Meade abandoned any attempts at pursuit and the two armies took up positions across from each other on the Rappahannock River.[104]

Union reaction to the news of the victory

The news of the Union victory electrified the North. A headline in The Philadelphia Inquirer proclaimed "VICTORY! WATERLOO ECLIPSED!" New York diarist George Templeton Strong wrote:[105]

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.

However, the Union enthusiasm soon dissipated as the public realized that Lee's army had escaped destruction and the war would continue. Lincoln complained to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that "Our army held the war in the hollow of their hand and they would not close it!"[106] Brigadier General Alexander S. Webb wrote to his father on July 17, stating that such Washington politicians as "Chase, Seward and others," disgusted with Meade, "write to me that Lee really won that Battle!"[107]

Effect on the Confederacy

In fact, the Confederates had lost militarily and also politically. 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 negotiate 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, whose father was serving as the U.S ambassador to the United Kingdom at the time, 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."[108]

Compounding the effects of the defeat was the end of the Siege of Vicksburg, which surrendered to Grant's Federal armies in the West on July 4, the day after the Gettysburg battle, costing the Confederacy an additional 30,000 men, along with all their arms and stores.[109]

The immediate reaction of the Southern military and public sectors was that Gettysburg was a setback, not a disaster. The sentiment was that Lee had been successful on July 1 and had fought a valiant battle on July 2–3, but could not dislodge the Union Army from the strong defensive position to which it fled. The Confederates successfully stood their ground on July 4 and withdrew only after they realized Meade would not attack them. The withdrawal to the Potomac that could have been a disaster was handled masterfully. Furthermore, the Army of the Potomac had been kept away from Virginia farmlands for the summer and all predicted that Meade would be too timid to threaten them for the rest of the year. Lee himself had a positive view of the campaign, writing to his wife that the army had returned "rather sooner than I had originally contemplated, but having accomplished what I proposed on leaving the Rappahannock, viz., relieving the Valley of the presence of the enemy and drawing his Army north of the Potomac." He was quoted as saying to Maj. John Seddon, brother of the Confederate secretary of war, "Sir, we did whip them at Gettysburg, and it will be seen for the next six months that that army will be as quiet as a sucking dove." Some Southern publications, such as the Charleston Mercury, were critical of Lee's actions. On August 8, Lee offered his resignation to President Davis, who quickly rejected it.[110]

Gettysburg became a postbellum focus of the "Lost Cause", a movement by writers such as Edward A. Pollard and Jubal Early to explain the reasons for the Confederate defeat in the war. A fundamental premise of their argument was that the South was doomed because of the overwhelming advantage in manpower and industrial might possessed by the North. They also contend that Robert E. Lee, who up until this time had been almost invincible, was betrayed by the failures of some of his key subordinates at Gettysburg: Ewell, for failing to seize Cemetery Hill on July 1; Stuart, for depriving the army of cavalry intelligence for a key part of the campaign; and especially Longstreet, for failing to attack on July 2 as early and as forcefully as Lee had originally intended. In this view, Gettysburg was seen as a great lost opportunity, in which a decisive victory by Lee could have meant the end of the war in the Confederacy's favor.[111]

After the war, General Pickett was asked why the Confederates lost at Gettysburg. He was reported to have said, "I always thought the Yankees had something to do with it."[112]

Gettysburg Address

Main article: Gettysburg Address
 
On November 19, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, considered one of the best-known speeches in American history.[113][114] A crowd of citizens and soldiers surround Lincoln (with a red arrow pointing to his location in photo).

The ravages of war were still evident in Gettysburg more than four months later when, on November 19, the Soldiers' National Cemetery was dedicated. During this ceremony, President Abraham Lincoln honored the fallen and redefined the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.[115]

Medal of Honor

Main article: List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Gettysburg Campaign

There were 72 Medals of Honor awarded for the Gettysburg Campaign. 64 of the awards were for actions taken during the battle itself, with the first recipient being awarded in December 1864. The last Medal of Honor was posthumously awarded to Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing in 2014.[116]

Historical assessment

Decisive victory controversies

The nature of the result of the Battle of Gettysburg has been the subject of controversy. Although not seen as overwhelmingly significant at the time, particularly since the war continued for almost two years, in retrospect it has often been cited as the "turning point", usually in combination with the fall of Vicksburg the following day.[13] This is based on the observation that, after Gettysburg, Lee's army conducted no more strategic offensives—his army merely reacted to the initiative of Ulysses S. Grant in 1864 and 1865—and by the speculative viewpoint of the Lost Cause writers that a Confederate victory at Gettysburg might have resulted in the end of the war.[117]

[The Army of the Potomac] had won a victory. It might be less of a victory than Mr. Lincoln had hoped for, but it was nevertheless a victory—and, because of that, it was no longer possible for the Confederacy to win the war. The North might still lose it, to be sure, if the soldiers or the people should lose heart, but outright defeat was no longer in the cards.

Bruce Catton, Glory Road[118]

It is currently a widely held view that Gettysburg was a decisive victory for the Union, but the term is considered imprecise. It is inarguable that Lee's offensive on July 3 was turned back decisively and his campaign in Pennsylvania was terminated prematurely (although the Confederates at the time argued that this was a temporary setback and that the goals of the campaign were largely met). However, when the more common definition of "decisive victory" is intended—an indisputable military victory of a battle that determines or significantly influences the ultimate result of a conflict—historians are divided. For example, David J. Eicher called Gettysburg a "strategic loss for the Confederacy" and James M. McPherson wrote that "Lee and his men would go on to earn further laurels. But they never again possessed the power and reputation they carried into Pennsylvania those palmy summer days of 1863."[119]

However, Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones wrote that the "strategic impact of the Battle of Gettysburg was ... fairly limited." Steven E. Woodworth wrote that "Gettysburg proved only the near impossibility of decisive action in the Eastern theater." Edwin Coddington pointed out the heavy toll on the Army of the Potomac and that "after the battle Meade no longer possessed a truly effective instrument for the accomplishments of his task. The army needed a thorough reorganization with new commanders and fresh troops, but these changes were not made until Grant appeared on the scene in March 1864." Joseph T. Glatthaar wrote that "Lost opportunities and near successes plagued the Army of Northern Virginia during its Northern invasion," yet after Gettysburg, "without the distractions of duty as an invading force, without the breakdown of discipline, the Army of Northern Virginia [remained] an extremely formidable force." Ed Bearss wrote, "Lee's invasion of the North had been a costly failure. Nevertheless, at best the Army of the Potomac had simply preserved the strategic stalemate in the Eastern Theater ..."[120] Furthermore, the Confederacy soon proved it was still capable of winning significant victories over the Northern forces in both the East (Battle of Cold Harbor) and West (Battle of Chickamauga).[citation needed]

Peter Carmichael refers to the military context for the armies, the "horrendous losses at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, which effectively destroyed Lee's offensive capacity," implying that these cumulative losses were not the result of a single battle. Thomas Goss, writing in the U.S. Army's Military Review journal on the definition of "decisive" and the application of that description to Gettysburg, concludes: "For all that was decided and accomplished, the Battle of Gettysburg fails to earn the label 'decisive battle'."[121] The military historian John Keegan agrees. Gettysburg was a landmark battle, the largest of the war and it would not be surpassed. The Union had restored to it the belief in certain victory, and the loss dispirited the Confederacy. If "not exactly a decisive battle", Gettysburg was the end of Confederate use of Northern Virginia as a military buffer zone, the setting for Grant's Overland Campaign.[122]

Lee vs. Meade

 
George Meade, the victorious Union Army general at the Battle of Gettysburg
 
Robert E. Lee, the Confederate Army general at the Battle of Gettysburg
 
Winfield Scott Hancock, a Union Army major general, commanded the Union Army's II Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg

Prior to Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee had established a reputation as an almost invincible general, achieving stunning victories against superior numbers—although usually at the cost of high casualties to his army—during the Seven Days, the Northern Virginia Campaign (including the Second Battle of Bull Run), Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Only the Maryland Campaign, with its tactically inconclusive Battle of Antietam, had been less than successful. Therefore, historians[who?] have attempted to explain how Lee's winning streak was interrupted so dramatically at Gettysburg.[citation needed] Although the issue is tainted by attempts to portray history and Lee's reputation in a manner supporting different partisan goals, the major factors in Lee's loss arguably can be attributed to: (1) his overconfidence in the invincibility of his men; (2) the performance of his subordinates, and his management thereof; (3) his failing health; and, (4) the performance of his opponent, George G. Meade, and the Army of the Potomac.[citation needed]

Throughout the campaign, Lee was influenced by the belief that his men were invincible; most of Lee's experiences with the Army of Northern Virginia had convinced him of this, including the great victory at Chancellorsville in early May and the rout of the Union troops at Gettysburg on July 1. Since morale plays an important role in military victory when other factors are equal, Lee did not want to dampen his army's desire to fight and resisted suggestions, principally by Longstreet, to withdraw from the recently captured Gettysburg to select a ground more favorable to his army. War correspondent Peter W. Alexander wrote that Lee "acted, probably, under the impression that his troops were able to carry any position however formidable. If such was the case, he committed an error, such however as the ablest commanders will sometimes fall into." Lee himself concurred with this judgment, writing to President Davis, "No blame can be attached to the army for its failure to accomplish what was projected by me, nor should it be censured for the unreasonable expectations of the public—I am alone to blame, in perhaps expecting too much of its prowess and valor."[123]

The most controversial assessments of the battle involve the performance of Lee's subordinates. The dominant theme of the Lost Cause writers and many other historians is that Lee's senior generals failed him in crucial ways, directly causing the loss of the battle; the alternative viewpoint is that Lee did not manage his subordinates adequately, and did not thereby compensate for their shortcomings.[124] Two of his corps commanders—Richard S. Ewell and A.P. Hill—had only recently been promoted and were not fully accustomed to Lee's style of command, in which he provided only general objectives and guidance to their former commander, Stonewall Jackson; Jackson translated these into detailed, specific orders to his division commanders.[125] All four of Lee's principal commanders received criticism during the campaign and battle:[126]

  • James Longstreet suffered most severely from the wrath of the Lost Cause authors, not the least because he directly criticized Lee in postbellum writings and became a Republican after the war. His critics accuse him of attacking much later than Lee intended on July 2, squandering a chance to hit the Union Army before its defensive positions had firmed up. They also question his lack of motivation to attack strongly on July 2 and 3 because he had argued that the army should have maneuvered to a place where it would force Meade to attack them. The alternative view is that Lee was in close contact with Longstreet during the battle, agreed to delays on the morning of July 2, and never criticized Longstreet's performance. (There is also considerable speculation about what an attack might have looked like before Dan Sickles moved the III Corps toward the Peach Orchard.)[127]
  • J.E.B. Stuart deprived Lee of cavalry intelligence during a good part of the campaign by taking his three best brigades on a path away from the army's. This arguably led to Lee's surprise at Hooker's vigorous pursuit; the engagement on July 1 that escalated into the full battle prematurely; and it also prevented Lee from understanding the full disposition of the enemy on July 2. The disagreements regarding Stuart's culpability for the situation originate in the relatively vague orders issued by Lee, but most modern historians agree that both generals were responsible to some extent for the failure of the cavalry's mission early in the campaign.[128]
  • Richard S. Ewell has been universally criticized for failing to seize the high ground on the afternoon of July 1. Once again the disagreement centers on Lee's orders, which provided general guidance for Ewell to act "if practicable." Many historians speculate that Stonewall Jackson, if he had survived Chancellorsville, would have aggressively seized Culp's Hill, rendering Cemetery Hill indefensible, and changing the entire complexion of the battle. A differently worded order from Lee might have made the difference with this subordinate.[129]
  • A.P. Hill has received some criticism for his ineffective performance. His actions caused the battle to begin and then escalate on July 1, despite Lee's orders not to bring on a general engagement (although historians point out that Hill kept Lee well informed of his actions during the day). However, Hill's illness minimized his personal involvement in the remainder of the battle, and Lee took the explicit step of temporarily removing troops from Hill's corps and giving them to Longstreet for Pickett's Charge.[130]

In addition to Hill's illness, Lee's performance was affected by heart troubles, which would eventually lead to his death in 1870; he had been diagnosed with pericarditis by his staff physicians in March 1863, though modern doctors believe he had in fact suffered a heart attack.[131] He wrote to Jefferson Davis that his physical condition prevented him from offering full supervision in the field, and said, "I am so dull that in making use of the eyes of others I am frequently misled."[132]

As a final factor, Lee faced a new and formidable opponent in George G. Meade, and the Army of the Potomac fought well on its home territory. Although new to his army command, Meade deployed his forces relatively effectively; relied on strong subordinates such as Winfield S. Hancock to make decisions where and when they were needed; took great advantage of defensive positions; nimbly shifted defensive resources on interior lines to parry strong threats; and, unlike some of his predecessors, stood his ground throughout the battle in the face of fierce Confederate attacks.[citation needed]

Lee was quoted before the battle as saying Meade "would commit no blunders on my front and if I make one ... will make haste to take advantage of it." That prediction proved to be correct at Gettysburg. Stephen Sears wrote, "The fact of the matter is that George G. Meade, unexpectedly and against all odds, thoroughly outgeneraled Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg." Edwin B. Coddington wrote that the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac received a "sense of triumph which grew into an imperishable faith in [themselves]. The men knew what they could do under an extremely competent general; one of lesser ability and courage could well have lost the battle."[133]

Meade had his own detractors as well. Similar to the situation with Lee, Meade suffered partisan attacks about his performance at Gettysburg, but he had the misfortune of experiencing them in person. Supporters of his predecessor, Hooker, lambasted Meade before the U.S. Congress's Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, where Radical Republicans suspected that Meade was a Copperhead and tried in vain to relieve him from command. Daniel E. Sickles and Daniel Butterfield accused Meade of planning to retreat from Gettysburg during the battle. Most politicians, including Lincoln, criticized Meade for what they considered to be his half-hearted pursuit of Lee after the battle. A number of Meade's most competent subordinates—Winfield S. Hancock, John Gibbon, Gouverneur K. Warren, and Henry J. Hunt, all heroes of the battle—defended Meade in print, but Meade was embittered by the overall experience.[134]

Battlefield preservation

 
M1857 12-Pounder "Napoleon" at Gettysburg National Military Park Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, September 2006
LocationAdams, Pennsylvania, United States
WebsitePark Home (NPS.gov)

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. Although Gettysburg is one of the best known of all Civil War battlefields, it too faces threats to its preservation and interpretation. Many historically significant locations on the battlefield lie outside the boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park and are vulnerable to residential or commercial development.[citation needed]

On July 20, 2009, a Comfort Inn and Suites opened on Cemetery Hill, adjacent to Evergreen Cemetery, just one of many modern edifices infringing on the historic field. The Baltimore Pike corridor attracts development that concerns preservationists.[135]

Some preservation successes have emerged in recent years. Two proposals to open a casino at Gettysburg were defeated in 2006 and most recently in 2011, when public pressure forced the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to reject the proposed gambling hub at the intersection of Routes 15 and 30, near East Cavalry Field.[136] The American Battlefield Trust, formerly the Civil War Trust, also successfully purchased and transferred 95 acres (38 ha) at the former site of the Gettysburg Country Club to the control of the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2011.[137]

Less than half of the over 11,500 acres on the old Gettysburg Battlefield have been preserved for posterity thus far. The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved 1,231 acres (4.98 km2) of the battlefield in more than 35 separate transactions since 1997.[138] Some of these acres are now among the 4,998 acres (2,023 ha) of the Gettysburg National Military Park.[139] In 2015, the Trust made one of its most important and expensive acquisitions, paying $6 million for a four-acre (1.6 ha) parcel that included the stone house that Confederate General Robert E. Lee used as his headquarters during the battle. The Trust razed a motel, restaurant and other buildings within the parcel to restore Lee's headquarters and the site to their wartime appearance, adding interpretive signs. It opened the site to the public in October 2016.[140]

Commemoration in U.S. postage and coinage

During the Civil War Centennial, the U.S. Post Office issued five postage stamps commemorating the 100th anniversaries of famous battles, as they occurred over a four-year period, beginning with the Battle of Fort Sumter Centennial issue of 1961. The Battle of Shiloh commemorative stamp was issued in 1962, the Battle of Gettysburg in 1963, the Battle of the Wilderness in 1964, and the Appomattox Centennial commemorative stamp in 1965.[141]

A commemorative half dollar for the Battle of Gettysburg was produced in 1936. As was typical for the period, mintage for the coin was very low, just 26,928.[142] On January 24, 2011, a 25-cent coin was released in the America the Beautiful series commemorating Gettysburg National Military Park and the Battle of Gettysburg. The reverse side of the coin depicts the monument on Cemetery Ridge to the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry.[143]

In popular culture

 
Alfred Waud sketching the Battle of Gettysburg for Harper's Weekly[144]

Film records survive of two Gettysburg reunions, held on the battlefield. At the 50th anniversary (1913), veterans re-enacted Pickett's Charge in a spirit of reconciliation, a meeting that carried great emotional force for both sides. At the 75th anniversary (1938), 2500 veterans attended, and there was a ceremonial mass hand-shake across a stone wall. This was recorded on sound film, and some Confederates can be heard giving the rebel yell.

The Battle of Gettysburg was depicted in the 1993 film Gettysburg, based on Michael Shaara's 1974 novel The Killer Angels. The film and novel focused primarily on the actions of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, John Buford, Robert E. Lee, and James Longstreet during the battle. The first day focused on Buford's cavalry defense, the second day on Chamberlain's defense at Little Round Top, and the third day on Pickett's Charge.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Coddington, p. 573. See the discussion regarding historians' judgment on whether Gettysburg should be considered a decisive victory.
  2. ^ Official Records, Series I, Volume XXVII, Part 1, pages 155–168 July 24, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Official Records, Series I, Volume XXVII, Part 2, pages 283–291 July 24, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Official Records, Series I, Volume XXVII, Part 1, page 151 July 24, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b Busey and Martin, p. 125: "Engaged strength" at the battle was 93,921.
  6. ^ a b Busey and Martin, p. 260, state that "engaged strength" at the battle was 71,699; McPherson, p. 648, lists the strength at the start of the campaign as 75,000.
  7. ^ Official Records, Series I, Volume XXVII, Part 1, page 187 July 24, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ a b Busey and Martin, p. 125.
  9. ^ a b Busey and Martin, p. 260, cite 23,231 total (4,708 killed;12,693 wounded;5,830 captured/missing).
    See the section on casualties for a discussion of alternative Confederate casualty estimates, which have been cited as high as 28,000.
  10. ^ Official Records, Series I, Volume XXVII, Part 2, pages 338–346 July 24, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Robert D. Quigley, Civil War Spoken Here: A Dictionary of Mispronounced People, Places and Things of the 1860s (Collingswood, NJ: C. W. Historicals, 1993), p. 68. ISBN 0-9637745-0-6.
  12. ^ The Battle of Antietam, the culmination of Lee's first invasion of the North, had the largest number of casualties in a single day, about 23,000.
  13. ^ a b Rawley, p. 147; Sauers, p. 827; Gallagher, Lee and His Army, p. 83; McPherson, p. 665; Eicher, p. 550. Gallagher and McPherson cite the combination of Gettysburg and Vicksburg as the turning point. Eicher uses the arguably related expression, "High-water mark of the Confederacy".
  14. ^ "Battle of Gettysburg". Encyclopædia Britannica. Britannica.com. February 15, 2017. from the original on June 16, 2015. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
  15. ^ Murray, Williamson; Hsieh, Wayne Wei-siang (2016). "The War in the East, 1863". A Savage War:A Military History of the Civil War. Princeton University Press. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-69-116940-8.
  16. ^ a b Symonds, pp. 49–54.
  17. ^ a b Loewen, James W. (1999). Lies Across America: What American Historic Sites Get Wrong. New York City, New York: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, Inc. p. 350. ISBN 9780743296298. from the original on December 25, 2016. Retrieved March 5, 2016. Lee's troops seized scores of free black people in Maryland and Pennsylvania and sent them south into slavery. This was in keeping with Confederate national policy, which virtually re-enslaved free people of color into work gangs on earthworks throughout the south.
  18. ^ a b Simpson, Brooks D. (July 5, 2015). "The Soldiers' Flag?". Crossroads. WordPress. from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2016. [T]he Army of Northern Virginia was under orders to capture and send south supposed escaped slaves during that army's invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863.
  19. ^ Coddington, pp. 8–9; Eicher, p. 490.
  20. ^ Eicher, pp. 489–491.
  21. ^ Symonds, p. 36.
  22. ^ Trudeau, pp. 45, 66.
  23. ^ Moore, Frank (September 25, 1864). "The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, with Documents, Narratives Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, Etc". Putnam – via Internet Archive.
  24. ^ Reeves, Frank (June 30, 2013). "Confederates' 'slave hunt' in North a military disgrace". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. from the original on April 9, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  25. ^ Nye, pp. 272–278.
  26. ^ Symonds, pp. 41–43; Sears, pp. 103–106; Esposito, text for Map 94 (Map 34b in the online version); Eicher, pp. 504–507; McPherson, p. 649.
  27. ^ Sears, p. 123; Trudeau, p. 128.
  28. ^ Coddington, pp. 181, 189.
  29. ^ Eicher, pp. 508–509, discounts Heth's claim because the previous visit by Early to Gettysburg would have made the lack of shoe factories or stores obvious. However, many mainstream historians accept Heth's account: Sears, p. 136; Foote, p. 465; Clark, p. 35; Tucker, pp. 97–98; Martin, p. 25; Pfanz, First Day, p. 25.
  30. ^ Eicher, p. 508; Tucker, pp. 99–102.
  31. ^ Eicher, pp. 502–503.
  32. ^ Coddington, p. 122.
  33. ^ Eicher, p. 503.
  34. ^ Sears, pp. 155–158.
  35. ^ "Battle of Gettysburg: Who Really Fired the First Shot – HistoryNet". www.historynet.com. July 26, 2006. from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  36. ^ . Archived from the original on April 16, 2005.
  37. ^ Martin, pp. 80–81. The troopers carried single-shot breechloading carbines manufactured by Sharps, Burnside, and others. It is a modern myth that they were armed with multi-shot repeating carbines. Nevertheless, they were able to fire two or three times faster than a muzzle-loaded carbine or rifle.[citation needed]
  38. ^ Symonds, p. 71; Coddington, p. 266; Eicher, pp. 510–511.
  39. ^ Tucker, pp. 112–117.
  40. ^ Foote, p. 468
  41. ^ Tucker, p. 184; Symonds, p. 74; Pfanz, First Day, pp. 269–275.
  42. ^ Busey and Martin, pp. 298, 501.
  43. ^ Pfanz, First Day, pp. 275–293.
  44. ^ Clark, p. 53.
  45. ^ Pfanz, First Day, p. 158.
  46. ^ Pfanz, First Day, p. 230.
  47. ^ Pfanz, First Day, pp. 156–238.
  48. ^ Pfanz, First Day, p. 294.
  49. ^ Pfanz, First Day, pp. 337–338; Sears, pp. 223–225.
  50. ^ Martin, pp. 482–488.
  51. ^ Pfanz, First Day, p. 344; Eicher, p. 517; Sears, p. 228; Trudeau, p. 253. Both Sears and Trudeau record "if possible."
  52. ^ Martin, p. 9, citing Thomas L. Livermore's Numbers & Losses in the Civil War in America (Houghton Mifflin, 1900).
  53. ^ Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America, (Philadelphia:J. B. Lippincott, 1896), pp. 364, 365
  54. ^ "A Map Study of the Battle of Gettysburg | Historical Society of Pennsylvania". Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  55. ^ "The Union Fishhook Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  56. ^ "Battle of Gettysburg". www.americaslegacylinks.com. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  57. ^ Clark, p. 74; Eicher, p. 521.
  58. ^ a b James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox. (Philadelphia, PA: J. R. Lippincott company, 1896), p. 365.
  59. ^ Sears, p. 255; Clark, p. 69.
  60. ^ a b Edward Porter Alexander, Military Memoirs of a Confederate. (New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1907), p. 408
  61. ^ Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America, (Philadelphia:J. B. Lippincott, 1896), pp. 364, 368
  62. ^ Longstreet, From Mannassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America, p. 366
  63. ^ Pfanz, Second Day, pp. 119–123.
  64. ^ Pfanz, Second Day, pp. 93–97; Eicher, pp. 523–524.
  65. ^ Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America, p. 369
  66. ^ Eicher
  67. ^ Harman, p. 59.
  68. ^ Harman, p. 57.
  69. ^ Sears, pp. 312–324; Eicher, pp. 530–535; Coddington, p. 423.
  70. ^ Eicher, pp. 527–530; Clark, pp. 81–85.
  71. ^ Morgan, James. "Who saved Little Round Top?". Camp Chase Gazette. from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2016. Col. Chamberlain did not lead the charge. Lt. Holman Melcher was the first officer down the slope.
  72. ^ Edward Porter Alexander, Military Memoirs of a Confederate. (New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1907), p. 409
  73. ^ Eicher, pp. 537–538; Sauers, p. 835; Pfanz, Culp's Hill, pp. 205–234; Clark, pp. 115–116.
  74. ^ Report of Major General R. E. Rodes, CSA, commanding division. June 3 – August 1, 1863. The Gettysburg Campaign. O.R. – Series I – Volume XXVII/2 [S# 44]
  75. ^ Sears, p. 257; Longacre, pp. 198–199.
  76. ^ Harman, p. 63.
  77. ^ Pfanz, Culp's Hill, pp. 284–352; Eicher, pp. 540–541; Coddington, pp. 465–475.
  78. ^ Eicher, p. 542; Coddington, pp. 485–486.
  79. ^ Longstreet, James (1896). From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: J. B. Lippincott. pp. 386–387.
  80. ^ See discussion of varying gun estimates in Pickett's Charge article footnote.
  81. ^ "Pickett's Charge". HistoryNet. from the original on June 24, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
  82. ^ McPherson, pp. 661–663; Clark, pp. 133–144; Symonds, pp. 214–241; Eicher, pp. 543–549.
  83. ^ "Battle History | Gettysburg PA". www.gettysburgpa.gov. from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
  84. ^ Eicher, pp. 549–550; Longacre, pp. 226–231, 240–44; Sauers, p. 836; Wert, pp. 272–280.
  85. ^ "Gettysburg Casualties (Battle Deaths at Gettysburg)". Historynet. from the original on November 2, 2011. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  86. ^ Examples of the varying Confederate casualties for July 1–3 are Sears, p. 498 (22,625); Coddington, p. 536 (20,451, "and very likely more"); Trudeau, p. 529 (22,874); Eicher, p. 550 (22,874, "but probably actually totaled 28,000 or more"); McPherson, p. 664 (28,000); Esposito, map 99 ("near 28,000"); Clark, p. 150 (20,448, "but probably closer to 28,000," which he inaccurately cites as a nearly 40% loss); Woodworth, p. 209 ("at least equal to Meade's and possibly as high as 28,000"); (28,000)
  87. ^ Glatthaar, p. 282.
  88. ^ Sears, p. 513.
  89. ^ "The Battle of Gettysburg & the History of the Civil War Horse". Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  90. ^ Nofi, Albert (August 19, 2017). The Blue & Gray Almanac: The Civil War in Facts & Figures, Recipes & Slang. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1-61200-553-9.
  91. ^ "The Battle of Gettysburg | Battlefield Anomalies". from the original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
  92. ^ Busey and Martin, pp. 125–147, 260–315. Headquarters element casualties account for the minor differences in army totals stated previously.
  93. ^ Catton, p. 325.
  94. ^ Sears, p. 391.
  95. ^ "Gettysburg's Most Unlikely Hero, An Elderly Citizen Who Volunteered". from the original on June 19, 2017. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  96. ^ Sears, p. 511.
  97. ^ Woodworth, p. 216.
  98. ^ Leonard, Pat (July 7, 2013). "Nursing the Wounded at Gettysburg". from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  99. ^ Eicher, p. 550; Coddington, pp. 539–544; Clark, pp. 146–147; Sears, p. 469; Wert, p. 300.
  100. ^ Clark, pp. 147–157; Longacre, pp. 268–269.
  101. ^ "Robert E.Lee (by Freeman) — Vol.III Chap.9". penelope.uchicago.edu. from the original on August 24, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
  102. ^ Coddington, p. 564.
  103. ^ "New York Draft Riots". History.com. April 16, 2021. from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  104. ^ Coddington, pp. 535–574; Sears, pp. 496–497; Eicher, p. 596; Wittenberg et al., One Continuous Fight, pp. 345–346.
  105. ^ McPherson, p. 664.
  106. ^ Donald, p. 446; Woodworth, p. 217.
  107. ^ Coddington, p. 573.
  108. ^ McPherson, pp. 650, 664.
  109. ^ "Vicksburg". from the original on June 2, 2022. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  110. ^ Gallagher, Lee and His Army, pp. 86, 93, 102–05; Sears, pp. 501–502; McPherson, p. 665, in contrast to Gallagher, depicts Lee as "profoundly depressed" about the battle.
  111. ^ Gallagher, Lee and His Generals, pp. 207–208; Sears, p. 503; Woodworth, p. 221. Gallagher's essay "Jubal A. Early, The Lost Cause, and Civil War History: A Persistent Legacy" in Lee and His Generals is a good overview of the Lost Cause movement.
  112. ^ . www.brotherswar.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  113. ^ Conant, Sean (2015). The Gettysburg Address: Perspectives on Lincoln's Greatest Speech. New York: Oxford University Press. p. ix. ISBN 978-0-19-022745-6.
  114. ^ Holsinger, M. Paul (1999). War and American Popular Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-313-29908-7.
  115. ^ White, p. 251. White refers to Lincoln's use of the term "new birth of freedom" and writes, "The new birth that slowly emerged in Lincoln's politics meant that on November 19 at Gettysburg he was no longer, as in his inaugural address, defending an old Union but proclaiming a new Union. The old Union contained and attempted to restrain slavery. The new Union would fulfill the promise of liberty, the crucial step into the future that the Founders had failed to take."
  116. ^ Bradley, Mark. "Medal of Honor – 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing". U.S. Army Center of Military History. from the original on September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
  117. ^ McPherson, p. 665; Gallagher, Lee and His Generals, pp. 207–208.
  118. ^ Catton, p. 331.
  119. ^ Eicher, p. 550; McPherson, p. 665
  120. ^ Hattaway and Jones, p. 415; Woodworth, p. xiii; Coddington, p. 573; Glatthaar, p. 288; Bearss, p. 202.
  121. ^ Carmichael, p. xvii; Goss, Major Thomas (July–August 2004). "Gettysburg's "Decisive Battle"" (PDF). Military Review: 11–16. (PDF) from the original on February 2, 2007. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
  122. ^ Keegan, pp. 202, 239.
  123. ^ Sears, pp. 499–500; Glatthaar, p. 287; Fuller, p. 198, states that Lee's "overweening confidence in the superiority of his soldiers over his enemy possessed him."
  124. ^ For example, Sears, p. 504: "In the final analysis, it was Robert E. Lee's inability to manage his generals that went to the heart of the failed campaign." Glatthaar, pp. 285–286, criticizes the inability of the generals to coordinate their actions as a whole. Fuller, p. 198, states that Lee "maintained no grip over the operations" of his army.
  125. ^ Fuller, p. 195, for example, refers to orders to Stuart that "were as usual vague." Fuller, p. 197, wrote "As was [Lee's] custom, he relied on verbal instructions, and left all details to his subordinates."
  126. ^ Woodworth, pp. 209–210.
  127. ^ Sears, pp. 501–502; McPherson, pp. 656–657; Coddington, pp. 375–380; A more detailed collection of historical assessments of Longstreet at Gettysburg may be found in James Longstreet#Gettysburg.
  128. ^ Sears, p. 502; A more detailed collection of historical assessments of Stuart in the Gettysburg Campaign may be found in J.E.B. Stuart#Gettysburg.
  129. ^ McPherson, p. 654; Coddington, pp. 317–319; Eicher, pp. 517–518; Sears, p. 503.
  130. ^ Sears, pp. 502–503.
  131. ^ Schmidt, Jim (June 25, 2008). "Civil War Medicine (and Writing): Medical Department #18 – Lee's Health at Gettysburg". from the original on December 25, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  132. ^ Sears, p. 500.
  133. ^ Sears, p. 506; Coddington, p. 573.
  134. ^ Sears, pp. 505–507.
  135. ^ "Preservation Trust Helps Secure Key Piece of Ground in Gettysburg" (PDF). The "Old Liner" Newsletter. Baltimore Civil War Roundtable. August 2004. (PDF) from the original on October 20, 2004. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  136. ^ . Penn State Civil War History Center. April 15, 2011. Archived from the original on April 20, 2013.
  137. ^ Pitzer, Scot Andrew (March 26, 2011). "Country club site acquisition ends 25-year Park Service effort". Gettysburg Times. from the original on August 16, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  138. ^ "Saved Land". American Battlefield Trust. from the original on May 19, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
  139. ^ "Gettysburg – American Battlefield Trust". battlefields.org. from the original on August 24, 2022. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  140. ^ Wheeler, Linda (September 15, 2016). "Lee's Gettysburg headquarters restored, set to open Oct. 28". The Washington Post. from the original on July 8, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  141. ^ . arago.si.edu. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  142. ^ HNAI US Coin Auction Catalog #1145, Stamford, CT. Heritage Capital Corporation. 2010. p. 160. ISBN 9781599674926. from the original on June 3, 2016. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  143. ^ "America the Beautiful Quarters® Program – U.S. Mint". www.usmint.gov. from the original on January 21, 2011. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  144. ^ "[Gettysburg, Pa. Alfred R. Waud, artist of Harper's Weekly, sketching on battlefield]". Library of Congress. 1863. from the original on May 22, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2022.

References

  • Bearss, Edwin C. Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2006. ISBN 0-7922-7568-3.
  • Busey, John W., and David G. Martin. Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, 4th ed. Hightstown, NJ: Longstreet House, 2005. ISBN 0-944413-67-6.
  • Carmichael, Peter S., ed. Audacity Personified: The Generalship of Robert E. Lee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8071-2929-1.
  • Catton, Bruce. Glory Road. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1952. ISBN 0-385-04167-5.
  • Clark, Champ, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. Gettysburg: The Confederate High Tide. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1985. ISBN 0-8094-4758-4.
  • Coddington, Edwin B. The Gettysburg Campaign; a study in command. New York: Scribner's, 1968. ISBN 0-684-84569-5.
  • Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0-684-80846-3.
  • Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
  • Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. OCLC 5890637. The collection of maps (without explanatory text) is available online at the West Point website.
  • Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol. 2, Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1958. ISBN 0-394-49517-9.
  • Fuller, Major General J. F. C. Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1957. ISBN 0-253-13400-5.
  • Gallagher, Gary W. Lee and His Army in Confederate History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8078-2631-7.
  • Gallagher, Gary W. Lee and His Generals in War and Memory. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8071-2958-5.
  • Glatthaar, Joseph T. General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse. New York: Free Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-684-82787-2.
  • Harman, Troy D. Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003. ISBN 0-8117-0054-2.
  • Hattaway, Herman, and Archer Jones. How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN 0-252-00918-5.
  • Keegan, John. The American Civil War: A Military History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. ISBN 978-0-307-26343-8.
  • Longacre, Edward G. The Cavalry at Gettysburg. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986. ISBN 0-8032-7941-8.
  • McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-19-503863-0.
  • Martin, David G. Gettysburg July 1. rev. ed. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Publishing, 1996. ISBN 0-938289-81-0.
  • Murray, Williamson and Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh. "A Savage War:A Military History of the Civil War". Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0-69-116940-8.
  • Nye, Wilbur S. Here Come the Rebels! Dayton, OH: Morningside House, 1984. ISBN 0-89029-080-6. First published in 1965 by Louisiana State University Press.
  • Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg – The First Day. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8078-2624-3.
  • Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg – The Second Day. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8078-1749-X.
  • Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8078-2118-7.
  • Rawley, James A. (1966). Turning Points of the Civil War. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8935-9. OCLC 44957745.
  • Sauers, Richard A. "Battle of Gettysburg." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
  • Sears, Stephen W. Gettysburg. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. ISBN 0-395-86761-4.
  • Symonds, Craig L. American Heritage History of the Battle of Gettysburg. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 0-06-019474-X.
  • Tagg, Larry. . Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1-882810-30-9.
  • Trudeau, Noah Andre. Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. ISBN 0-06-019363-8.
  • Tucker, Glenn. High Tide at Gettysburg. Dayton, OH: Morningside House, 1983. ISBN 978-0-914427-82-7. First published 1958 by Bobbs-Merrill Co.
  • Wert, Jeffry D. Gettysburg: Day Three. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-85914-9.
  • White, Ronald C., Jr. The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words. New York: Random House, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-6119-9.
  • Wittenberg, Eric J., J. David Petruzzi, and Michael F. Nugent. One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, July 4–14, 1863. New York: Savas Beatie, 2008. ISBN 978-1-932714-43-2.
  • Woodworth, Steven E. Beneath a Northern Sky: A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign. Wilmington, DE: SR Books (scholarly Resources, Inc.), 2003. ISBN 0-8420-2933-8.

Memoirs and primary sources

  • Paris, Louis-Philippe-Albert d'Orléans. The Battle of Gettysburg: A History of the Civil War in America. Digital Scanning, Inc., 1999. ISBN 1-58218-066-0. First published 1869 by Germer Baillière.
  • New York (State), William F. Fox, and Daniel Edgar Sickles. New York at Gettysburg: Final Report on the Battlefield of Gettysburg. Albany, NY: J.B. Lyon Company, Printers, 1900. OCLC 607395975.
  • U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.

Further reading

External media
Images
  GettysburgPhotographs.com
  Battlefields.org maps & photos
  Gettysburg.edu paintings & photos
Video
  GettysburgAnimated.com
  • Adkin, Mark. The Gettysburg Companion: The Complete Guide to America's Most Famous Battle. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8117-0439-7.
  • Bachelder, John B. The Bachelder Papers: Gettysburg in Their Own Words. Edited by David L. Ladd and Audrey J. Ladd. 3 vols. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1994. ISBN 0-89029-320-1.
  • Bachelder, John B. Gettysburg: What to See, and How to See It: Embodying Full Information for Visiting the Field. Boston: Bachelder, 1873. OCLC 4637523.
  • Ballard, Ted, and Billy Arthur. Gettysburg Staff Ride Briefing Book April 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Carlisle, PA: United States Army Center of Military History, 1999. OCLC 42908450.
  • Bearss, Edwin C. Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg: The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4262-0510-1.
  • Boritt, Gabor S., ed. The Gettysburg Nobody Knows. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-510223-1.
  • Desjardin, Thomas A. These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81267-3.
  • Frassanito, William A. Early Photography at Gettysburg. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1995. ISBN 1-57747-032-X.
  • Lyon Fremantle, Arthur J. The Fremantle Diary: A Journal of the Confederacy. Edited by Walter Lord. Short Hills, NJ: Burford Books, 2002. ISBN 1-58080-085-8. First published 1954 by Capricorn Books.
  • Gallagher, Gary W., ed. Three Days at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-87338-629-9.
  • Gottfried, Bradley M. Brigades of Gettysburg. New York: Da Capo Press, 2002. ISBN 0-306-81175-8.
  • Gottfried, Bradley M. The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3–13, 1863. New York: Savas Beatie, 2007. ISBN 978-1-932714-30-2.
  • Grimsley, Mark, and Brooks D. Simpson. Gettysburg: A Battlefield Guide. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8032-7077-1.
  • Guelzo, Allen C. Gettysburg: The Last Invasion. New York: Vintage Books, 2013. ISBN 978-0-307-74069-4. First published in 2013 by Alfred A. Knopf.
  • Hall, Jeffrey C. The Stand of the U.S. Army at Gettysburg. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-253-34258-9.
  • Haskell, Frank Aretas. The Battle of Gettysburg. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4286-6012-0.
  • Hawthorne, Frederick W. Gettysburg: Stories of Men and Monuments. Gettysburg, PA: Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides, 1988. ISBN 0-9657444-0-X.
  • Hoptak, John David. Confrontation at Gettysburg: A Nation Saved, a Cause Lost. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2012. ISBN 978-1-60949-426-1.
  • Huntington, Tom. Pennsylvania Civil War Trails: The Guide to Battle Sites, Monuments, Museums and Towns. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8117-3379-3.
  • Laino, Philip, Gettysburg Campaign Atlas, 2nd ed. Dayton, OH: Gatehouse Press 2009. ISBN 978-1-934900-45-1.
  • McMurry, Richard M. "The Pennsylvania Gambit and the Gettysburg Splash". In The Gettysburg Nobody Knows, edited by Gabor Boritt. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-510223-1.
  • McPherson, James M. Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg. New York: Crown Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-609-61023-6.
  • Petruzzi, J. David, and Steven Stanley. The Complete Gettysburg Guide. New York: Savas Beatie, 2009. ISBN 978-1-932714-63-0.
  • Rhodes, James Ford. "The Battle of Gettysburg." American Historical Review 4#4 1899, pp. 665–677. online
  • Stackpole, General Edward J. They Met at Gettysburg. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1956, OCLC 22643644.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gettysburg Battlefield and Gettysburg National Military Park.
  • Battle of Gettysburg: Battle Maps, histories, photos, and preservation news (American Battlefield Trust)
  • Animated map of the Battle of Gettysburg (American Battlefield Trust)
  • Gettysburg National Military Park (National Park Service)
  • U.S. Army's Interactive Battle of Gettysburg with Narratives
  • Military History Online: The Battle of Gettysburg
  • Official Records: The Battle of Gettysburg
  • Gettysburg Discussion Group archives
  • List of 53 Confederate generals at Gettysburg December 26, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  • Encyclopædia Britannica: Battle of Gettysburg
  • A film clip "Blue and Gray At 75th Anniversary of Great Battle, 1938/07/04 (1938)" is available at the Internet Archive

February 07, 2023
battle, gettysburg, other, uses, disambiguation, locally, ɜːr, listen, fought, july, 1863, around, town, gettysburg, pennsylvania, union, confederate, forces, during, american, civil, battle, union, major, general, george, meade, army, potomac, defeated, attac. For other uses see Battle of Gettysburg disambiguation The Battle of Gettysburg locally ˈ ɡ ɛ t ɪ s b ɜːr ɡ listen 11 was fought July 1 3 1863 in and around the town of Gettysburg Pennsylvania by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War In the battle Union Major General George Meade s Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E Lee s Army of Northern Virginia halting Lee s invasion of the North The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war s turning point due to the Union s decisive victory and concurrence with the Siege of Vicksburg 12 13 Battle of GettysburgPart of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil WarThe Battle of Gettysburg by Thure de ThulstrupDateJuly 1 3 1863LocationGettysburg Pennsylvania39 48 41 N 77 13 33 W 39 81139 N 77 22583 W 39 81139 77 22583ResultUnion victory 1 BelligerentsUnited States Union Confederate StatesCommanders and leadersGeorge G MeadeRobert E LeeUnits involvedArmy of the Potomac 2 Army of Northern Virginia 3 Strength104 256 4 5 360 artillery pieces36 cavalry regiments71 000 75 000 6 270 artillery pieces9 500 cavalryBoth sides combined 80 000 horsesCasualties and losses23 049 7 8 23 000 28 000 9 10 Both sides combined 3 000 5 000 horses killed Northern Virginia Maryland and Pennsylvania 1861 1865 The Gettysburg Campaign 1863 The Battlefield of Gettysburg 1863 After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863 Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley to begin his second invasion of the North the Gettysburg Campaign With his army in high spirits Lee intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war ravaged northern Virginia and hoped to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war by penetrating as far as Harrisburg Pennsylvania or even Philadelphia Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln Major General Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit but was relieved of command just three days before the battle and replaced by Meade Elements of the two armies initially collided at Gettysburg on July 1 1863 as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brigadier General John Buford and 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 the town to the hills just to the south 14 On the second day of battle most of both armies had assembled The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook In the late afternoon of July 2 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 Confederate demonstrations escalated into full scale assaults on Culp s Hill and Cemetery Hill All across the battlefield despite significant losses the Union defenders held their lines On the third day of battle 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 center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge known as Pickett s Charge The charge was repelled by Union rifle and artillery fire at great loss to the Confederate army 15 Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia Between 46 000 and 51 000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three day battle the most costly in US history On November 19 President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor the fallen Union soldiers and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address Contents 1 Background 1 1 Military situation 1 2 Initial movements to battle 2 Opposing forces 2 1 Union 2 2 Confederate 3 First day of battle 3 1 Herr Ridge McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge 4 Second day of battle 4 1 Plans and movement to battle 4 2 Attacks on the Union left flank 4 3 Attacks on the Union right flank 5 Third day of battle 5 1 Lee s plan 5 2 Largest artillery bombardment of the war 5 3 Pickett s Charge 5 4 Cavalry battles 6 Aftermath 6 1 Casualties 6 2 Confederate retreat 6 3 Union reaction to the news of the victory 6 4 Effect on the Confederacy 6 5 Gettysburg Address 6 6 Medal of Honor 7 Historical assessment 7 1 Decisive victory controversies 7 2 Lee vs Meade 8 Battlefield preservation 9 Commemoration in U S postage and coinage 10 In popular culture 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 13 1 Memoirs and primary sources 14 Further reading 15 External linksBackgroundMilitary situation Main articles Gettysburg campaign and Gettysburg Battlefield Further information Battle of Chancellorsville Eastern theater of the American Civil War and American Civil War Gettysburg Campaign through July 3 with cavalry movements shown with dashed lines Confederate Union This 1863 oval shaped map depicts the Gettysburg Battlefield during July 1 3 1863 showing troop and artillery positions and movements relief hachures drainage roads railroads and houses with the names of residents at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg This November 1862 Harper s Magazine illustration shows Confederate Army troops escorting captured African American civilians south into slavery En route to Gettysburg the Army of Northern Virginia kidnapped approximately 40 black civilians and sent them south into slavery 16 17 18 Shortly after the Army of Northern Virginia won a major victory over the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Chancellorsville April 30 May 6 1863 General Robert E Lee decided upon a second invasion of the North the first was the unsuccessful Maryland campaign of September 1862 which ended in the bloody Battle of Antietam Such a move would upset the Union s plans for the summer campaigning season and possibly reduce the pressure on the besieged Confederate garrison at Vicksburg The invasion 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 6 could threaten Philadelphia Baltimore and Washington and possibly strengthen the growing peace movement in the North 19 Initial movements to battle Thus on June 3 Lee s army began to shift northward from Fredericksburg Virginia Following the death of Thomas J Stonewall Jackson Lee reorganized his two large corps into three new corps commanded by Lieutenant General James Longstreet First Corps Lieutenant General Richard S Ewell Second and Lieutenant General A P Hill Third both Ewell and Hill who had formerly reported to Jackson as division commanders were new to this level of responsibility The cavalry division remained under the command of Major General J E B Stuart 20 The Union Army of the Potomac under Major General Joseph Hooker consisted of seven infantry corps a cavalry corps and an artillery reserve for a combined strength of more than 100 000 men 5 The first major action of the campaign took place on June 9 between cavalry forces at Brandy Station near Culpeper Virginia The 9 500 Confederate cavalrymen under Stuart were surprised by Major General Alfred Pleasonton s combined arms force of two cavalry divisions 8 000 troopers and 3 000 infantry but Stuart eventually repelled the Union attack The inconclusive battle the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the war proved for the first time that the Union horse soldier was equal to his Southern counterpart 21 By mid June the Army of Northern Virginia was poised to cross the Potomac River and enter Maryland After defeating the Union 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 25 Hooker s army pursued keeping between Washington D C and Lee s army The Union army crossed the Potomac from June 25 to 27 22 Lee gave strict orders for his army to minimize any negative effects on the civilian population 23 Food horses and other supplies were generally not seized outright although quartermasters reimbursing Northern farmers and merchants with 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 During the invasion the Confederates seized some 1 000 northern African Americans A few of them were escaped fugitive slaves but most were freemen all were sent south into slavery under guard 16 17 18 24 On June 26 elements of Major General 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 25 Meanwhile in a controversial move Lee allowed 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 mi 45 km northwest of Gettysburg to Carlisle 30 mi 48 km north of Gettysburg to near Harrisburg and Wrightsville on the Susquehanna River 26 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 rid themselves of him immediately accepted They replaced Hooker early on the morning of June 28 with Major General George Gordon Meade then commander of the V Corps 27 On June 29 when Lee learned that the Army of the Potomac had crossed the Potomac River he ordered a concentration of his forces around Cashtown located at the eastern base of South Mountain and eight mi 13 km west of Gettysburg 28 On June 30 while part of Hill s corps was in Cashtown one of Hill s brigades North Carolinians under Brigadier General J Johnston Pettigrew ventured toward Gettysburg In his memoirs Major General Henry Heth Pettigrew s division commander claimed that he sent Pettigrew to search for supplies in town especially shoes 29 When Pettigrew s troops approached Gettysburg on June 30 they noticed Union cavalry under Major General John Buford arriving south of town and Pettigrew returned to Cashtown without engaging them When Pettigrew told Hill and Heth what he had seen neither general believed that there was a substantial Union force in or near the town suspecting that it had been only Pennsylvania militia Despite 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 30 Opposing forcesUnion Senior commanders of the Army of the Potomac Maj Gen George Meade Commanding USA Maj Gen John F Reynolds USA Maj Gen Winfield Scott Hancock USA Maj Gen Daniel Sickles USA Maj Gen George Sykes USA Maj Gen John Sedgwick USA Maj Gen Oliver Otis Howard USA Maj Gen Henry Warner Slocum USA Maj Gen Alfred Pleasonton USAFurther information Gettysburg Union order of battle The Army of the Potomac initially under Hooker Meade replaced Hooker in command on June 28 consisted of more than 100 000 men in the following organization 31 I Corps commanded by Maj Gen John F Reynolds with divisions commanded by Brig Gen James S Wadsworth Brig Gen John C Robinson and Maj Gen Abner Doubleday II Corps commanded by Maj Gen Winfield Scott Hancock with divisions commanded by Brig Gens John C Caldwell John Gibbon and Alexander Hays III Corps commanded by Maj Gen Daniel Sickles with divisions commanded by Maj Gen David B Birney and Maj Gen Andrew A Humphreys V Corps commanded by Maj Gen George Sykes George G Meade until June 28 with divisions commanded by Brig Gens James Barnes Romeyn B Ayres and Samuel W Crawford VI Corps commanded by Maj Gen John Sedgwick with divisions commanded by Brig Gen Horatio G Wright Brig Gen Albion P Howe and Maj Gen John Newton XI Corps commanded by Maj Gen Oliver Otis Howard with divisions commanded by Brig Gen Francis C Barlow Brig Gen Adolph von Steinwehr and Maj Gen Carl Schurz XII Corps commanded by Maj Gen Henry W Slocum with divisions commanded by Brig Gens Alpheus S Williams and John W Geary Cavalry Corps commanded by Maj Gen Alfred Pleasonton with divisions commanded by Brig Gens John Buford David McM Gregg and H Judson Kilpatrick Artillery Reserve commanded by Brig Gen Robert O Tyler The preeminent artillery officer at Gettysburg was Brig Gen Henry Jackson Hunt chief of artillery on Meade s staff During the advance on Gettysburg Reynolds was in operational command of the left or advanced wing of the Army consisting of the I III and XI Corps 32 Note that many other Union units not part of the Army of the Potomac were actively involved in the Gettysburg Campaign but not directly involved in the Battle of Gettysburg These included portions of the Union IV Corps the militia and state troops of the Department of the Susquehanna and various garrisons including that at Harpers Ferry Confederate Senior commanders of the Army of Northern Virginia Gen Robert E Lee Commanding CSA Lt Gen James Longstreet CSA Lt Gen Richard S Ewell CSA Lt Gen A P Hill CSA Maj Gen J E B Stuart CSAFurther information Confederate order of battle In reaction to the death of Jackson after Chancellorsville Lee reorganized his Army of Northern Virginia 75 000 men from two infantry corps into three 33 First Corps commanded by Lt Gen James Longstreet with divisions commanded by Maj Gens Lafayette McLaws George Pickett and John Bell Hood Second Corps commanded by Lt Gen Richard S Ewell with divisions commanded by Maj Gens Jubal A Early Edward Allegheny Johnson and Robert E Rodes Third Corps commanded by Lt Gen A P Hill with divisions commanded by Maj Gens Richard H Anderson Henry Heth and W Dorsey Pender Cavalry division commanded by Maj Gen J E B Stuart with brigades commanded by Brig Gens Wade Hampton Fitzhugh Lee Beverly H Robertson Albert G Jenkins William E Grumble Jones and John D Imboden and Col John R Chambliss First day of battleFurther information Battle of Gettysburg first day Overview map of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg Herr Ridge McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge Marker commemorating the first shot fired at the Battle of Gettysburg at 7 30 am on July 1 1863 by Lt Marcellus Jones Anticipating that the Confederates would march on Gettysburg from the west on the morning of July 1 Buford laid out his defenses on three ridges west of the town Herr Ridge McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge These were appropriate terrain for a delaying action by his small cavalry 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 at Cemetery Hill Cemetery Ridge and Culp s Hill Buford understood that if the Confederates could gain control of these heights Meade s army would have difficulty dislodging them 34 Heth s division advanced with two brigades forward commanded by brigadier generals James J Archer and Joseph R Davis They proceeded easterly in columns along the Chambersburg Pike Three mi 5 km west of town about 7 30 a m on July 1 the two brigades met light resistance from vedettes of Union cavalry and deployed into line According to lore the Union soldier to fire the first shot of the battle was Lt Marcellus Jones 35 Lt Jones later returned to Gettysburg in 1886 erecting a monument marking the spot where he fired the first shot 36 Eventually Heth s men encountered dismounted troopers of Col William Gamble s cavalry brigade The dismounted troopers resisted stoutly delaying the Confederate advance by firing their breechloading carbines from behind fences and trees 37 Still by 10 20 a m the Confederates had pushed the Union cavalrymen east to McPherson Ridge when the vanguard of the I Corps Major General John F Reynolds finally arrived 38 North of the pike Davis gained a temporary success against Brigadier General Lysander Cutler s brigade but was repelled 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 known as McPherson s Woods The Union Iron Brigade under Brigadier General Solomon Meredith enjoyed initial success against Archer capturing several hundred men including Archer himself 39 General Reynolds was shot and killed early in the fighting while directing troop and artillery placements just to the east of the woods Shelby Foote wrote that the Union cause lost a man considered by many to be the best general in the army 40 Major General 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 41 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 had about 152 men standing the highest casualty percentage for one battle of any regiment North or South 42 Slowly the Iron Brigade was pushed out of the woods toward Seminary Ridge Hill added Major General 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 43 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 Major General Oliver O Howard raced north on the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road By early afternoon the Union line ran in a semicircle west north and northeast of Gettysburg 44 However the Union did not have enough troops Cutler whose brigade 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 45 Around 2 p m the Confederate 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 Confederate brigades of Colonel Edward A O Neal and Brigadier General Alfred Iverson suffered severe losses assaulting the I Corps division of Brigadier General John C Robinson south of Oak Hill Early s division profited from a blunder by Brigadier General 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 46 in the corps line susceptible to attack from multiple sides and Early s troops overran Barlow s division which constituted the right flank of the Union Army s position Barlow was wounded and captured in the attack 47 As Union positions collapsed both north and west of town Howard ordered a retreat to the high ground south of town at Cemetery Hill where he had left the division of Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr in reserve 48 Major General Winfield S Hancock assumed command of the battlefield sent by Meade when he heard that Reynolds had been killed Hancock commander of the II Corps and Meade s most trusted subordinate was ordered to take command of the field and to determine whether Gettysburg was an appropriate place for a major battle 49 Hancock told Howard I think this the strongest position by nature upon which to fight a battle that I ever saw When Howard agreed Hancock concluded the discussion Very well sir I select this as the battle field Hancock s determination had a morale boosting effect on the retreating Union soldiers but he played no direct tactical role on the first day 50 General 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 who had previously served under Stonewall Jackson a general well known for issuing peremptory orders determined such an assault was not practicable and thus did not attempt it this decision is considered by historians to be a great missed opportunity 51 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 52 Second day of battleFurther information Battle of Gettysburg second day Little Round Top Culp s Hill and Cemetery Hill Robert E Lee s plan for July 2 1863 the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg 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 Two of Longstreet s divisions were on the road Brigarier General George Pickett had begun the 22 mile 35 km march from Chambersburg while Brigadier General Evander M Law had begun the march from Guilford Both arrived late in the morning Law completed his 28 mile 45 km march in eleven hours 53 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 mi 3 km along Cemetery Ridge terminating just north of Little Round Top 54 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 55 56 The Confederate line paralleled the Union line about a mile 1 600 m to the west on Seminary Ridge ran east through the town then curved southeast to a point opposite Culp s Hill Thus the Union army had interior lines while the Confederate line was nearly five mi 8 km long 57 Lee s battle plan for July 2 called for a general assault of Meade s positions On the right Longstreet s First Corps was to position itself to attack the Union left flank facing northeast astraddle the Emmitsburg Road and to roll up the Union line The attack sequence was to begin with Maj Gens John Bell Hood s and Lafayette McLaws s divisions followed by Major General Richard H Anderson s division of Hill s Third Corps 58 On the left Lee instructed Ewell to position his Second Corps to attack Culp s Hill and Cemetery Hill when he heard the gunfire from Longstreet s assault preventing Meade from shifting troops to bolster his left Though it does not appear in either his or Lee s Official Report Ewell claimed years later that Lee had changed the order to simultaneously attack calling for only a diversion to be turned into a full scale attack if a favorable opportunity presented itself 59 60 Lee s plan however was based on faulty intelligence exacerbated by Stuart s continued absence from the battlefield Though Lee personally reconnoitered his left during the morning he did not visit Longstreet s position on the Confederate right Even so Lee rejected suggestions that Longstreet move beyond Meade s left and attack the Union flank capturing the supply trains and effectively blocking Meade s escape route 61 Lee did not issue orders for the attack until 11 00 a m 58 About noon General Anderson s advancing troops were discovered by General Sickles s outpost guard and the Third Corps upon which Longstreet s First Corps was to form did not get into position until 1 00 p m 62 Hood and McLaws after their long march were not yet in position and did not launch their attacks until just after 4 p m and 5 p m respectively 63 Attacks on the Union left flank Overview map of the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg July 2 1863 As Longstreet s left division under Major General Lafayette McLaws advanced they unexpectedly found Major General Daniel Sickles s III Corps directly in their path Sickles had been dissatisfied with the position assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge Seeing ground better suited for artillery positions a half mile 800 m to the west centered at the Sherfy farm s Peach Orchard he violated orders and advanced his corp to the slightly higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road moving away from Cemetery Ridge The new line ran from Devil s Den northwest to the Peach Orchard then northeast along the Emmitsburg Road to south of the Codori farm This created an untenable salient at the Peach Orchard Brigadier General Andrew A Humphreys s division in position along the Emmitsburg Road and Major General 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 64 The Confederate artillery was ordered to open fire at 3 00 p m 65 After failing to attend a meeting at this time of Meade s corps commanders Meade rode to Sickles s position and demanded an explanation of the situation Knowing a Confederate attack was imminent and a retreat would be endangered Meade refused Sickles offer to withdraw 66 Meade was forced to send 20 000 reinforcements 67 the entire V Corps Brigadier General John C Caldwell s division of the II Corps most of the XII Corps and portions of the newly arrived VI Corps Hood s division moved more to the east than intended losing its alignment with the Emmitsburg Road 68 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 coming from McLaws s left and starting forward around 6 p m reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge but could not hold the position in the face of counterattacks from the II Corps including an almost suicidal bayonet charge by the 1st Minnesota regiment against a Confederate brigade ordered in desperation by Hancock to buy time for reinforcements to arrive 69 As fighting raged in the Wheatfield and Devil s Den Colonel 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 Law s brigade of Hood s division Meade s chief engineer Brigadier General Gouverneur 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 ordered by Colonel Joshua L Chamberlain but possibly led by Lieutenant Holman S Melcher was one of the most fabled episodes in the Civil War and propelled Chamberlain into prominence after the war 70 71 Attacks on the Union right flank Union Army breastworks on Culp s Hill 1863 Ewell interpreted his orders as calling only for a cannonade 60 His 32 guns along with A P Hill s 55 guns engaged in a two hour artillery barrage at extreme range that had little effect Finally about six o clock Ewell sent orders to each of his division commanders to attack the Union lines in his front citation needed Major General Edward Allegheny Johnson s Division had contemplated an assault on Culp s Hill but they were still a mile away and had Rock Creek to cross The few possible crossings would make significant delays Because of this only three of Johnson s four brigades moved to the attack 72 Most of the hill s defenders the Union XII Corps had been sent to the left to defend against Longstreet s attacks leaving only a brigade of New Yorkers under Brigadier General George S Greene behind strong newly constructed defensive works With reinforcements from the I and XI Corps Greene s men held off the Confederate attackers though giving up some of the lower earthworks on the lower part of Culp s Hill 73 Early was similarly unprepared when he ordered Harry T Hays s and Isaac E Avery s brigades to attack the Union XI Corps positions on East Cemetery Hill Once started fighting was fierce Colonel Andrew L Harris of the Union 2nd Brigade 1st Division came under a withering attack losing half his men Avery was wounded early on but the Confederates reached the crest of the hill and entered the Union breastworks capturing one or two batteries Seeing he was not supported on his right Hays withdrew His right was to be supported by Robert E Rodes s Division but Rodes like Early and Johnson had not been ordered up in preparation for the attack He had twice as far to travel as Early by the time he came in contact with the Union skirmish line Early s troops had already begun to withdraw 74 Jeb Stuart and his three cavalry brigades arrived in Gettysburg around noon but had no role in the second day s battle Brigadier General Wade Hampton s brigade fought a minor engagement with newly promoted 23 year old Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer s Michigan cavalry near Hunterstown to the northeast of Gettysburg 75 Third day of battleFurther information Culp s Hill Pickett s Charge and Battle of Gettysburg third day cavalry battles Overview map of the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg July 3 1863 The high water mark on Cemetery Ridge with the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument commemorating the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment at right and the Copse of Trees to the left August 2005 Lee s plan Lee wished to renew the attack on Friday July 3 using the same basic plan as the previous day Longstreet would attack the Union left while Ewell attacked Culp s Hill 76 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 Harry Pfanz judged that after some seven hours of bitter combat the Union line was intact and held more strongly than before 77 Lee was forced to change his plans Longstreet would command Pickett s Virginia division of his own First Corps plus six brigades from Hill s Corps in an attack on the Union II Corps position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge Prior to the attack all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the Union positions would bombard and weaken the enemy s line 78 Much has been made over the years of General Longstreet s objections to General Lee s plan In his memoirs Longstreet described their discussion as follows Lee rode over after sunrise and gave his orders His plan was to assault the enemy s left centre by a column to be composed of McLaws s and Hood s divisions reinforced by Pickett s brigades I thought that it would not do that the point had been fully tested the day before by more men when all were fresh that the enemy was there looking for us as we heard him during the night putting up his defences that the divisions of McLaws and Hood were holding a mile 1 600 m along the right of my line against twenty thousand men who would follow their withdrawal strike the flank of the assaulting column crush it and get on our rear towards the Potomac River that thirty thousand men was the minimum of force necessary for the work that even such force would need close co operation on other parts of the line that the column as he proposed to organize it would have only about thirteen thousand men the divisions having lost a third of their numbers the day before that the column would have to march a mile 1 600 m under concentrating battery fire and a thousand yards 900 m under long range musketry that the conditions were different from those in the days of Napoleon when field batteries had a range of six hundred yards 550 m and musketry about sixty yards 55 m He said the distance was not more than fourteen hundred yards 1280 m General Meade s estimate was a mile or a mile and a half 1 6 or 2 4 km Captain Long the guide of the field of Gettysburg in 1888 stated that it was a trifle over a mile He then concluded that the divisions of McLaws and Hood could remain on the defensive line that he would reinforce by divisions of the Third Corps and Pickett s brigades and stated the point to which the march should be directed I asked the strength of the column He stated fifteen thousand Opinion was then expressed that the fifteen thousand men who could make successful assault over that field had never been arrayed for battle but he was impatient of listening and tired of talking and nothing was left but to proceed 79 Largest artillery bombardment of the war Around 1 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 would follow the Army of the Potomac s artillery under the command of Brigadier General Henry Jackson Hunt at first did not return the enemy s fire After waiting about 15 minutes about 80 Union cannons opened fire The Army of Northern Virginia was critically low on artillery ammunition and the cannonade did not significantly affect the Union position 80 Pickett s Charge Around 3 p m the cannon fire subsided and 12 500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the three quarters of a mile 1 200 m to Cemetery Ridge in what is known to history as Pickett s Charge As the Confederates approached there was fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top and musket and canister fire from Hancock s II Corps In the Union center the commander of artillery had held fire during the Confederate bombardment in order to save it for the infantry assault which Meade had correctly predicted the day before leading Southern commanders to believe the Northern cannon batteries had been knocked out However they opened fire on the Confederate infantry during their approach with devastating results Nearly one half of the attackers did not return to their own lines 81 Although the Union line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the Angle in a low stone fence just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees reinforcements rushed into the breach and the Confederate attack was repelled The farthest advance by Brigadier General Lewis A Armistead s brigade of Pickett s division at the Angle is referred to as the high water mark of the Confederacy 82 Union and Confederate soldiers locked in hand to hand combat attacking with their rifles bayonets rocks and even their bare hands Armistead ordered his Confederates to turn two captured cannons against Union troops but discovered that there was no ammunition left the last double canister shots having been used against the charging Confederates Armistead was wounded shortly afterward three times Cavalry battles 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 Union right and hitting their trains and lines of communications Three mi 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 Union cavalry Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg s division and 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 Union rear 83 Meanwhile after hearing news of the day s victory Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick launched a cavalry attack against the infantry positions of Longstreet s Corps southwest of Big Round Top Brigadier General 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 84 AftermathCasualties The Harvest of Death Union dead on the battlefield at Gettysburg Pennsylvania photographed July 5 or July 6 1863 by Timothy H O Sullivan John L Burns veteran of the War of 1812 civilian who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg with Union troops standing with bayoneted musket Mathew Brady s National Photographic Portrait Galleries photographer From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs Prints and Photographs Division Library of Congress The two armies suffered between 46 000 and 51 000 casualties nearly one third of all total troops engaged 28 of the Army of the Potomac and 37 of the Army of Northern Virginia 85 Union casualties were 23 055 3 155 killed 14 531 wounded 5 369 captured or missing 8 while Confederate casualties are more difficult to estimate Many authors have referred to as many as 28 000 Confederate casualties 86 and Busey and Martin s more recent 2005 work Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg documents 23 231 4 708 killed 12 693 wounded 5 830 captured or missing 9 Nearly a third of Lee s general officers were killed wounded or captured 87 The casualties for both sides during the entire campaign were 57 225 88 Other losses include 3 000 5 000 equines killed 89 Confederates lost over 31 55 battle flags with the Union possibly having slightly lost less than 40 90 In addition to being the deadliest battle of the war Gettysburg also had the highest number of generals killed in action The Confederacy lost generals Paul Jones Semmes William Barksdale William Dorsey Pender Richard Garnett and Lewis Armistead as well as J Johnston Pettigrew during the retreat after the battle The Union lost Generals John Reynolds Samuel K Zook Stephen H Weed and Elon J Farnsworth as well as Strong Vincent who after being mortally wounded was given a deathbed promotion to brigadier general Additional senior officer casualties included the wounding of Union Generals Dan Sickles lost a leg Francis C Barlow Daniel Butterfield and Winfield Scott Hancock For the Confederacy Major General John Bell Hood lost the use of his left arm while Major General Henry Heth received a shot to the head on the first day of battle though incapacitated for the rest of the battle he remarkably survived without long term injuries credited in part due to his hat stuffed full of paper dispatches Confederate Generals James L Kemper and Isaac R Trimble were severely wounded during Pickett s charge and captured during the Confederate retreat General James J Archer in command of a brigade that most likely was responsible for killing Reynolds was taken prisoner shortly after Reynolds death 91 The following tables summarize casualties by corps for the Union and Confederate forces during the three day battle 92 Union Corps Casualties k w m I Corps 6059 666 3231 2162 II Corps 4369 797 3194 378 III Corps 4211 593 3029 589 V Corps 2187 365 1611 211 VI Corps 242 27 185 30 XI Corps 3801 369 1922 1510 XII Corps 1082 204 812 66 Cavalry Corps 852 91 354 407 Artillery Reserve 242 43 187 12 Confederate Corps Casualties k w m First Corps 7665 1617 4205 1843 Second Corps 6686 1301 3629 1756 Third Corps 8495 1724 4683 2088 Cavalry Corps 380 66 174 140 Bruce Catton wrote The town of Gettysburg looked as if some universal moving day had been interrupted by catastrophe 93 But there was only one documented civilian death during the battle Ginnie Wade also widely known as Jennie 20 years old was hit by a stray bullet that passed through her kitchen in town while she was making bread 94 Another notable civilian casualty was John L Burns a 69 year old veteran of the War of 1812 who walked to the front lines on the first day of battle and participated in heavy combat as a volunteer receiving numerous wounds in the process Despite his age and injuries Burns survived the battle and lived until 1872 95 Nearly 8 000 had been killed outright these bodies lying in the hot summer sun needed to be buried quickly Over 3 000 horse carcasses 96 were burned in a series of piles south of town townsfolk became violently ill from the stench 97 Meanwhile the town of Gettysburg with its population of just 2 400 found itself tasked with taking care of 14 000 wounded Union troops and an additional 8 000 Confederate prisoners 98 Confederate retreat Further information Retreat from Gettysburg Gettysburg Campaign July 5 July 14 1863 The armies stared at one another in a heavy rain across the bloody fields on July 4 the same day that some 900 miles 1 500 km away the Vicksburg garrison surrendered to Maj General Ulysses S Grant Lee had reformed his lines into a defensive position on Seminary Ridge the night of July 3 evacuating the town of Gettysburg The Confederates remained on the battlefield hoping that Meade would attack but the cautious Union commander decided against the risk a decision for which he would later be criticized 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 99 Lee started his Army of Northern Virginia in motion late the evening of July 4 towards Fairfield and Chambersburg Cavalry under Brigadier General John D Imboden was entrusted to escort the miles long wagon train of supplies and wounded men that Lee wanted to take back to Virginia with him using the route through Cashtown and Hagerstown to Williamsport Maryland Meade s army followed although the pursuit was half spirited The recently rain swollen Potomac trapped Lee s army on the north bank of the river for a time but when the Union troops finally caught up the Confederates had forded the river The rear guard action at Falling Waters on July 14 added some more names to the long casualty lists including General Pettigrew who was mortally wounded 100 General James L Kemper severely wounded during Pickett s charge was captured during Lee s retreat 101 In a brief letter to Major General Henry W Halleck written on July 7 Lincoln remarked on the two major Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg He continued Now if General Meade can complete his work so gloriously prosecuted thus far by the literal or substantial destruction of Lee s army the rebellion will be over 102 Halleck then relayed the contents of Lincoln s letter to Meade in a telegram However the Army of the Potomac was exhausted by days of fighting and heavy losses Furthermore Meade was forced to detach 4 000 troops north to suppress the New York City Draft Riots 103 further reducing the effectiveness of his pursuit Despite repeated pleas from Lincoln and Halleck which continued over the next week Meade did not pursue Lee s army aggressively enough to destroy it before it crossed back over the Potomac River to safety in the South The campaign continued into Virginia with light engagements until July 23 in the minor Battle of Manassas Gap after which Meade abandoned any attempts at pursuit and the two armies took up positions across from each other on the Rappahannock River 104 Union reaction to the news of the victory The news of the Union victory electrified the North A headline in The Philadelphia Inquirer proclaimed VICTORY WATERLOO ECLIPSED New York diarist George Templeton Strong wrote 105 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 However the Union enthusiasm soon dissipated as the public realized that Lee s army had escaped destruction and the war would continue Lincoln complained to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that Our army held the war in the hollow of their hand and they would not close it 106 Brigadier General Alexander S Webb wrote to his father on July 17 stating that such Washington politicians as Chase Seward and others disgusted with Meade write to me that Lee really won that Battle 107 Effect on the Confederacy In fact the Confederates had lost militarily and also politically 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 negotiate 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 whose father was serving as the U S ambassador to the United Kingdom at the time 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 108 Compounding the effects of the defeat was the end of the Siege of Vicksburg which surrendered to Grant s Federal armies in the West on July 4 the day after the Gettysburg battle costing the Confederacy an additional 30 000 men along with all their arms and stores 109 The immediate reaction of the Southern military and public sectors was that Gettysburg was a setback not a disaster The sentiment was that Lee had been successful on July 1 and had fought a valiant battle on July 2 3 but could not dislodge the Union Army from the strong defensive position to which it fled The Confederates successfully stood their ground on July 4 and withdrew only after they realized Meade would not attack them The withdrawal to the Potomac that could have been a disaster was handled masterfully Furthermore the Army of the Potomac had been kept away from Virginia farmlands for the summer and all predicted that Meade would be too timid to threaten them for the rest of the year Lee himself had a positive view of the campaign writing to his wife that the army had returned rather sooner than I had originally contemplated but having accomplished what I proposed on leaving the Rappahannock viz relieving the Valley of the presence of the enemy and drawing his Army north of the Potomac He was quoted as saying to Maj John Seddon brother of the Confederate secretary of war Sir we did whip them at Gettysburg and it will be seen for the next six months that that army will be as quiet as a sucking dove Some Southern publications such as the Charleston Mercury were critical of Lee s actions On August 8 Lee offered his resignation to President Davis who quickly rejected it 110 Gettysburg became a postbellum focus of the Lost Cause a movement by writers such as Edward A Pollard and Jubal Early to explain the reasons for the Confederate defeat in the war A fundamental premise of their argument was that the South was doomed because of the overwhelming advantage in manpower and industrial might possessed by the North They also contend that Robert E Lee who up until this time had been almost invincible was betrayed by the failures of some of his key subordinates at Gettysburg Ewell for failing to seize Cemetery Hill on July 1 Stuart for depriving the army of cavalry intelligence for a key part of the campaign and especially Longstreet for failing to attack on July 2 as early and as forcefully as Lee had originally intended In this view Gettysburg was seen as a great lost opportunity in which a decisive victory by Lee could have meant the end of the war in the Confederacy s favor 111 After the war General Pickett was asked why the Confederates lost at Gettysburg He was reported to have said I always thought the Yankees had something to do with it 112 Gettysburg Address Main article Gettysburg Address On November 19 1863 U S President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address considered one of the best known speeches in American history 113 114 A crowd of citizens and soldiers surround Lincoln with a red arrow pointing to his location in photo The ravages of war were still evident in Gettysburg more than four months later when on November 19 the Soldiers National Cemetery was dedicated During this ceremony President Abraham Lincoln honored the fallen and redefined the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address 115 Medal of Honor Main article List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Gettysburg Campaign There were 72 Medals of Honor awarded for the Gettysburg Campaign 64 of the awards were for actions taken during the battle itself with the first recipient being awarded in December 1864 The last Medal of Honor was posthumously awarded to Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing in 2014 116 Historical assessmentDecisive victory controversies The nature of the result of the Battle of Gettysburg has been the subject of controversy Although not seen as overwhelmingly significant at the time particularly since the war continued for almost two years in retrospect it has often been cited as the turning point usually in combination with the fall of Vicksburg the following day 13 This is based on the observation that after Gettysburg Lee s army conducted no more strategic offensives his army merely reacted to the initiative of Ulysses S Grant in 1864 and 1865 and by the speculative viewpoint of the Lost Cause writers that a Confederate victory at Gettysburg might have resulted in the end of the war 117 The Army of the Potomac had won a victory It might be less of a victory than Mr Lincoln had hoped for but it was nevertheless a victory and because of that it was no longer possible for the Confederacy to win the war The North might still lose it to be sure if the soldiers or the people should lose heart but outright defeat was no longer in the cards Bruce Catton Glory Road 118 It is currently a widely held view that Gettysburg was a decisive victory for the Union but the term is considered imprecise It is inarguable that Lee s offensive on July 3 was turned back decisively and his campaign in Pennsylvania was terminated prematurely although the Confederates at the time argued that this was a temporary setback and that the goals of the campaign were largely met However when the more common definition of decisive victory is intended an indisputable military victory of a battle that determines or significantly influences the ultimate result of a conflict historians are divided For example David J Eicher called Gettysburg a strategic loss for the Confederacy and James M McPherson wrote that Lee and his men would go on to earn further laurels But they never again possessed the power and reputation they carried into Pennsylvania those palmy summer days of 1863 119 However Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones wrote that the strategic impact of the Battle of Gettysburg was fairly limited Steven E Woodworth wrote that Gettysburg proved only the near impossibility of decisive action in the Eastern theater Edwin Coddington pointed out the heavy toll on the Army of the Potomac and that after the battle Meade no longer possessed a truly effective instrument for the accomplishments of his task The army needed a thorough reorganization with new commanders and fresh troops but these changes were not made until Grant appeared on the scene in March 1864 Joseph T Glatthaar wrote that Lost opportunities and near successes plagued the Army of Northern Virginia during its Northern invasion yet after Gettysburg without the distractions of duty as an invading force without the breakdown of discipline the Army of Northern Virginia remained an extremely formidable force Ed Bearss wrote Lee s invasion of the North had been a costly failure Nevertheless at best the Army of the Potomac had simply preserved the strategic stalemate in the Eastern Theater 120 Furthermore the Confederacy soon proved it was still capable of winning significant victories over the Northern forces in both the East Battle of Cold Harbor and West Battle of Chickamauga citation needed Peter Carmichael refers to the military context for the armies the horrendous losses at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg which effectively destroyed Lee s offensive capacity implying that these cumulative losses were not the result of a single battle Thomas Goss writing in the U S Army s Military Review journal on the definition of decisive and the application of that description to Gettysburg concludes For all that was decided and accomplished the Battle of Gettysburg fails to earn the label decisive battle 121 The military historian John Keegan agrees Gettysburg was a landmark battle the largest of the war and it would not be surpassed The Union had restored to it the belief in certain victory and the loss dispirited the Confederacy If not exactly a decisive battle Gettysburg was the end of Confederate use of Northern Virginia as a military buffer zone the setting for Grant s Overland Campaign 122 Lee vs Meade George Meade the victorious Union Army general at the Battle of Gettysburg Robert E Lee the Confederate Army general at the Battle of Gettysburg Winfield Scott Hancock a Union Army major general commanded the Union Army s II Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg Gettysburg National Cemetery July 2003 Prior to Gettysburg Robert E Lee had established a reputation as an almost invincible general achieving stunning victories against superior numbers although usually at the cost of high casualties to his army during the Seven Days the Northern Virginia Campaign including the Second Battle of Bull Run Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville Only the Maryland Campaign with its tactically inconclusive Battle of Antietam had been less than successful Therefore historians who have attempted to explain how Lee s winning streak was interrupted so dramatically at Gettysburg citation needed Although the issue is tainted by attempts to portray history and Lee s reputation in a manner supporting different partisan goals the major factors in Lee s loss arguably can be attributed to 1 his overconfidence in the invincibility of his men 2 the performance of his subordinates and his management thereof 3 his failing health and 4 the performance of his opponent George G Meade and the Army of the Potomac citation needed Throughout the campaign Lee was influenced by the belief that his men were invincible most of Lee s experiences with the Army of Northern Virginia had convinced him of this including the great victory at Chancellorsville in early May and the rout of the Union troops at Gettysburg on July 1 Since morale plays an important role in military victory when other factors are equal Lee did not want to dampen his army s desire to fight and resisted suggestions principally by Longstreet to withdraw from the recently captured Gettysburg to select a ground more favorable to his army War correspondent Peter W Alexander wrote that Lee acted probably under the impression that his troops were able to carry any position however formidable If such was the case he committed an error such however as the ablest commanders will sometimes fall into Lee himself concurred with this judgment writing to President Davis No blame can be attached to the army for its failure to accomplish what was projected by me nor should it be censured for the unreasonable expectations of the public I am alone to blame in perhaps expecting too much of its prowess and valor 123 The most controversial assessments of the battle involve the performance of Lee s subordinates The dominant theme of the Lost Cause writers and many other historians is that Lee s senior generals failed him in crucial ways directly causing the loss of the battle the alternative viewpoint is that Lee did not manage his subordinates adequately and did not thereby compensate for their shortcomings 124 Two of his corps commanders Richard S Ewell and A P Hill had only recently been promoted and were not fully accustomed to Lee s style of command in which he provided only general objectives and guidance to their former commander Stonewall Jackson Jackson translated these into detailed specific orders to his division commanders 125 All four of Lee s principal commanders received criticism during the campaign and battle 126 James Longstreet suffered most severely from the wrath of the Lost Cause authors not the least because he directly criticized Lee in postbellum writings and became a Republican after the war His critics accuse him of attacking much later than Lee intended on July 2 squandering a chance to hit the Union Army before its defensive positions had firmed up They also question his lack of motivation to attack strongly on July 2 and 3 because he had argued that the army should have maneuvered to a place where it would force Meade to attack them The alternative view is that Lee was in close contact with Longstreet during the battle agreed to delays on the morning of July 2 and never criticized Longstreet s performance There is also considerable speculation about what an attack might have looked like before Dan Sickles moved the III Corps toward the Peach Orchard 127 J E B Stuart deprived Lee of cavalry intelligence during a good part of the campaign by taking his three best brigades on a path away from the army s This arguably led to Lee s surprise at Hooker s vigorous pursuit the engagement on July 1 that escalated into the full battle prematurely and it also prevented Lee from understanding the full disposition of the enemy on July 2 The disagreements regarding Stuart s culpability for the situation originate in the relatively vague orders issued by Lee but most modern historians agree that both generals were responsible to some extent for the failure of the cavalry s mission early in the campaign 128 Richard S Ewell has been universally criticized for failing to seize the high ground on the afternoon of July 1 Once again the disagreement centers on Lee s orders which provided general guidance for Ewell to act if practicable Many historians speculate that Stonewall Jackson if he had survived Chancellorsville would have aggressively seized Culp s Hill rendering Cemetery Hill indefensible and changing the entire complexion of the battle A differently worded order from Lee might have made the difference with this subordinate 129 A P Hill has received some criticism for his ineffective performance His actions caused the battle to begin and then escalate on July 1 despite Lee s orders not to bring on a general engagement although historians point out that Hill kept Lee well informed of his actions during the day However Hill s illness minimized his personal involvement in the remainder of the battle and Lee took the explicit step of temporarily removing troops from Hill s corps and giving them to Longstreet for Pickett s Charge 130 In addition to Hill s illness Lee s performance was affected by heart troubles which would eventually lead to his death in 1870 he had been diagnosed with pericarditis by his staff physicians in March 1863 though modern doctors believe he had in fact suffered a heart attack 131 He wrote to Jefferson Davis that his physical condition prevented him from offering full supervision in the field and said I am so dull that in making use of the eyes of others I am frequently misled 132 As a final factor Lee faced a new and formidable opponent in George G Meade and the Army of the Potomac fought well on its home territory Although new to his army command Meade deployed his forces relatively effectively relied on strong subordinates such as Winfield S Hancock to make decisions where and when they were needed took great advantage of defensive positions nimbly shifted defensive resources on interior lines to parry strong threats and unlike some of his predecessors stood his ground throughout the battle in the face of fierce Confederate attacks citation needed Lee was quoted before the battle as saying Meade would commit no blunders on my front and if I make one will make haste to take advantage of it That prediction proved to be correct at Gettysburg Stephen Sears wrote The fact of the matter is that George G Meade unexpectedly and against all odds thoroughly outgeneraled Robert E Lee at Gettysburg Edwin B Coddington wrote that the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac received a sense of triumph which grew into an imperishable faith in themselves The men knew what they could do under an extremely competent general one of lesser ability and courage could well have lost the battle 133 Meade had his own detractors as well Similar to the situation with Lee Meade suffered partisan attacks about his performance at Gettysburg but he had the misfortune of experiencing them in person Supporters of his predecessor Hooker lambasted Meade before the U S Congress s Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War where Radical Republicans suspected that Meade was a Copperhead and tried in vain to relieve him from command Daniel E Sickles and Daniel Butterfield accused Meade of planning to retreat from Gettysburg during the battle Most politicians including Lincoln criticized Meade for what they considered to be his half hearted pursuit of Lee after the battle A number of Meade s most competent subordinates Winfield S Hancock John Gibbon Gouverneur K Warren and Henry J Hunt all heroes of the battle defended Meade in print but Meade was embittered by the overall experience 134 Battlefield preservation M1857 12 Pounder Napoleon at Gettysburg National Military Park Gettysburg Pennsylvania September 2006LocationAdams Pennsylvania United StatesWebsitePark Home NPS gov 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 Although Gettysburg is one of the best known of all Civil War battlefields it too faces threats to its preservation and interpretation Many historically significant locations on the battlefield lie outside the boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park and are vulnerable to residential or commercial development citation needed On July 20 2009 a Comfort Inn and Suites opened on Cemetery Hill adjacent to Evergreen Cemetery just one of many modern edifices infringing on the historic field The Baltimore Pike corridor attracts development that concerns preservationists 135 Some preservation successes have emerged in recent years Two proposals to open a casino at Gettysburg were defeated in 2006 and most recently in 2011 when public pressure forced the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to reject the proposed gambling hub at the intersection of Routes 15 and 30 near East Cavalry Field 136 The American Battlefield Trust formerly the Civil War Trust also successfully purchased and transferred 95 acres 38 ha at the former site of the Gettysburg Country Club to the control of the U S Department of the Interior in 2011 137 Less than half of the over 11 500 acres on the old Gettysburg Battlefield have been preserved for posterity thus far The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved 1 231 acres 4 98 km2 of the battlefield in more than 35 separate transactions since 1997 138 Some of these acres are now among the 4 998 acres 2 023 ha of the Gettysburg National Military Park 139 In 2015 the Trust made one of its most important and expensive acquisitions paying 6 million for a four acre 1 6 ha parcel that included the stone house that Confederate General Robert E Lee used as his headquarters during the battle The Trust razed a motel restaurant and other buildings within the parcel to restore Lee s headquarters and the site to their wartime appearance adding interpretive signs It opened the site to the public in October 2016 140 Commemoration in U S postage and coinageDuring the Civil War Centennial the U S Post Office issued five postage stamps commemorating the 100th anniversaries of famous battles as they occurred over a four year period beginning with the Battle of Fort Sumter Centennial issue of 1961 The Battle of Shiloh commemorative stamp was issued in 1962 the Battle of Gettysburg in 1963 the Battle of the Wilderness in 1964 and the Appomattox Centennial commemorative stamp in 1965 141 A commemorative half dollar for the Battle of Gettysburg was produced in 1936 As was typical for the period mintage for the coin was very low just 26 928 142 On January 24 2011 a 25 cent coin was released in the America the Beautiful series commemorating Gettysburg National Military Park and the Battle of Gettysburg The reverse side of the coin depicts the monument on Cemetery Ridge to the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry 143 The 1936 Battle of Gettysburg half dollar Gettysburg Centennial Commemorative issue of 1963In popular cultureThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed July 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message Alfred Waud sketching the Battle of Gettysburg for Harper s Weekly 144 Film records survive of two Gettysburg reunions held on the battlefield At the 50th anniversary 1913 veterans re enacted Pickett s Charge in a spirit of reconciliation a meeting that carried great emotional force for both sides At the 75th anniversary 1938 2500 veterans attended and there was a ceremonial mass hand shake across a stone wall This was recorded on sound film and some Confederates can be heard giving the rebel yell The Battle of Gettysburg was depicted in the 1993 film Gettysburg based on Michael Shaara s 1974 novel The Killer Angels The film and novel focused primarily on the actions of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain John Buford Robert E Lee and James Longstreet during the battle The first day focused on Buford s cavalry defense the second day on Chamberlain s defense at Little Round Top and the third day on Pickett s Charge See also American Civil War portal Pennsylvania portalArmies in the American Civil War Battles of the American Civil War Bibliography of the American Civil War Gettysburg Cyclorama a painting by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux depicting Pickett s Charge List of costliest American Civil War land battles Troop engagements of the American Civil War 1863Notes Coddington p 573 See the discussion regarding historians judgment on whether Gettysburg should be considered a decisive victory Official Records Series I Volume XXVII Part 1 pages 155 168 Archived July 24 2017 at the Wayback Machine Official Records Series I Volume XXVII Part 2 pages 283 291 Archived July 24 2017 at the Wayback Machine Official Records Series I Volume XXVII Part 1 page 151 Archived July 24 2017 at the Wayback Machine a b Busey and Martin p 125 Engaged strength at the battle was 93 921 a b Busey and Martin p 260 state that engaged strength at the battle was 71 699 McPherson p 648 lists the strength at the start of the campaign as 75 000 Official Records Series I Volume XXVII Part 1 page 187 Archived July 24 2017 at the Wayback Machine a b Busey and Martin p 125 a b Busey and Martin p 260 cite 23 231 total 4 708 killed 12 693 wounded 5 830 captured missing See the section on casualties for a discussion of alternative Confederate casualty estimates which have been cited as high as 28 000 Official Records Series I Volume XXVII Part 2 pages 338 346 Archived July 24 2017 at the Wayback Machine Robert D Quigley Civil War Spoken Here A Dictionary of Mispronounced People Places and Things of the 1860s Collingswood NJ C W Historicals 1993 p 68 ISBN 0 9637745 0 6 The Battle of Antietam the culmination of Lee s first invasion of the North had the largest number of casualties in a single day about 23 000 a b Rawley p 147 Sauers p 827 Gallagher Lee and His Army p 83 McPherson p 665 Eicher p 550 Gallagher and McPherson cite the combination of Gettysburg and Vicksburg as the turning point Eicher uses the arguably related expression High water mark of the Confederacy Battle of Gettysburg Encyclopaedia Britannica Britannica com February 15 2017 Archived from the original on June 16 2015 Retrieved July 3 2012 Murray Williamson Hsieh Wayne Wei siang 2016 The War in the East 1863 A Savage War A Military History of the Civil War Princeton University Press p 278 ISBN 978 0 69 116940 8 a b Symonds pp 49 54 a b Loewen James W 1999 Lies Across America What American Historic Sites Get Wrong New York City New York Touchstone Simon amp Schuster Inc p 350 ISBN 9780743296298 Archived from the original on December 25 2016 Retrieved March 5 2016 Lee s troops seized scores of free black people in Maryland and Pennsylvania and sent them south into slavery This was in keeping with Confederate national policy which virtually re enslaved free people of color into work gangs on earthworks throughout the south a b Simpson Brooks D July 5 2015 The Soldiers Flag Crossroads WordPress Archived from the original on March 5 2016 Retrieved March 7 2016 T he Army of Northern Virginia was under orders to capture and send south supposed escaped slaves during that army s invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863 Coddington pp 8 9 Eicher p 490 Eicher pp 489 491 Symonds p 36 Trudeau pp 45 66 Moore Frank September 25 1864 The Rebellion Record A Diary of American Events with Documents Narratives Illustrative Incidents Poetry Etc Putnam via Internet Archive Reeves Frank June 30 2013 Confederates slave hunt in North a military disgrace Pittsburgh Post Gazette Archived from the original on April 9 2014 Retrieved June 22 2021 Nye pp 272 278 Symonds pp 41 43 Sears pp 103 106 Esposito text for Map 94 Map 34b in the online version Eicher pp 504 507 McPherson p 649 Sears p 123 Trudeau p 128 Coddington pp 181 189 Eicher pp 508 509 discounts Heth s claim because the previous visit by Early to Gettysburg would have made the lack of shoe factories or stores obvious However many mainstream historians accept Heth s account Sears p 136 Foote p 465 Clark p 35 Tucker pp 97 98 Martin p 25 Pfanz First Day p 25 Eicher p 508 Tucker pp 99 102 Eicher pp 502 503 Coddington p 122 Eicher p 503 Sears pp 155 158 Battle of Gettysburg Who Really Fired the First Shot HistoryNet www historynet com July 26 2006 Archived from the original on January 25 2021 Retrieved April 20 2012 The Battle of Gettysburg and the American Civil War The First Shot Marker Archived from the original on April 16 2005 Martin pp 80 81 The troopers carried single shot breechloading carbines manufactured by Sharps Burnside and others It is a modern myth that they were armed with multi shot repeating carbines Nevertheless they were able to fire two or three times faster than a muzzle loaded carbine or rifle citation needed Symonds p 71 Coddington p 266 Eicher pp 510 511 Tucker pp 112 117 Foote p 468 Tucker p 184 Symonds p 74 Pfanz First Day pp 269 275 Busey and Martin pp 298 501 Pfanz First Day pp 275 293 Clark p 53 Pfanz First Day p 158 Pfanz First Day p 230 Pfanz First Day pp 156 238 Pfanz First Day p 294 Pfanz First Day pp 337 338 Sears pp 223 225 Martin pp 482 488 Pfanz First Day p 344 Eicher p 517 Sears p 228 Trudeau p 253 Both Sears and Trudeau record if possible Martin p 9 citing Thomas L Livermore s Numbers amp Losses in the Civil War in America Houghton Mifflin 1900 Longstreet From Manassas to Appomattox Memoirs of the Civil War in America Philadelphia J B Lippincott 1896 pp 364 365 A Map Study of the Battle of Gettysburg Historical Society of Pennsylvania Historical Society of Pennsylvania Retrieved December 17 2022 The Union Fishhook Historical Marker www hmdb org Retrieved December 17 2022 Battle of Gettysburg www americaslegacylinks com Retrieved December 17 2022 Clark p 74 Eicher p 521 a b James Longstreet From Manassas to Appomattox Philadelphia PA J R Lippincott company 1896 p 365 Sears p 255 Clark p 69 a b Edward Porter Alexander Military Memoirs of a Confederate New York Charles Scribner amp Sons 1907 p 408 Longstreet From Manassas to Appomattox Memoirs of the Civil War in America Philadelphia J B Lippincott 1896 pp 364 368 Longstreet From Mannassas to Appomattox Memoirs of the Civil War in America p 366 Pfanz Second Day pp 119 123 Pfanz Second Day pp 93 97 Eicher pp 523 524 Longstreet From Manassas to Appomattox Memoirs of the Civil War in America p 369 Eicher Harman p 59 Harman p 57 Sears pp 312 324 Eicher pp 530 535 Coddington p 423 Eicher pp 527 530 Clark pp 81 85 Morgan James Who saved Little Round Top Camp Chase Gazette Archived from the original on March 3 2016 Retrieved February 21 2016 Col Chamberlain did not lead the charge Lt Holman Melcher was the first officer down the slope Edward Porter Alexander Military Memoirs of a Confederate New York Charles Scribner amp Sons 1907 p 409 Eicher pp 537 538 Sauers p 835 Pfanz Culp s Hill pp 205 234 Clark pp 115 116 Report of Major General R E Rodes CSA commanding division June 3 August 1 1863 The Gettysburg Campaign O R Series I Volume XXVII 2 S 44 Sears p 257 Longacre pp 198 199 Harman p 63 Pfanz Culp s Hill pp 284 352 Eicher pp 540 541 Coddington pp 465 475 Eicher p 542 Coddington pp 485 486 Longstreet James 1896 From Manassas to Appomattox Memoirs of the Civil War in America Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA J B Lippincott pp 386 387 See discussion of varying gun estimates in Pickett s Charge article footnote Pickett s Charge HistoryNet Archived from the original on June 24 2022 Retrieved June 24 2022 McPherson pp 661 663 Clark pp 133 144 Symonds pp 214 241 Eicher pp 543 549 Battle History Gettysburg PA www gettysburgpa gov Archived from the original on May 21 2022 Retrieved June 24 2022 Eicher pp 549 550 Longacre pp 226 231 240 44 Sauers p 836 Wert pp 272 280 Gettysburg Casualties Battle Deaths at Gettysburg Historynet Archived from the original on November 2 2011 Retrieved June 22 2021 Examples of the varying Confederate casualties for July 1 3 are Sears p 498 22 625 Coddington p 536 20 451 and very likely more Trudeau p 529 22 874 Eicher p 550 22 874 but probably actually totaled 28 000 or more McPherson p 664 28 000 Esposito map 99 near 28 000 Clark p 150 20 448 but probably closer to 28 000 which he inaccurately cites as a nearly 40 loss Woodworth p 209 at least equal to Meade s and possibly as high as 28 000 NPS 28 000 Glatthaar p 282 Sears p 513 The Battle of Gettysburg amp the History of the Civil War Horse Retrieved November 14 2022 Nofi Albert August 19 2017 The Blue amp Gray Almanac The Civil War in Facts amp Figures Recipes amp Slang Casemate Publishers ISBN 978 1 61200 553 9 The Battle of Gettysburg Battlefield Anomalies Archived from the original on September 27 2021 Retrieved June 24 2022 Busey and Martin pp 125 147 260 315 Headquarters element casualties account for the minor differences in army totals stated previously Catton p 325 Sears p 391 Gettysburg s Most Unlikely Hero An Elderly Citizen Who Volunteered Archived from the original on June 19 2017 Retrieved May 6 2017 Sears p 511 Woodworth p 216 Leonard Pat July 7 2013 Nursing the Wounded at Gettysburg Archived from the original on August 4 2017 Retrieved July 12 2017 Eicher p 550 Coddington pp 539 544 Clark pp 146 147 Sears p 469 Wert p 300 Clark pp 147 157 Longacre pp 268 269 Robert E Lee by Freeman Vol III Chap 9 penelope uchicago edu Archived from the original on August 24 2022 Retrieved June 24 2022 Coddington p 564 New York Draft Riots History com April 16 2021 Archived from the original on March 7 2014 Retrieved June 22 2021 Coddington pp 535 574 Sears pp 496 497 Eicher p 596 Wittenberg et al One Continuous Fight pp 345 346 McPherson p 664 Donald p 446 Woodworth p 217 Coddington p 573 McPherson pp 650 664 Vicksburg Archived from the original on June 2 2022 Retrieved June 5 2022 Gallagher Lee and His Army pp 86 93 102 05 Sears pp 501 502 McPherson p 665 in contrast to Gallagher depicts Lee as profoundly depressed about the battle Gallagher Lee and His Generals pp 207 208 Sears p 503 Woodworth p 221 Gallagher s essay Jubal A Early The Lost Cause and Civil War History A Persistent Legacy in Lee and His Generals is a good overview of the Lost Cause movement This site is temporarily unavailable www brotherswar com Archived from the original on March 8 2017 Retrieved January 19 2017 Conant Sean 2015 The Gettysburg Address Perspectives on Lincoln s Greatest Speech New York Oxford University Press p ix ISBN 978 0 19 022745 6 Holsinger M Paul 1999 War and American Popular Culture A Historical Encyclopedia Westport CT Greenwood Press p 102 ISBN 978 0 313 29908 7 White p 251 White refers to Lincoln s use of the term new birth of freedom and writes The new birth that slowly emerged in Lincoln s politics meant that on November 19 at Gettysburg he was no longer as in his inaugural address defending an old Union but proclaiming a new Union The old Union contained and attempted to restrain slavery The new Union would fulfill the promise of liberty the crucial step into the future that the Founders had failed to take Bradley Mark Medal of Honor 1st Lt Alonzo H Cushing U S Army Center of Military History Archived from the original on September 21 2018 Retrieved September 21 2018 McPherson p 665 Gallagher Lee and His Generals pp 207 208 Catton p 331 Eicher p 550 McPherson p 665 Hattaway and Jones p 415 Woodworth p xiii Coddington p 573 Glatthaar p 288 Bearss p 202 Carmichael p xvii Goss Major Thomas July August 2004 Gettysburg s Decisive Battle PDF Military Review 11 16 Archived PDF from the original on February 2 2007 Retrieved November 11 2009 Keegan pp 202 239 Sears pp 499 500 Glatthaar p 287 Fuller p 198 states that Lee s overweening confidence in the superiority of his soldiers over his enemy possessed him For example Sears p 504 In the final analysis it was Robert E Lee s inability to manage his generals that went to the heart of the failed campaign Glatthaar pp 285 286 criticizes the inability of the generals to coordinate their actions as a whole Fuller p 198 states that Lee maintained no grip over the operations of his army Fuller p 195 for example refers to orders to Stuart that were as usual vague Fuller p 197 wrote As was Lee s custom he relied on verbal instructions and left all details to his subordinates Woodworth pp 209 210 Sears pp 501 502 McPherson pp 656 657 Coddington pp 375 380 A more detailed collection of historical assessments of Longstreet at Gettysburg may be found in James Longstreet Gettysburg Sears p 502 A more detailed collection of historical assessments of Stuart in the Gettysburg Campaign may be found in J E B Stuart Gettysburg McPherson p 654 Coddington pp 317 319 Eicher pp 517 518 Sears p 503 Sears pp 502 503 Schmidt Jim June 25 2008 Civil War Medicine and Writing Medical Department 18 Lee s Health at Gettysburg Archived from the original on December 25 2014 Retrieved November 14 2014 Sears p 500 Sears p 506 Coddington p 573 Sears pp 505 507 Preservation Trust Helps Secure Key Piece of Ground in Gettysburg PDF The Old Liner Newsletter Baltimore Civil War Roundtable August 2004 Archived PDF from the original on October 20 2004 Retrieved June 22 2021 Gettysburg casino plan defeated Penn State Civil War History Center April 15 2011 Archived from the original on April 20 2013 Pitzer Scot Andrew March 26 2011 Country club site acquisition ends 25 year Park Service effort Gettysburg Times Archived from the original on August 16 2019 Retrieved June 22 2021 Saved Land American Battlefield Trust Archived from the original on May 19 2018 Retrieved November 23 2021 Gettysburg American Battlefield Trust battlefields org Archived from the original on August 24 2022 Retrieved May 24 2018 Wheeler Linda September 15 2016 Lee s Gettysburg headquarters restored set to open Oct 28 The Washington Post Archived from the original on July 8 2018 Retrieved May 24 2018 Arago 1963 Civil War Centennial Issue arago si edu Archived from the original on April 29 2011 Retrieved January 11 2011 HNAI US Coin Auction Catalog 1145 Stamford CT Heritage Capital Corporation 2010 p 160 ISBN 9781599674926 Archived from the original on June 3 2016 Retrieved November 20 2015 America the Beautiful Quarters Program U S Mint www usmint gov Archived from the original on January 21 2011 Retrieved January 11 2011 Gettysburg Pa Alfred R Waud artist of Harper s Weekly sketching on battlefield Library of Congress 1863 Archived from the original on May 22 2022 Retrieved May 22 2022 ReferencesBearss Edwin C Fields of Honor Pivotal Battles of the Civil War Washington D C National Geographic Society 2006 ISBN 0 7922 7568 3 Busey John W and David G Martin Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg 4th ed Hightstown NJ Longstreet House 2005 ISBN 0 944413 67 6 Carmichael Peter S ed Audacity Personified The Generalship of Robert E Lee Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press 2004 ISBN 0 8071 2929 1 Catton Bruce Glory Road Garden City NY Doubleday and Company 1952 ISBN 0 385 04167 5 Clark Champ and the Editors of Time Life Books Gettysburg The Confederate High Tide Alexandria VA Time Life Books 1985 ISBN 0 8094 4758 4 Coddington Edwin B The Gettysburg Campaign a study in command New York Scribner s 1968 ISBN 0 684 84569 5 Donald David Herbert Lincoln New York Simon amp Schuster 1995 ISBN 0 684 80846 3 Eicher David J The Longest Night A Military History of the Civil War New York Simon amp Schuster 2001 ISBN 0 684 84944 5 Esposito Vincent J West Point Atlas of American Wars New York Frederick A Praeger 1959 OCLC 5890637 The collection of maps without explanatory text is available online at the West Point website Foote Shelby The Civil War A Narrative Vol 2 Fredericksburg to Meridian New York Random House 1958 ISBN 0 394 49517 9 Fuller Major General J F C Grant and Lee A Study in Personality and Generalship Bloomington Indiana University Press 1957 ISBN 0 253 13400 5 Gallagher Gary W Lee and His Army in Confederate History Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press 2001 ISBN 978 0 8078 2631 7 Gallagher Gary W Lee and His Generals in War and Memory Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press 1998 ISBN 0 8071 2958 5 Glatthaar Joseph T General Lee s Army From Victory to Collapse New York Free Press 2008 ISBN 978 0 684 82787 2 Harman Troy D Lee s Real Plan at Gettysburg Mechanicsburg PA Stackpole Books 2003 ISBN 0 8117 0054 2 Hattaway Herman and Archer Jones How the North Won A Military History of the Civil War Urbana University of Illinois Press 1983 ISBN 0 252 00918 5 Keegan John The American Civil War A Military History New York Alfred A Knopf 2009 ISBN 978 0 307 26343 8 Longacre Edward G The Cavalry at Gettysburg Lincoln University of Nebraska Press 1986 ISBN 0 8032 7941 8 McPherson James M Battle Cry of Freedom The Civil War Era Oxford History of the United States New York Oxford University Press 1988 ISBN 0 19 503863 0 Martin David G Gettysburg July 1 rev ed Conshohocken PA Combined Publishing 1996 ISBN 0 938289 81 0 Murray Williamson and Wayne Wei siang Hsieh A Savage War A Military History of the Civil War Princeton Princeton University Press 2016 ISBN 978 0 69 116940 8 Nye Wilbur S Here Come the Rebels Dayton OH Morningside House 1984 ISBN 0 89029 080 6 First published in 1965 by Louisiana State University Press Pfanz Harry W Gettysburg The First Day Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press 2001 ISBN 0 8078 2624 3 Pfanz Harry W Gettysburg The Second Day Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press 1987 ISBN 0 8078 1749 X Pfanz Harry W Gettysburg Culp s Hill and Cemetery Hill Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press 1993 ISBN 0 8078 2118 7 Rawley James A 1966 Turning Points of the Civil War University of Nebraska Press ISBN 0 8032 8935 9 OCLC 44957745 Sauers Richard A Battle of Gettysburg In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War A Political Social and Military History edited by David S Heidler and Jeanne T Heidler New York W W Norton amp Company 2000 ISBN 0 393 04758 X Sears Stephen W Gettysburg Boston Houghton Mifflin 2003 ISBN 0 395 86761 4 Symonds Craig L American Heritage History of the Battle of Gettysburg New York HarperCollins 2001 ISBN 0 06 019474 X Tagg Larry The Generals of Gettysburg Campbell CA Savas Publishing 1998 ISBN 1 882810 30 9 Trudeau Noah Andre Gettysburg A Testing of Courage New York HarperCollins 2002 ISBN 0 06 019363 8 Tucker Glenn High Tide at Gettysburg Dayton OH Morningside House 1983 ISBN 978 0 914427 82 7 First published 1958 by Bobbs Merrill Co Wert Jeffry D Gettysburg Day Three New York Simon amp Schuster 2001 ISBN 0 684 85914 9 White Ronald C Jr The Eloquent President A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words New York Random House 2005 ISBN 1 4000 6119 9 Wittenberg Eric J J David Petruzzi and Michael F Nugent One Continuous Fight The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee s Army of Northern Virginia July 4 14 1863 New York Savas Beatie 2008 ISBN 978 1 932714 43 2 Woodworth Steven E Beneath a Northern Sky A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign Wilmington DE SR Books scholarly Resources Inc 2003 ISBN 0 8420 2933 8 Memoirs and primary sources Paris Louis Philippe Albert d Orleans The Battle of Gettysburg A History of the Civil War in America Digital Scanning Inc 1999 ISBN 1 58218 066 0 First published 1869 by Germer Bailliere New York State William F Fox and Daniel Edgar Sickles New York at Gettysburg Final Report on the Battlefield of Gettysburg Albany NY J B Lyon Company Printers 1900 OCLC 607395975 U S War Department The War of the Rebellion a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies Washington DC U S Government Printing Office 1880 1901 Further readingExternal mediaImages GettysburgPhotographs com Battlefields org maps amp photos Gettysburg edu paintings amp photosVideo GettysburgAnimated comAdkin Mark The Gettysburg Companion The Complete Guide to America s Most Famous Battle Mechanicsburg PA Stackpole Books 2008 ISBN 978 0 8117 0439 7 Bachelder John B The Bachelder Papers Gettysburg in Their Own Words Edited by David L Ladd and Audrey J Ladd 3 vols Dayton OH Morningside Press 1994 ISBN 0 89029 320 1 Bachelder John B Gettysburg What to See and How to See It Embodying Full Information for Visiting the Field Boston Bachelder 1873 OCLC 4637523 Ballard Ted and Billy Arthur Gettysburg Staff Ride Briefing Book Archived April 30 2011 at the Wayback Machine Carlisle PA United States Army Center of Military History 1999 OCLC 42908450 Bearss Edwin C Receding Tide Vicksburg and Gettysburg The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War Washington D C National Geographic Society 2010 ISBN 978 1 4262 0510 1 Boritt Gabor S ed The Gettysburg Nobody Knows New York Oxford University Press 1997 ISBN 0 19 510223 1 Desjardin Thomas A These Honored Dead How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory New York Da Capo Press 2003 ISBN 0 306 81267 3 Frassanito William A Early Photography at Gettysburg Gettysburg PA Thomas Publications 1995 ISBN 1 57747 032 X Lyon Fremantle Arthur J The Fremantle Diary A Journal of the Confederacy Edited by Walter Lord Short Hills NJ Burford Books 2002 ISBN 1 58080 085 8 First published 1954 by Capricorn Books Gallagher Gary W ed Three Days at Gettysburg Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership Kent OH Kent State University Press 1999 ISBN 0 87338 629 9 Gottfried Bradley M Brigades of Gettysburg New York Da Capo Press 2002 ISBN 0 306 81175 8 Gottfried Bradley M The Maps of Gettysburg An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign June 3 13 1863 New York Savas Beatie 2007 ISBN 978 1 932714 30 2 Grimsley Mark and Brooks D Simpson Gettysburg A Battlefield Guide Lincoln University of Nebraska Press 1999 ISBN 0 8032 7077 1 Guelzo Allen C Gettysburg The Last Invasion New York Vintage Books 2013 ISBN 978 0 307 74069 4 First published in 2013 by Alfred A Knopf Hall Jeffrey C The Stand of the U S Army at Gettysburg Bloomington Indiana University Press 2003 ISBN 0 253 34258 9 Haskell Frank Aretas The Battle of Gettysburg Whitefish MT Kessinger Publishing 2006 ISBN 978 1 4286 6012 0 Hawthorne Frederick W Gettysburg Stories of Men and Monuments Gettysburg PA Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides 1988 ISBN 0 9657444 0 X Hoptak John David Confrontation at Gettysburg A Nation Saved a Cause Lost Charleston SC The History Press 2012 ISBN 978 1 60949 426 1 Huntington Tom Pennsylvania Civil War Trails The Guide to Battle Sites Monuments Museums and Towns Mechanicsburg PA Stackpole Books 2007 ISBN 978 0 8117 3379 3 Laino Philip Gettysburg Campaign Atlas 2nd ed Dayton OH Gatehouse Press 2009 ISBN 978 1 934900 45 1 McMurry Richard M The Pennsylvania Gambit and the Gettysburg Splash In The Gettysburg Nobody Knows edited by Gabor Boritt New York Oxford University Press 1997 ISBN 0 19 510223 1 McPherson James M Hallowed Ground A Walk at Gettysburg New York Crown Publishers 2003 ISBN 0 609 61023 6 Petruzzi J David and Steven Stanley The Complete Gettysburg Guide New York Savas Beatie 2009 ISBN 978 1 932714 63 0 Rhodes James Ford The Battle of Gettysburg American Historical Review 4 4 1899 pp 665 677 online Stackpole General Edward J They Met at Gettysburg Harrisburg PA Stackpole Books 1956 OCLC 22643644 External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to wbr Gettysburg Battlefield and wbr Gettysburg National Military Park Battle of Gettysburg at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons News from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Travel information from Wikivoyage Resources from Wikiversity Battle of Gettysburg Battle Maps histories photos and preservation news American Battlefield Trust Animated map of the Battle of Gettysburg American Battlefield Trust Gettysburg National Military Park National Park Service Papers of the Gettysburg National Military Park seminars U S Army s Interactive Battle of Gettysburg with Narratives Military History Online The Battle of Gettysburg Official Records The Battle of Gettysburg The Brothers War The Battle of Gettysburg Gettysburg Discussion Group archives List of 53 Confederate generals at Gettysburg Archived December 26 2008 at the Wayback Machine Encyclopaedia Britannica Battle of Gettysburg National Park Service battle description A film clip Blue and Gray At 75th Anniversary of Great Battle 1938 07 04 1938 is available at the Internet Archive Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Battle of Gettysburg amp oldid 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