It is now at the beginning of the three-day event known as the Battle of Gettysburg. And it is certainly arguable that it appeared, after the first day of fighting, that the Confederacy was about to carry the day. But it was the third day of fighting that really mattered. Names such as Cemetary Ridge; Culp's Hill; Little Round Top; and the Devil's Den will forever be engraved in the memories of Civil War buffs (as regarding which, I am one). But the term that we will most easily rememeber is Picket's Charge. It was that ill-fated military maneuver that sealed the Confederacy's fate on that July day in 1863. In the end, there were slightly more Union casualties there than there were Confederate casualties (roughly 30,100 to 27,000). But lest anyone should suppose that this meant good things for the Confederacy--well, it meant anything but that. The only "good thing" for the Confederacy, to arise from this three-day-long battle, was the fact that Gen. George Meade (who had recently replaced Gen. Joseph Hooker at the command of the Union forces there) did not pursue the tattered troops of Gen. Robert E. Lee, following the battle. But for all its horrendous losses, the Union would persevere. For Lee, this battle (in conjunction with the successful siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi) amounted to the beginning of the end.
Good post. I just posted the text of the gettysburg address.. very famous speech. A very interesting & tragic time in american history.. http://www.politicalforum.com/warfare-military/309589-gettysburg-address.html
Vastly more important was the surrender of Vicksburg coming on the last day of Gettysburg. Grant and Sherman were brilliant. Lee never really had a chance at Gettysburg after Cemetery Ridge was fortified, he was outnumbered by a corps and while Meade was no Grant he was competent and had several brilliant generals on site (Hancock, Warren, Buford). Had Lee listened to Longstreet and went around the Federals and placed himself on high ground between Washington and Meade the roles would have been reversed. Grant capturing Vicksburg cut off supplies from the west to the Confederacy, with nearly all the Atlantic ports blockaded the South could not resupply itself. Believe it or not aging Winfred Scott, hero of the Mexican War came up with the "Anaconda Plan" early in the war knowing it would be the key to defeating the south in a long war no one else in the north predicted. Truth be known, Lee had no business leaving Virginia, all he had to do was exist as an Army and wear the north down, it was he that really lost the war for the south.
Excellent post! And I agree that the fall of Vicksburg--by cutting the South in two, and giving control of the Mississippi River to the Union--was even more important that the outcome at Gettysburg was in strangling the Confederacy. Still, the outcome at Gettysburg probably helped to stymie the so-called "Copperhead" movement in the North, that might have forced a negotiated settlement--and, effectively, a victory that the Confederacy could not win on the battlefield. (This would hardly have been unprecedented. No serious person could suppose that the colonists were militarily superior to the British in the 1770s; or that North Vietnam, about 100 years after the American Civil War, was militarily superior to the US.)
If you are ever at Gettysberg, where everything is arranged as it was during Pickett's charge, one thing jumps out at you. These people were honked. By July 1863 nobody had any illusions left. When the Rebs broke the treeline they knew the guns on Little Round Top would commence firing. they saw regiments stacked five deep at the objective. They saw hub-to-hub artillery waiting on them. They couldn't see that reserve corps behind the objective but they knew the Yankees had a lot of men left. But on they came and they nearly broke through. Shelby Foote put it like this. "In July of 1863 the two most dangerous armies on the planet collided head-on." In Herbst's Woods two regiments - the 26th North Carolina and 24th Michigan - literally annihilated each other. On July 1, eleven hundred men (between the two regiments) answered roll call. On July 2, less than 50 answered roll between the two. I'd call that motivation. Around them the crack Iron Brigade ("It's them black hat fellers. That ain't no militia. That's the Army of the Potomac!") was reduced to a provost guard. The Pennsylvania Bucktails lost 60% of their strength. Indeed the entire elite I Corps never took to the field again by itself. It was amalgamated into the II Corps. But Lee lost all the offensive punch of his army. Two months later Hood's Texans - the best assault infantry in the world in 1863 - were repulsed at Chickamauga. the game was over and nobody knew it more than Robert E. Lee. But his army fought on for twenty-two months on sheer orneriness. And the Yankees were every bit as ornery. Tough, tough people.
