imagine you are a southern soldier
Dear Aunt Caroline,
Things were rough here at the battle of Gettysburg. Today is July 4th 1863, the day after the battle ended. Brother Bob and myself fought bravely under Confederate General Robert E. Lee. At the start of the whole thing we were quite confident in our ability to win due to the astounding victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May 1863. We all felt extremely good in the direction this was heading, as General Lee only intended to collect supplies from Pennsylvania farmland. He also believed that we needed to leave poor Virginia alone, as the majority of the fighting had occurred there already. Us Confederates only wanted to threaten those Yankees, stop everybody wanting to fight, but most importantly, win a battle on Yankee soil. That would teach them to respect our Southern pride and traditions. I, personally, don’t necessarily want to be fighting all these other good men, but my Southern culture is being threatened. Surely you understand that Aunt Caroline. No one wants their lifestyle to be taken away from them. Anyway Aunt Caroline, let me tell you all about the fighting. We started off Northwest of the city of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on July 1st. Us confederates were fighting with 30,000 men and we had the Yankees outnumbered by 10,000. We were able to defeat them the first day although we weren’t so lucky for the rest. On the 2nd day of fighting, the Union army brought 90,000 men to fight our 70,000 confederates. The fighting seemed to stay back and forth all of the 2nd day but I believe that the Union army still had the upper hand on us at the end of the day. On the 3rd day of fighting we were atop Culp’s Hill ready to fight those Yankees! General Lee came up with the plan to charge the center of the Union line on Cemetary Ridge with 12,000 Confederate men. This attempt was destroyed by Union rifle and artillery fire, and we took great losses to our Confederate army. Lee led our army on a torturous retreat back to
Things were rough here at the battle of Gettysburg. Today is July 4th 1863, the day after the battle ended. Brother Bob and myself fought bravely under Confederate General Robert E. Lee. At the start of the whole thing we were quite confident in our ability to win due to the astounding victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May 1863. We all felt extremely good in the direction this was heading, as General Lee only intended to collect supplies from Pennsylvania farmland. He also believed that we needed to leave poor Virginia alone, as the majority of the fighting had occurred there already. Us Confederates only wanted to threaten those Yankees, stop everybody wanting to fight, but most importantly, win a battle on Yankee soil. That would teach them to respect our Southern pride and traditions. I, personally, don’t necessarily want to be fighting all these other good men, but my Southern culture is being threatened. Surely you understand that Aunt Caroline. No one wants their lifestyle to be taken away from them. Anyway Aunt Caroline, let me tell you all about the fighting. We started off Northwest of the city of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on July 1st. Us confederates were fighting with 30,000 men and we had the Yankees outnumbered by 10,000. We were able to defeat them the first day although we weren’t so lucky for the rest. On the 2nd day of fighting, the Union army brought 90,000 men to fight our 70,000 confederates. The fighting seemed to stay back and forth all of the 2nd day but I believe that the Union army still had the upper hand on us at the end of the day. On the 3rd day of fighting we were atop Culp’s Hill ready to fight those Yankees! General Lee came up with the plan to charge the center of the Union line on Cemetary Ridge with 12,000 Confederate men. This attempt was destroyed by Union rifle and artillery fire, and we took great losses to our Confederate army. Lee led our army on a torturous retreat back to