The Battle Of Gettysburg: The Greatest Battles Of The Civil War

The Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most well-known battles of the civil war, was considered to be one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of the civil war. It is thought to be one of the most decisive battles because the Confederacy marched into the north after a victory but were then beat and forced to retreat, after this they never fully recovered eventually leading to the Union winning. In the 3 days it lasted some where between 46,000 and 50,000 casualties occurred, 8,000 of those being deaths. Before the battle of Gettysburg, In Late April and early May of 1863, General Robert E Lee had just won what was considered to be one of his greatest victories. In the battle of Chancellorsville, Lee’s army faced an army nearly double
All was good and well, but during the battle Thomas “stonewall” Jackson, one of Lee’s most significant generals was wounded and later died. Later in June, with great morale Robert E Lee paraded his army of northern Virginia into Pennsylvania. This was the second time Lee decided to invade the north, the first being the battle of Antietam. Doing this brought the conflict out of Virginia and drew union soldiers away from Vicksburg where the Confederates were losing. On July 1st, day one of the battle of Gettysburg, after learning the army of the Potomac was on there way Lee planned to gather his army in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Upon arrival one of the confederate divisions were met with an unwanted surprise, two union brigades were already there. The Confederates however were able to push back union forces to Cemetery Hill. With this advantage over the Union Lee gave orders to attack Cemetery Hill to Richard Ewell, his new right-hand man after Thomas “stonewall” Jackson’s death. Ewell declined to order his army to attack because he felt the Union forces were far too strong. By late that night a Union corps had arrived and extended the defensive line, three more union corps followed later that
Hours and hours of gory fighting followed in which the union lost much of there land but were able to retain little round top. At Culp’s Hill and East cemetery hill the confederates had closed in on union forces but the union had not yet attacked, they were stalling their attack until later that night. Both armies faced major setbacks however with more than 9,000 casualties on each side. July 3rd, day three of the battle of Gettysburg, after seven hours of brutal fighting, early in the morning Union forces pushed back the advancing confederates from Culp’s hill and were able to gain back their position. After great advancements during day two, Lee felt he had almost won so with great confidence he sent in three divisions along with an artillery brigade to the Union’s center at Cemetery Ridge. With all divisions combined there were around 15,000 soldiers, all led by George Pickett. These soldiers were tasked with marching a little less than a mile across an open field only to meet Union infantry soldiers in trenches. This came to be known as Pickett’s charge. Despite protests by Lee’s top generals, he went forward with the attack at 3