The Battle Of Gettysburg: Turning Point Of The Civil War

The Battle of Gettysburg was by far the bloodiest battle in American History and ultimately changed the outcome on the Civil War. During the first year and a half the Confederates succeeded with many major victories against the Union Army. However, the Battle of Gettysburg became a great turning point of the war. The battle itself lasted for three days and decisions made by both the Confederates and the Union led to one of the highest casualty wars in history. After three grueling days, the Union was able to pull a victory and repel the Confederate forces. The Union’s tactical advantage of occupying high ground, a strong troop formation, and poor command decisions from General Lee greatly aided in overcoming the invading Confederate army.
Sickles believed his position wasn’t adequate enough for his artillery unit and decided to push west to the Wheat Field, Peach Orchard, and a hillside later to be named the Devil’s Den (civilwar.org). This decision was made without the approval from General Meade and many casualties resulted of it. Luckily Meade decided to send reinforcements to cover down and fill gaps in the Union’s line. The Confederates however, were able to take those positions one by one which resulted in Sickles becoming a casualty. Even though the Confederates gained ground, General James Longstreet was unable to break the Union’s line with the reinforcements ordered by General Meade. The Union was able to reform at Cemetery Ridge and repel the rebels attack after attack. July 2nd wound up being the costliest days of this battle with nearly 15,000
Lee saw an opportunity to take Culps Hill during a morning assault. Before morning, Longstreet gave one last suggestion to Lee to hit the Union’s right side. Despite Longstreet having scouts out all night to observing the Union position, Lee rejected the advice (Hillstrom, 2013). Lee sought to exploit the Union’s vulnerability of a weak center and predicted the left and right Union flanks to be reinforced after the previous day’s fighting. Lee ordered General Pickett to lead the charge down the center but it wasn’t until 3pm that the attack was conducted and the Union was able to fortify its positions. Twelve thousand men conducted the assault which had them to traverse through one mile of open ground. The Union launched a barrage of artillery followed by a twenty thousand Union reinforcements that converged on the center. The Confederates eventually found themselves stuck in a pincer of Union soldiers (civilwar.org). Less than half of the attacking Confederates were able to cross Emmittsburg road and Pickett ended up losing two thirds of his men. Ultimately the terrain the Confederates had to cross was laden with rocks and difficult to traverse (Doyle, 2006). That, and the stone wall that was positioned at the edge of the diabase outcrop easily broke the charge from Pickett (Doyle, 2006). The night before General Meade predicted such a move and became the first Union commander to outguess Robert E. Lee (civilwar.org). This