Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg took place during the Civil War from July 1st to 3rd, 1863. The Union, led by General George Meade, fought against the Confederates, led by General Robert E. Lee. The Confederates were trying to reach Washington, D.C., but the Union's defense forced them to retreat. The battle had three days of intense fighting, including Pickett's Charge, where the Confederates suffered heavy losses. In the end, the Union won, but there were approximately 51,000 casualties. President Lincoln later gave the Gettysburg Address to honor the fallen soldiers. Hey everybody, this is Connor Cousinson from Brookings, Oregon. Today I'm going to be talking about the sad but true story of the Battle of Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg took place during the Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. It was fought, and this battle specifically was fought from July 1st to the 3rd of 1863, right in the middle of this war. This battle took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which is right on the southernmost tip of Pennsylvania near Virginia. This battle has the Union pitted against the Confederates. The Union were headed at the time by General George Meade, who had just taken over the Army of the Potomac just three days before. The Confederates were headed by the infamous Robert E. Lee, who was commanding his most powerful army, the Army of Northern Virginia, according to the Gettysburg Historic Crossroads. And according to the National Military Park Service, this battle is often referred to as the high-water mark of the rebellion. This means that this is the battle and the point where the Confederates got the closest to their end goal by their military strategy. Their end goal, obviously, was Washington, D.C., where the President was living. For a little bit of context, this is halfway through the war, and Lee had just had his first major victory, and he was looking to strike again. And so he was at the bottom of Virginia, but he decided he wanted to attack from the top, or he just wanted to make his way around the Union army to get into Washington, D.C. But unfortunately, the Army of the Union kept cutting them off. So eventually, he made his way all the way up around Virginia to right outside the town of Gettysburg. There, Lee planned to make a plan of attack. He planned to come straight down through the town of Gettysburg, straight into Virginia, and make it to Washington, D.C. The Union saw his preparations in order to attack, and so they set up a defense around on the other side. On the first day of battle, Lieutenant Marcellus Jones is noted for taking the first shot of the battle. There was a brutal frontal assault on the north and west sides by General Rhodes and General Early from the Confederates, which actually ended up breaking those lines of the Union, which caused them to fall back and have to make their way down through Gettysburg and go south of it. This turned out to be an advantage for the Union, because when they fell back, they actually ended up on high ground, which could have been avoided if the Confederates had cut them off like they had originally planned, but didn't do, due to not knowing what the future plans of the Union were. So on day two, the armies had now retreated, and with the breaking of the left flank and becoming part of the north flank of the Union, their line now resembled what is known as a fish hook. Also at this point, both armies had gathered to their full strength and were ready for this frontal assault. Lee tried to do a sneak attack on the west flank or on the left flank, but it ended up not working as he was given false information or outdated information, and he ended up going right into the main line of the Union. They suffered heavy casualties and ended up having to retreat. They also tried to attack on the right side of the Union front, but because they didn't have any backup and because the Union were secured in their hiding places, they were unable to break the line. Day three, the final day of the attack, is known as the infamous Pickett's Charge, because one of the generals of the Confederates, General Pickett, was ordered to march towards right through from the northwest straight in to the Union lines. They thought this was a good idea, as the day before, the Union had stopped firing all their artillery, which they thought was because they had ran out. The Union, however, had had this strategy in mind and still had plenty of artillery left that they hadn't used the day before in order to trick the Confederates. So General Pickett, with 12,500 men, made his way on a charge of three-fourths of a mile in open plain towards the Union line. The Confederates ended up losing up to almost a half of their troops, of their 12,500 troops, just in going towards the line. The artillery was now able to take them out, and they were swiftly defeated. At this point, General Lee realized that they needed to retreat, and they left, they left the battlefield. He'd had the opportunity at this point to go and finish the war, but he chose not to, which he was later scorned for by President Lincoln. American Battlefield calculates that there were around 51,000 casualties over the course of this three-day battle. This would include death from disease, from gunshots, this would also include missing persons or captured, and the wounded. 23,000 of these casualties came from the Union, and 28,000 from the Confederates. These are surprising numbers since the Confederates had far fewer resources in order to try to win this battle. There were around 160,000 troops that were engaged in this battle. After the battle, Lincoln delivered some remarks at Gettysburg in order to talk about the soldiers that had fallen, and also to clarify what the central purpose of the war is. On a post from the History Channel, which actually has the Gettysburg address, Lincoln said this, Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last bold measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Later on, Everett, who had spoken before Lincoln, said this, I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes. In the aftermath of the battle, like I said, Lee's army had then retreated. They then set up a defensive front, hoping that the Union would come to try to attack them. However, the Union stayed back with a half-hearted attempt. Later on, Lincoln was furious, along with the rest of the Union, saying that it would have been better that Lee and his army would have won instead. This battle was one of the biggest and bloodiest in all of Civil War, and one of the biggest and bloodiest in American history. We know that these men fought and died so that we might be able to have the freedoms and privileges that we do today, and we're very thankful for them and their service.