Instead, the defeated general fled south with a wagon train of wounded soldiers straining toward the Potomac. Union general Meade failed to pursue the retreating army, missing a critical opportunity to trap Lee and force a Confederate surrender.
The bitterly divisive war raged on for another two years. On June 3, soon after his celebrated victory over Maj. Joseph Hooker at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Gen. Robert E. Lee leads his troops north in his second invasion of enemy territory. The 75,man Army of Northern Virginia is in high spirits. In addition to seeking fresh supplies, the depleted soldiers look forward to availing themselves of food from the bountiful fields in Pennsylvania farm country, sustenance the war-ravaged landscape of Virginia can no longer provide.
This evasiveness is of increasing concern to President Abraham Lincoln. Hooker is ultimately relieved of command in late June. His successor, Maj. George Gordon Meade, continues to move the 90,man Army of the Potomac northward, following orders to keep his army between Lee and Washington, D.
While Lee loses precious time awaiting intelligence on Union troop positions from his errant calvary commander, Gen. Jeb Stuart, a spy informs him that Meade is actually very close. Taking advantage of major local roads, which conveniently converge at the county seat, Lee orders his army to Gettysburg. July 1. Early that morning a Confederate division under Maj. Henry Heth marches toward Gettysburg to seize supplies.
In an unplanned engagement, they confront Union calvary. John F. Reynolds arrives. Reynolds is killed in action. Soon Confederate reinforcements under generals A. Hill and Richard Ewell reach the scene.
By late afternoon, the wool-clad troops are battling ferociously in the sweltering heat. Thirty thousand Confederates overwhelm 20, Federals, who fall back through Gettysburg and fortify Cemetery Hill south of town. July 2. On the second day of battle, the Union defends a fishhook-shaped range of hills and ridges south of Gettysburg.
The Confederates wrap around the Union position in a longer line. Grant in the spring of The Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, , involved nearly , combatants, the largest concentration of troops in any Civil War battle.
Ambrose Burnside, the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, had ordered his more than , troops to cross the On November 19, , President Abraham Lincoln delivered remarks, which later became known as the Gettysburg Address, at the official dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, on the site of one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of Fought in It pitted Confederate General Robert E. The battles of Cold Harbor were two American Civil War engagements that took place about 10 miles northeast of Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital.
At the Battle of Nashville, which took place from December 15 to December 16, , during the American Civil War , the once powerful Confederate Army of Tennessee was nearly destroyed when a Union army commanded by General George Thomas swarmed over the Rebel In May , Confederate forces clashed with the advancing Union Army in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, which lasted for the better part of two weeks and included some of the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War.
After an indecisive battle in the dense Virginia woods Live TV. This Day In History. His troops began marching north in June.
The area was mostly deserted by the time the Confederate soldiers appeared—except for the Union Army awaiting their arrival. Tipped off by intelligence reports, the Yankees were able to predict when the southerners would arrive—and had camped out in Cashtown to wait for them.
At first the Confederates outnumbered the Yankees. Overwhelmed by the sheer size of the southern army, the Union was forced to retreat from Cashtown to Gettysburg and wait for more troops.
There, led by General George Meade, the Union regrouped and set up renewed defenses. By the second day the Yankees numbered around 94, soldiers; the Confederates around 72, General Lee attacked first. On the final day of the battle, General Lee decided to stage an aggressive attack.
He sent General George Pickett—with approximately 12, men—on a direct charge against the Union Army. General Lee and the Confederate Army retreated. The Battle of Gettysburg remains the deadliest battle of the Civil War. William Dorsey Pender's division to the assault, and the I Corps was driven back through the grounds of the Lutheran Seminary and Gettysburg streets. As the fighting to the west proceeded, two divisions of Ewell's Second Corps, marching west toward Cashtown in accordance with Lee's order for the army to concentrate in that vicinity, turned south on the Carlisle and Harrisburg roads toward Gettysburg, while the Union XI Corps Maj.
Oliver O. Howard raced north on the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road. By early afternoon, the U. However, the U. The leftmost division of the XI Corps was unable to deploy in time to strengthen the line, so Doubleday was forced to throw in reserve brigades to salvage his line. Around 2 p. The Confederate brigades of Col. Edward A.
O'Neal and Brig. Alfred Iverson suffered severe losses assaulting the I Corps division of Brig. John C. Robinson south of Oak Hill. Early's division profited from a blunder by Brig. Francis C. Barlow, when he advanced his XI Corps division to Blocher's Knoll directly north of town and now known as Barlow's Knoll ; this represented a salient in the corps line, susceptible to attack from multiple sides, and Early's troops overran Barlow's division, which constituted the right flank of the Union Army's position.
Barlow was wounded and captured in the attack. Howard ordered a retreat to the high ground south of town at Cemetery Hill, where he had left the division of Brig. Adolph von Steinwehr in reserve. Winfield S. Hancock assumed command of the battlefield, sent by Meade when he heard that Reynolds had been killed.
Hancock, commander of the II Corps and Meade's most trusted subordinate, was ordered to take command of the field and to determine whether Gettysburg was an appropriate place for a major battle. Hancock told Howard, "I think this the strongest position by nature upon which to fight a battle that I ever saw. General Lee understood the defensive potential to the Union if they held this high ground. He sent orders to Ewell that Cemetery Hill be taken "if practicable.
The first day at Gettysburg, more significant than simply a prelude to the bloody second and third days, ranks as the 23rd biggest battle of the war by number of troops engaged. About one quarter of Meade's army 22, men and one third of Lee's army 27, were engaged. Second Day of Battle July 2, Plans and Movement to Battle.
Longstreet's third division, commanded by Maj. George Pickett, had begun the march from Chambersburg early in the morning; it did not arrive until late on July 2.
The Union line ran from Culp's Hill southeast of the town, northwest to Cemetery Hill just south of town, then south for nearly two miles 3 km along Cemetery Ridge, terminating just north of Little Round Top. The shape of the Union line is popularly described as a "fishhook" formation. The Confederate line paralleled the Union line about a mile 1, m to the west on Seminary Ridge, ran east through the town, then curved southeast to a point opposite Culp's Hill.
Thus, the Union army had interior lines, while the Confederate line was nearly five miles 8 km long. Lee's battle plan for July 2 called for Longstreet's First Corps to position itself stealthily to attack the Union left flank, facing northeast astraddle the Emmitsburg Road, and to roll up the U.
The attack sequence was to begin with Maj. Richard H. Anderson's division of Hill's Third Corps. The progressive en echelon sequence of this attack would prevent Meade from shifting troops from his center to bolster his left.
At the same time, Maj. Lee's plan, however, was based on faulty intelligence, exacerbated by Stuart's continued absence from the battlefield. Instead of moving beyond the U.
Sickles had been dissatisfied with the position assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge. Seeing higher ground more favorable to artillery positions a half mile m to the west, he advanced his corps—without orders—to the slightly higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road.
This created an untenable salient at the Peach Orchard; Brig. Andrew A. Humphreys's division in position along the Emmitsburg Road and Maj.
David B. Birney's division to the south were subject to attacks from two sides and were spread out over a longer front than their small corps could defend effectively. About p. Most of the hill's defenders, the Union XII Corps, had been sent to the left to defend against Longstreet's attacks, and the only portion of the corps remaining on the hill was a brigade of New Yorkers under Brig.
George S. Because of Greene's insistence on constructing strong defensive works, and with reinforcements from the I and XI Corps, Greene's men held off the Confederate attackers, although the Southerners did capture a portion of the abandoned U. Andrew L. Harris of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, came under a withering attack, losing half his men; however, Early failed to support his brigades in their attack, and Ewell's remaining division, that of Maj.
Rodes, failed to aid Early's attack by moving against Cemetery Hill from the west. The Union army's interior lines enabled its commanders to shift troops quickly to critical areas, and with reinforcements from II Corps, the U.
Jeb Stuart and his three cavalry brigades arrived in Gettysburg around noon but had no role in the second day's battle. Wade Hampton's brigade fought a minor engagement with newly promoted year-old Brig. Longstreet's attack was to be made as early as practicable; however, Longstreet got permission from Lee to await the arrival of one of his brigades, and while marching to the assigned position, his men came within sight of a Union signal station on Little Round Top. Countermarching to avoid detection wasted much time, and Hood's and McLaws's divisions did not launch their attacks until just after 4 p.
Third Day of Battle July 3, Lee's Plan. General Lee wished to renew the attack on Friday, July 3, using the same basic plan as the previous day: Longstreet would attack the U.
However, before Longstreet was ready, Union XII Corps troops started a dawn artillery bombardment against the Confederates on Culp's Hill in an effort to regain a portion of their lost works. The Confederates attacked, and the second fight for Culp's Hill ended around 11 a.
Harry Pfanz judged that, after some seven hours of bitter combat, "the Union line was intact and held more strongly than before. Lee was forced to change his plans. Longstreet would command Pickett's Virginia division of his own First Corps, plus six brigades from Hill's Corps, in an attack on the U.
Prior to the attack, all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the U. Around 1 p. In order to save valuable ammunition for the infantry attack that they knew would follow, the Army of the Potomac's artillery, under the command of Brig.
Henry Jackson Hunt, at first did not return the enemy's fire. After waiting about 15 minutes, about 80 U. The Army of Northern Virginia was critically low on artillery ammunition, and the cannonade did not significantly affect the Union position. Around 3 p. In the Union center, the commander of artillery had held fire during the Confederate bombardment in order to save it for the infantry assault, which Meade had correctly predicted the day before , leading Southern commanders to believe the Northern cannon batteries had been knocked out.
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