(Above: Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.)
In my estimation, there have been two pivotal battles in the history of American warfare. The first was the Battle of Yorktown, which lasted from September 18 through October 17 of 1781. The other occurred at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, between July 1 and 3 of 1863, making today part of the 150th anniversary of the climatic event that ultimately decided the American Civil War. My father, in a friendly debate with me on a number of occasions this week leading up to the past two days, claims that the latter battle at Gettysburg was the single most important one in U.S. history, and I cannot totally disagree with that other than to state that Yorktown was of equal importance. The case with the Battle of Gettysburg is properly summarized by Steve Straub, the proprietor of the site on U.S. history titled The Federalist Papers after the actual series of published articles by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, stated this in his introductory paragraphs in summarizing the importance behind that battle:
The battle of Gettysburg; was the supreme crisis of the war. All the circumstances under which it took place conspired at the time, and will ever conspire, to draw upon it the world’s attention as the culminating’ point in the struggle. Everything was staked upon its issue. Had it resulted in a decisive defeat to the National army, the National cause would, in all probability, have been lost.There was practically but one obstacle to prevent the Confederate army from going where and doing what it pleased, and that obstacle was the Army of the Potomac. Had that army been overwhelmed New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Harrisburg would have been in peril of seizure by the enemy, the National Capital would have been isolated, and the National Government captured or put to flight.
Though these paragraphs do not go into any specific details regarding the battle itself, they certainly outline the gravity of the situation. The Confederacy had dominated the war for the first two and a half years, and by Gen. Robert E. Lee marching his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania at the culmination of the Battle of Chancellorsville, the situation was dire for the Union.
To properly explain the war in short, yet great, detail, below is the account of the battle, courtesy of History.com:
Battle of Gettysburg: Lee's Invasion of the North
In May 1863, Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had scored a smashing victory over the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville. Brimming with confidence, Lee decided to go on the offensive and invade the North for a second time (the first invasion had ended at Antietam the previous fall). In addition to bringing the conflict out of Virginia and diverting northern troops from Vicksburg, where the Confederates were under siege, Lee hoped to gain recognition of the Confederacy by Britain and France and strengthen the cause of northern "Copperheads" who favored peace.
On the Union side, President Abraham Lincoln had lost confidence in the Army of the Potomac's commander,Joseph Hooker, who seemed reluctant to confront Lee's army after the defeat at Chancellorsville. On June 28, Lincoln named Major General George Gordon Meade to succeed Hooker. Meade immediately ordered the pursuit of Lee's army of 75,000, which by then had crossed the Potomac River into Maryland and marched on into southern Pennsylvania.
Battle of Gettysburg Begins: July 1
Upon learning that the Army of the Potomac was on its way, Lee planned to assemble his army in the prosperous crossroads town of Gettysburg, 35 miles southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. One of the Confederate divisions in A.P. Hill's command approached the town in search of supplies early on July 1, only to find that two Union cavalry brigades had arrived the previous day. As the bulk of both armies headed toward Gettysburg, Confederate forces (led by Hill and Richard Ewell) were able to drive the outnumbered Federal defenders back through town to Cemetery Hill, located a half mile to the south.
Seeking to press his advantage before more Union troops could arrive, Lee gave discretionary orders to attack Cemetery Hill to Ewell, who had taken command of the Army of Northern Virginia's Second Corps after Lee's most trusted general, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, was mortally wounded at Chancellorsville. Ewell declined to order the attack, considering the Federal position too strong; his reticence would earn him many unfavorable comparisons to the great Stonewall. By dusk, a Union corps under Winfield Scott Hancock had arrived and extended the defensive line along Cemetery Ridge to the hill known as Little Round Top; three more Union corps arrived overnight to strengthen its defenses.
Battle of Gettysburg, Day 2: July 2
As the next day dawned, the Union Army had established strong positions from Culp's Hill to Cemetery Ridge. Lee assessed his enemy's positions and determined--against the advice of his defensively minded second-in-command, James Longstreet--to attack the Federals where they stood. He ordered Longstreet to lead an attack on the Union left, while Ewell's corps would strike the right, near Culp's Hill. Though his orders were to attack as early in the day as possible, Longstreet didn't get his men into position until 4 pm, when they opened fire on the Union corps commanded by Daniel Sickles.
Over the next several hours, bloody fighting raged along Sickles' line, which stretched from the nest of boulders known as Devil's Den into a peach orchard, as well as in a nearby wheat field and on the slopes of Little Round Top. Thanks to fierce fighting by one Minnesota regiment, the Federals were able to hold Little Round Top, but lost the orchard, field and Devil's Den; Sickles himself was seriously wounded. Ewell's men had advanced on the Union forces at Culp's Hill and East Cemetery Hill in coordination with Longstreet's 4 pm attack, but Union forces had stalled their attack by dusk. Both armies suffered extremely heavy losses on July 2, with 9,000 or more casualties on each side. The combined casualty total from two days of fighting came to nearly 35,000, the largest two-day toll of the war.
Battle of Gettysburg, Day 3: July 3
Early on the morning of July 3, Union forces of the Twelfth Army Corps pushed back a Confederate threat against Culp's Hill after a seven-hour firefight and regained their strong position. Believing his men had been on the brink of victory the day before, Lee decided to send three divisions (preceded by an artillery barrage) against the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. Fewer than 15,000 troops, led by a division under George Pickett, would be tasked with marching some three-quarters of a mile across open fields to attack dug-in Union infantry positions.
Despite Longstreet's protests, Lee was determined, and the attack--later known as "Pickett's Charge"--went forward around 3 pm, after an artillery bombardment by some 150 Confederate guns. Union infantry opened fire on the advancing rebels from behind stone walls, while regiments from Vermont, New York and Ohio hit both of the enemy's flanks. Caught from all sides, barely half of the Confederates survived, and Pickett's division lost two-thirds of its men. As the survivors stumbled back to their opening position, Lee and Longstreet scrambled to shore up their defensive line after the failed assault.
Battle of Gettysburg: Aftermath and Impact
His hopes of a victorious invasion of the North dashed, Lee waited for a Union counterattack on July 4, but it never came. That night, in heavy rain, the Confederate general withdrew his decimated army toward Virginia. Though the cautious Meade would be criticized for not pursuing the enemy after Gettysburg, the battle was a crushing defeat for the Confederacy. Union casualties in the battle numbered 23,000, while the Confederates had lost some 28,000 men--more than a third of Lee's army. The North rejoiced while the South mourned, its hopes for foreign recognition of the Confederacy erased.
Demoralized by the defeat at Gettysburg, Lee offered his resignation to President Jefferson Davis, but was refused. Though the great Confederate general would go on to win other victories, the Battle of Gettysburg (combined with Ulysses S. Grant's victory at Vicksburg, also on July 4) irrevocably turned the tide of the Civil War in the Union’s favor.
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The Gettysburg Address followed November 19 that year at the Gettysburg National Cemetery. In just 272 words, President Abraham Lincoln eloquently transformed the cause of the Union into a struggle for liberty and equality. Below is the speech, one of the most famous in the history of the United States by any president, and certainly within that elite group the shortest (Courtesy of Abraham Lincoln Online):
(Above: Physical copy of the Gettysburg Address.)
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 battle-field 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 can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not 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 gave the last full 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.
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(Above: Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, and author/orator of the Gettysburg Address.)
On June 1, 1865, Senator Charles Sumner commented on what is now considered the most famous speech by our nation's 16th president. In his eulogy on the slain president, he called it a "monumental act." He said Lincoln was mistaken that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here." Rather, the Bostonian remarked:
(Above: Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.)
"The world noted at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech."
Whether it was or not is irrelevant. What is known is that on at least two instances, a failure to win the major battle in one of our nation's two greatest wars on domestic soil would have proven more than disastrous to the American way of life. In fact, had there not been a victory at Gettysburg, as there was at Yorktown, Virginia, nearly 82 years before, the United States of America would not exist as we know it today.
(Above: Dead bodies at the Battle of Gettysburg.)
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