The Battle Of Gettysburg

Fought July 1 through July 3, 1863, considered by most military historians the turning point in the American Civil War. was a decisive engagement in that it arrested the Confederates' second and last major invasion of the North, destroyed their offensive strategy, and forced them to fight a defensive war in which the inadequacies of their manufacturing capacity and transportation facilities doomed them to defeat. The Army of the Potomac, under the Union general George Gordon Meade, numbered about 85,000; the Confederate army, under General Robert E. Lee, numbered about 75,000. After the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2 to 4, an important victory for the Confederates, Lee divided his ...

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crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains, proceeded up the Shenandoah Valley, and, crossing Maryland, entered Pennsylvania. Upon learning federal troops were north of the Potomac, Lee decided to concentrate his whole army at Gettysburg. On June 30, Confederate troops from General Hill's corps, on their way to Gettysburg, noted federal troops that Meade had moved down to intercept the Confederate army. The battle began on July 1 outside of Gettysburg with an encounter between Hill's advance brigades and the federal cavalry division commanded by Major General John Buford, supported by infantry under Major General John Fulton Reynolds. Hill encountered stubborn resistance, and the fighting was inconclusive until Ewell arrived from the north in the afternoon. The Confederates pushed against General Oliver Howard's corps and forced the federal troops to retire from their forward positions to Culp's Hill and Cemetery Ridge, southeast of Gettysburg. The fighting had been heavy on both sides, but ...

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The Battle Of Gettysburg. (2004, November 13). Retrieved January 23, 2021, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Battle-Of-Gettysburg/17442

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Added: 11/13/2004 05:31:27 PM
Category: American History
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 790
Pages: 3

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