The Battle of Gettysburg was one of the high points of the 19th century American Civil War. It was the battle that decided the outcome of the war. It was also here where more than 50,000 thousand American soldiers died while fighting for their interpretation of what a Union should be. This battle was made more special by the fact that the President at the time of the conflict was the much-beloved Abraham Lincoln. It was also a highly significant event because its outcome will not only affect the political landscape of a relatively new Union but it will also influence the economy of America. This is because one of the major issues that led to the Civil War was the problem regarding Negro slaves. At the end of the third day, there was no clear victor but one thing was made clear; the Confederacy lost many of their best men that day. The war was extended for another two years but Gen. Lee and his army could no longer defend the South from advancing Union forces.
Before going any further, it must be pointed out that two important events may have contributed to the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg. The first one is the death of Gen. Jackson – more popularly known as Stonewall Jackson. If he was present at Gettysburg, his superior skills and daring could have shifted the battle in their favor. Secondly, the inept Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker was relieved of his command and Gen. George G. Meade took his place. If Gen. Hooker was allowed to continue serving as the overall commander of the army of the Potomac, it can be argued that the Northern forces may have suffered more losses and strengthen the position of the Confederacy.
Moreover, the Confederate armies achieved a significant number of victories before this battle and as a result, succeeded in pressuring the North. In a brilliant move, General Robert E. Lee invaded the northern territories saving northern Virginia from further damage. If they can pull off a victory, the disenchanted northerners will be forced to plead a settlement toward peace and the Lincoln government will have no choice but to oblige (Gettysburg.com, p. 3). The two armies shadowed each other for days. But on July 1, 1863, they will have to engage.
Moving Towards Gettysburg
When General Meade was made the overall commander of the Federals, Gen. Lee was able to slip the Confederate forces past the Mason-Dixon Line and succeeded in taking Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and on June 30, 1863, was threatening Harrisburg (Pfanz, p. 2). This made the future Battle of Gettysburg all the more crucial because if the Confederacy can defeat the Army of the Potomac then they can move on to conquer Washington, Baltimore, and possibly Philadelphia (Pfanz, p. 2). Gen. Meade was well aware that their forces were in a very precarious state, one wrong move and it would be game over.
The Day Before
The following are just some of the army corps at the disposal of Gen. Meade. Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds was the commander of the First Corps. Maj. Gen. Oliver Howard was the commander of the Eleventh Corps and his men were at Emmitsburg, Maryland. Maj. Gen Daniel E. Sickles was the commander of the Third Corps. Reynolds was the designated temporary commander of the army’s left-wing. This means he is in charge of the three corps nearest the known location of the enemy. One day before the battle, Gen. Sickles’ Third Corps had moved from Taneytown, Maryland to Bridgeport – it was a hamlet on the Monocacy River, about four miles east of Emmitsburg. Gen. John Buford’s cavalry division screened the left side of the army.
Two pieces of information played a major part in the decisions made before the battle and more importantly added impetus to stage the Battle of Gettysburg. The first one was information gleaned from a captured dispatch sent by Gen. Jubal Early to an unnamed cavalry colonel (Pfanz, p. 16). What the Federals were able to determine was that General Ewell of the Confederate army will arrive at Heidlersburg, a mere ten miles of Gettysburg. The second piece of information came from a message sent from Gettysburg that informed Reynolds and Meade that a Confederate regiment was spotted near the town but retreated after they saw Buford’s cavalry approaching.
There was enough activity and enough intelligence reports to increase the level of alertness of the troops and the imperative for two top commanders to meet. And so the night before the historic battle, Reynolds invited Howard to meet at Moritz Tavern. It was a brick house beside the Emmitsburg Road, a few miles south of Gettysburg and a mile north of the Mason-Dixon Line. The two commanders made an assessment of the reports and the rumors that were circulating in the air. They stayed there until late in the night, waiting for orders. When they thought that there will be no more dispatches, Howard decided to go back to where he stayed the night before at Emmitsburg. Reynolds on the other hand wrote a letter to Gen. Meade’s chief of staff, informing him that if the enemy will decide to advance on Gettysburg and the Federals forced to fight a defensive battle, he would choose to defend a position a short distance north of Emmitsburg. In Reynolds’s mind, it would be a good way to defend the army’s left and so protect the plank road that lead to Taneytown (Pfanz, p. 18). But before he retired to bed he received a dispatch from Buford that stated that Hill’s corps was near Cashtown, eight miles west of Gettysburg and that Longstreet was behind Hill (Pfanz, p. 18). The message added that Ewell’s corps was probably approaching from the north.
Howard on the other hand was about to go into a deep slumber when he a courier woke him up and handed to him dispatches from Gen. Meade’s headquarters which was near, more or less nine miles to the east of Taneytown. What was contained in the dispatches will also play a role in the formulation of military strategies a few hours later. The information in those dispatches was not as current as the one Buford sent to Reynolds, for instance, it states that Gen. Ewell was at Carlisle and York, a considerable distance from Gettysburg. This prompted Gen. Meade to conclude earlier that it is time to move the army and to pressure the enemy.
Just like a chess master, Gen. Meade began moving the various corps. The First Corps was ordered to march towards Gettysburg. The Eleventh Corps was ordered to support the First Corps. The Third Corps under Gen. Sickles was ordered to march to Emmitsburg to cover their left. The Second Corps was ordered to move towards Taneytown, about 12 miles south of Gettysburg. The Twelfth Corps was given orders to march towards Two Taverns a mere five miles southeast of Gettysburg. The Fifth Corps was to move to Hanover. Finally, the Sixth Corps was ordered to move to Manchester, Maryland.
An overview of the battle preparations and judging from a map of the area, one can see that Gettysburg was at the center of the action. More importantly, there were at least seven corps under the command of General Meade, and they practically surrounded Gettysburg. This also means that a great number of soldiers can easily congregate near or around Gettysburg depending on the orders that will be given by Gen. Meade. From the onset, it was easy to understand why it would become one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. history. Yet, it was also clear that they did not plan to fight in Gettysburg (Drake, p. 12). In the case of Gen. Lee of the Confederacy, he too did not wish to engage in Gettysburg, and in fact, he was marching away from the Federals. Everything changed when Gen. Lee ordered several brigades to forage for supplies and so the two opposing forces met within the vicinity of McPherson’s Ridge.
First Day
The first shots of the battle were fired by Federal Cavalrymen at Confederate forces advancing towards McPherson’s Ridge from the west (Army.Mil, par. 1). Gen. Lee was forced to fight in Gettysburg (Drake, p. 14). It did not take long before the military strategist within the vicinity realize that if an army was placed in Gettysburg it can easily threaten the major roadways and supply routes. There is only one problem, one of the striking features of the land – at Gettysburg – is the shortage of easily defensible places, and in truth in between the two prominent ridges is an open field that neither army could move without being detected (Drake, p. 17). This can help explain the high number of casualties in the said conflict.
The first day of battle can be characterized by surprises and more surprises. The Confederates formed into skirmish lines, with two brigades to move against the Federals on McPherson Ridge and they learned too late that their opponent was the infantry of the Army of the Potomac (Pfanz, p. 22). If they have known they may have retreated until they received more reinforcements. On the other hand, the advancing northern forces were not yet ready to overwhelm the enemy. In fact, in the skirmishes, Gen. Reynolds was wounded and died shortly. This was a blow to the Federals but they managed to hold back the Confederates, giving time for both armies to send in more reinforcements.
Second Day
Gen. Meade’s army arrived before dawn, significantly boosting the firepower of the Federals. Gen. Meade’s army was coming in from the south and southeast, while Gen. Lee’s forces were coming in from the west and north to converge on Gettysburg (Gettysburg.com, p. 5). It may appear that the Federals were winning the skirmishes on the first day but in truth the Confederates were able to push them back, thus explaining why they were now in Gettysburg. As more Federal reinforcements arrived on the battlefield, they established a defensive position popularly know as the fishhook formation along Cemetery Ridge and Culp’s Hill (Gettysburg.com, p. 6). It was a formidable battle formation.
The first major blunder of the battle was committed by Gen. Sickles who was supposed to hold his elevated position at Little Round Top and yet decided to redeploy his troops and engage Gen. Lee’s forces at The Peach Orchard. The Confederate’s Gen. Longstreet exploited this mistake and slaughtered Gen. Sickles’ men. Fortunately for the Union, Gen. Meade was able to quickly move troops to refortify Little Round Top. Meanwhile, the battle was at its fiercest at Culp’s Hill. The Confederate forces were unable to snatch it from their enemy. At the end of the day, the Federals were able to keep two major positions and this proved significant on the third day.
Third-Day
Although unable to capture two elevated positions, the blunder of Gen. Sickles and by forcing the Union army to be on the defensive provided a false sense of invincibility for Gen. Lee. He concluded that the Union can be defeated if they will attack at its weakest point – at the center of the Union army. But before doing so, Gen. Lee ordered Confederate guns to sap the enemy’s strength. Unknown to them their cannonballs did not hit the target and in fact, it was only good for decimating farm fields far from the rear of the Union army.
The Union forces answered back with volleys of their own but then decided to abruptly stop their firing to conserve ammunition. So what happened was that Gen. Lee made two costly assumptions based on the reaction of his opponent. Firstly, Gen. Lee thought that he was hitting the target. Secondly, he assumed that the guns of Gen. Meade were demolished by their cannons because it was only able to give a feeble response to their artillery fire. He did not know that since he was not hitting anything, there was no point to fire back and so Gen. Meade ordered a ceasefire. These assumptions emboldened Gen. Lee to attack.
When the artillery barrage was completed and when the smoke cleared, Gen. Lee ordered his generals to attack the Union center and to secure a small clump of trees one mile away across the open field (Gettysburg.com, p. 12). There is no need to elaborate that this was a risky move. If Pickett’s Charge would succeed then it would surely be the end of the war. And so 12, 000 Confederate soldiers marched from Seminary Ridge in parade dress formation. From the vantage view of the Union soldiers, this was suicide but at the same time, they were in awe at the patriotism of their fellowmen on the opposite side of the battle lines.
The Union Army was impressed with the display of bravery but they too had a duty to fulfill. So when the Confederate forces were within range, the Federals used their artillery and efficiently destroyed line upon line of rebel forces. But incredibly, a small number of Confederate forces were able to achieve their objectives and for a short period defended the small clump of the tree before Union forces tightened the noose around them. General Pickett’s division was destroyed along with many of the other elements of the Confederacy.
The Aftermath
Realizing that they were soundly defeated, Gen. Lee advised Gen. Pickett to reform his division in preparation for a counterattack. Pickett looked at Gen. Lee and said, “General Lee, I have no division” (Gettysburg.com, p. 14). The Confederate army retreated to Virginia the following day. The war would continue for the next two years but the carnage of the three-day battle was enough to considerably weaken Gen. Lee and his army. They were never the same again after Gettysburg. But going back to the battlefield, the devastation was just everywhere. According to one report, “Almost as many soldiers died in the combat at the Battle of Gettysburg, then during the entire Vietnam conflict” (Army.Mil, par. 1). On the side of the Confederate army, 28,063 men were killed and on the side of the Union army, 23,049 Federals died in combat (Army.Mil, par. 2). These men paid dearly for what they believed in.
The entire nation was shocked by the bloodbath at Gettysburg and so in a moving tribute to their heroism, President Lincoln made this speech, “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our 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” (Drake, p. 12). Lincoln was correct, the American people will never be interested in what the policymakers did before, during, and after the battle of Gettysburg. What they want to remember and to cherish is the valor and selfless sacrifice of those who fought admirably for three consecutive days.
The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most important events in the U.S. Civil War. It was largely unplanned although the powers that be at Washington, D.C. were very much concerned with the fact that the Confederate army had already breached the Mason-Dixon Line and Gen. Lee was already in northern territory. This prompted the north to make drastic changes to their military leadership and they prepared for another onslaught from Gen. Lee and his men. On the other hand, the Confederacy was merely looking for supplies when a few of its brigades stumbled upon the Union army. And the rest was history.
Works Cited
- Army.Mil. “The Battle of Gettysburg: The American Civil War.” 2009.
- Drake, Samuel. The Battle of Gettysburg 1863. MA: Digital Scanning, Inc., 1892.
- Gettysburg.com. “The Extraordinary Story of the Battle of Gettysburg.”
- Pfanz, Harry. Gettysburg – The Second Day. North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
- Pfanz, Harry. Gettysburg – Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill. North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.