The
Battle
Of
Gettysburg
|
|
|
Throughout the month of June 1863, thousand of civil soldiers
would die of sunstroke marching from Virginia to Pennsylvania. All
though they did not know it they would soon be marching on to Gettysburg.
It would be one of the bloodiest battles on the battleground. |
|
One hundred sixty thousand Americans would fight in the battle, and in
the three days fifty thousand men would be wounded, captured, or killed. |
|
The battle was started almost accidentally. When the two armies ment, they
fought in wheat fields and in the Devils Den. Houses were occupied by conferate
troops. |
|
A few days later, Lee started his army northward, a move that would surprise
many union officers. They could not believe that Lee would move onto they
enemy territory. In reality Lee had fewer men that were poorly equipped.
One man wrote in his journal: “Breakfast in Virginia, whisky in Maryland,
supper in Pennsylvania.” Many men didn’t understand Lee, but didn’t argue
with him or his choices. Near the end of the march, Lees’ army ends up
on the other side of the enemy’s lines. Therefore Lee was forced to move
on northward without knowing the exact position of the union troops. |
|
While Lee marched on, Lincoln pondered the situation. General Hooker had
lost the confidence of the government and the nation. Lincoln decided to
replace him with General Gorge Meade. Meade was not well known to the nation,
but he was a reliable officer and he had fought well in other battles. |
|
Lee and Meade knew that they would have to meet up to each other sooner
or later. |
|
The offensive had failed and the confederates had lost their monument.
About three thousand confederate soldiers lay dead as a result of three
days of hard fighting. Many more would die from wounds of dieses. Devastated
by the defeat, Lee and his troops retreated south. |
|
Historians call Gettysburg the high water
mark of the Civil War, because the South would never again advance so far
into the North. Lee had lost thousands of great fighting men. |
|
Two years later Lee surrendered his army to General Ulysses Grant at Appomattox,
Virginia. |
| In
many people’s minds, the war was lost at Gettysburg. |
|
|
|
FACTS |
|
| ·
By the time “ Battle of Gettysburg” was fought, Grant had emerged as one
of the strongest generals. |
| ·
The seventeen-acre national cemetery contains thirty five hundred graves
of the union soldiers. |
| ·
The town “Gettysburg” was named after James Gettys. |
| ·
Jennie Wade was the only civilian fatally of The Battle of Gettysburg.
She was killed while she was in her house caring for her family. |
|
|
|
|
BIBLIOGRAPHY
|
| |
| Hakin,Joy."The
BAttle Of Gettysburg", Oxford University |
| Press, Vol 3, 1994,http://www.milateryhistoryonline.com(Nov.2,200) |
| |
|
Tessa
Kolbek |
| 8th |
| 2000 |