What is the Gettysburg July 4 1863?

Answer 1

The Battle of Gettysburg has taken place in the North, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The northern leader, General George Meade, led 85,000 men. And Confederates leader was General Robert E. Lee who led 75, troops. The battle took place from July 1-3, 1863. Lee was victories in battles, he decided to push the North in Maryland to invade Pennsylvania. In the process of gathering supplies when the North and South met. General Ewell's men looking for SHOES! They ran into Meade's men. On July 2nd, 65,000 Confederates men gathered around Gettysburg preparing to fight against 85,000 Union soldiers. Lee thought that the Rebels' had to take the "heights".

Answer 2

Lee did not intend to fight a battle at Gettysburg. His army was spread out over a large portion of south-central Pennsylvania. The Second Corps of Lee's Army was actually on the west bank of the Susquehanna River, looking across at the state capital, Harrisburg.

The Yankees knew that the Rebel Army had moved into Pennsylvania. The Rebels knew that the Yankee Army was on the move, heading north to met them. Nobody yet had really noticed that Gettysburg was the vital place in the region, because it was a road hub. Nine roads fanned out from Gettysburg, like the spokes of a wheel.

A division of Lee's Third Corps obtained permission to move to Gettysburg on July 1. They had heard that there was a shoe factory in Gettysburg, and some of them were barefoot, or at best had completely worn out shoes. They did not know that all the shoes in the factory had already been stolen, by soldiers from both armies, who had been moving through Gettysburg for a week.

When this single Confederate division approached Gettysburg from the northwest, they encountered Yankee cavalry. The Union troopers dismounted and fought the Rebels. In the Civil War cavalry was no match for infantry, even fighting dismounted, but they could at least delay the infantry for a while, and force the infantry to deploy into the long lines of its battle formations, from the column it was in to go down the road. This the Yankee cavalrymen did. The Yankees fought stubbornly, and got a little help when another brigade or so of cavalry arrived to help. The Rebels called for help from other divisions of their own Third Corps.

By the time Lee rode the ten miles or so from where he had his headquarters, to find out what all the noise was about, just about his entire Third Corps was involved. And the Union First Corps, infantry, had arrived and joined in. Lee was obliged to commit even more men, from his First Corps, and another Union Corps arrived too. From an unintentional beginning, this had grown by mid afternoon to a fairly large battle.

All this fighting was northwest of Gettysburg, on the Cashtown Pike. Each side extended its lines north and south of the Pike as more men arrived.

Lee had sent orders to his Second Corps, near Harrisburg, to withdraw and head south, for Gettysburg. Late in the day they came into sight from the north, down one of the many roads leading to Gettysburg. Nobody was sure at first to which side this large body of troops belonged.

When the Second Corps reached the field, they struck the Yankee line on its end, in a perfect flank attack. The Yankee line was oriented to face northwest, the direction from which all the Rebels so far had been coming. So this arrival of a large mass from the northeast took their line in the end. This was what all commanders in every battle of the war tried to do, to hit the enemy on the end of his line with a strong attack. As the Yankees were attacked from the side, unit after unit fell back, exposing their next neighbors to this flank attack. The Union line collapsed, and the Yankee troops fled. By that time nearly four entire Corps of the Union Army were present. They streamed back through Gettysburg and onto a north-south running ridge south of town, called Cemetery Ridge. The Rebels moved into Gettysburg, and onto another ridge opposite the one the Yankees were on, not quite a mile away, called Seminary Ridge. The Confederate Ridge had a Lutheran Theological Seminary on it; the Yankee Ridge had the town Cemetery on it. These were the positions the armies would hold for the next two days of the battle.

The northern end of the Union ridge was Culp's Hill, immediately south of the edge of town. Lee sent word to the commander of his Second Corps, which had just arrived and delivered the smashing flank attack, to press on, and take Culp's Hill "if practicable". Had the Rebels done this, the Yankees would not have been able to stay on the rest of Cemetery Ridge a little farther south, which was lower. The Battle would have been over after this single day, the Rebels would have won a complete victory, and the Yankees would be trying to pull back, regroup and reorganize. Lee's Second Corps was Stonewall Jackson's old Corps. But Jackson had been dead two months, and the Second Corps had a new commander, Ewell. Ewell was just returned to the army, after the absence of a year, following his loss of a leg at the Second Battle of Bull Run the previous summer. Ewell was a changed man from what he had been in the early days of the war, after this loss of a leg. He decided pushing on and taking Culp's Hill in the gathering darkness of nightfall was not "practicable". If Jackson was still alive, there is little doubt he would at least have given it a good try. During the night the rest of the Union Army arrived, and the next day all seven corps confronted Lee's three.

Answer 3

Gettysburg actually ended on July 3rd 1863. It was the last major battle in the Civil War. The Union Army won the battle.

Answer 4

Lee retreated.