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Prior to Gettysburg, the Confederacy had beaten the North in almost every encounter. These battles, however, almost all took place in Virginia. Robert E. Lee, the Confederate commander, was mindful of this. He saw the depleted farms and ruined lands, and the subsequently starving populace. Even though they were winning the war, the South was desperate. Lee realized that he had to invade the North. He felt that if he could win a major victory above the Mason Dixon line, he could pull some Northern sentiments and cause the Union to act for peace.

Any treaty at all would be a victory for the Confederacy, because that would mean that President Lincoln had to recognize them as a country, and allow them to remain so. Another benefit of an invasion of the North would be to take the pressure off of starving Virginia, to allow them to recooperate their farms, and perhaps be ready to support the army and the people again by the time the invasion ended. Lee moved his forces North to a place called Cashtown, west of Gettysburg, and the battle ensued.

This information is important because even though Lee had succeeded in beating the Union army in almost every venture, he was in a desperate position. The invasion of the North was, in a way, his hail mary, even though victory was quite possible.

Subsequently, should the Union secure a victory and repulse the invasion, defeat would be almost inevitable for the Confederates. The Union had the numerical advantages. They had the food, the factories, the endless troops, and, most importantly, the naval chokehold. Their blockades stopped almost all international trade for the South, slowly starving the secedes states. If the war were prolonged by stopping the invasion and ending the possibility of peace negotiations, the South would almost certainly starve out and have to surrender.

In this way, the battle of Gettysburg was the deciding factor in the Civil War.

The latter of the two options ended up happening, and the war was prolonged. The South eventually had to surrender, under the fierce pressure of Ulysses S. Grant, who was brought over from the West to steamroll after Robert E. Lee's maneuvering army and pin them down once and for all. If Lee had done one or two things differently at the battle of Gettysburg, you might still need a passport to travel between Maryland and Virginia.

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15y ago

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