Battle of Gettysburg

The main reason is that the battles were fought by two different armies, the north and the south over a large area. Each army had it's own view of the battlefield and in many cases it's own perception of how the battle progressed. For example, the Battles of First and Second Bull Run as named by the south was called the Battles of First and Second Manassas by the north. The reason for this was that the main body of the Confederate Army was near a small creek named Bull Run while the Federal Army's main drive began in the town of Manassas.

It was not written after the war. Lincoln visited Gettysburg in the autumn of the same year as the battle (1863) and gave his address then. Incidentally, he had written it hastily on the train, and was not satisfied with it.

Two important generals for the Union would be Gen. George McClellan and Gen. Ulysses s. Grant. McClellan was the first general to lead the Union army, but he fell out of favor with President Lincoln who fired him and gave his job away to General Burnside. Grant was one of the most successful generals. He led the siege of Vicksburg and many other battles and won.

Major General George G. Meade was in command of the Union forces at the Battle of Gettysburg.

At the outset of the Civil war, the South actually had several advantages over the North. Most of these were gradually lost over the course of the war.

Most of the most experienced and effective military commanders in the US forces prior to the Civil war were from the South - and most of them chose to side with the South when war broke out. As the war continued, Union commanders became more experienced and effective and the younger commanders who were talented got promoted. At the same time, many of the top Confederate commanders got killed in battle.

On average, the Confederate soldiers had a lot more experience with riding horses (which made for better cavalry) and shooting guns (better infantry). As the war dragged on though, the Union forces gained experience until they could match the Confederates.

For much of the war, the Confederates were fighting on familiar territory - but eventually the Union got familiar with it too.

Historians seem to feel that the turning point when the Union finally gained an overall advantage over the Confederacy was at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Battle of Gettysburg was a meeting engagement, a military term meaning that two opposing armies actually run into each other without full intelligence. Most historians agree that the battle was actually started by Buford's cavlary (Union Army of the Potomac) who were screening on the Cashtown pike just west of the town of Gettysburg. The first shot was fired from a 3 inch parrot cannon from Calef's battery (United States Army) at about 10 AM 1 July 1863.

The two commanding generals at the US Civil War Battle of Gettysburg were Robert E. Lee in charge of the Army of Northern Virginia, and Philip Sheridan, the newly appointed head of the Union's premier army, the Army of the Potomac. The South was outnumbered and had to retreat. the Order of Battle will be added soon.

General Robert E. Lee led Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. The order of battle continued with Lieutenant General James Longstreet commanding the First Corps, the Second Corps under Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell and the Third Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill. An independent Cavalry Division was under the command of Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart.

Fast mover - able to exploit delays and indecision on the other side (greatly helped by Stonewall Jackson, and not so effective after the latter's death.)

Psychological warrior - wrong-footing the enemy by refusing to fight on a field chosen by them.

Inspirational leader - his men were ready to follow him till they were barefoot and starving.

Noble figurehead - he symbolised the Southern aristocratic virtues.

Lee was never a slave.

He was a traditional landed aristocrat, who owned many slaves. As General-in-Chief of the Confederate armies, he was the slave-owners' champion.

Lee's attitude to slavery is often debated. It seems that he disliked slavery, but disliked slaves even more. He had a personal reason for this. His father-in-law had earned popularity among his slaves by declaring that they would all be freed on his death. When he died, the terms of the will did not provide for this to happen until the estate had been legally disposed-of - a process that took about two years.

As executor of the will, Lee had to manage the angry slaves, sometimes having to order severe punishments, including whippings.

Still, when the war came, Lee was reluctant to join the Confederates, and only did so because his home-state of Virginia had voted to leave the Union, and he considered himself a Virginian first and an American second.

how many men survived pickett's charge

Gettysburg ended the South's attempt to attack into the Union and doomed the Army of Northern Virginia to a purely defensive role. Victory by the Union at Vicksburg gained full control of the Mississippi River, split off Texas from the rest of the deep South, and ended any concern of attack in the West.

Nobody surrendered.

By chance, McClellan learned that Lee's divisions were widely separated, and he had a chance to destroy them, one by one. Also by chance, there was a Confederate spy in the Union camp, who alerted Lee, and the latter concentrated his forces at Antietam Creek.

The ensuing battle was won by the Union army, but Lee managed to get his men back to Virginia.

Gettysburg (East) and Vicksburg (West).

By chance these two great victories came at the same moment, and the news announced joyfully on the Fourth of July 1863.

The strategy proposed by Welles likewise rested on the assumption that there were large numbers of Unionists in the South, simply waiting for indications of Northern support to declare themselves. "Instead of halting on the borders, building entrenchments, and repelling indiscriminately and treating as Rebels--enemies--all, Union as well as disunion, men . . . we should," Welles wrote,". . . penetrate their territory, nourish and protect the Union sentiment, and create and strengthen a national feeling counter to Secession.. . . Instead of holding back, we should be aggressive and enter their territory," Welles added. Both strategies were based on an overestimation of the strength of Union sentiment. Moreover, Welles's strategy ignored the fact that invasion of an enemy's territory invariably arouses the most intense hostility on the part of those invaded.

Robert E. Lee commanded the Confederate Forces at Gettysburg.

Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathon (Stonewall) Jackson, CSA.

Meade forced Lee to abandon his invasion, to retreat back to Virginia, never to invade the North again, seizing the initiative for the North for the rest of the war.

There has never been a King Charles 3rd in England.

The surprise attack against the Union position at Pittsburg Landing was led by Major General Albert S. Johnston. Johnston was killed in the first day of the battle and General PT Beauregard took his place. On the second day of the battle, Union General Don Carlos Buell, who had landed in the evening reinforced the Union's army under General US Grant. PT Beauregard realized on day two of the battle that the Confederates were badly outnumbered and led the Rebel retreat to Corinth, Mississippi.

Go to your library and look for the county muster roles for your state. Most libraries have that info.

ANSWER

Because they represented the turning point of the war in favour of the Union.

After Vicksburg the Confederacy lost the control of the Mississippi and was split into two parts and after Gettysburg the Confederate armies were pinned down to stay on the mere defensive without being able to regain any effective strategic initiative.