Battle of Gettysburg

The battle lasted the better part of three days. It began in earnest at about 9 AM. July 1, 1863 when elements of Confederate general Henry Heth encountered the cavalry of Union general John Buford on the Herr Ridge astride the Chambersburg Pike northwest of Gettysburg. [1]

It would end on July 3, 1863 at about 4 PM. with the repulse of Pickett's Charge on the Union Center at Cemetery Ridge and the ending of a short cavalry clash between troopers of Confederate J.E.B. Stuart and Federal David McM. Gregg just east of town between the York and Hanover roads.[2]

[1] Gettysburg, Sears, Stephen W. 2003

[2] They Met At Gettysburg, Stackpole, Edward J. 1956

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Based upon common computation, about 10,000 battles, large and small were fought during the Civil War, of which the most important (battles and Campaigns) had been more than ten. They were:

First Bull Run;

Peninsular Campaign;

Seize of New Orleans;

Shiloh;

Second Bull Run;

Antietam;

Fredericksburg;

Chancellorsville;

Gettysburg;

Stone's River;

The Final Campaign against Vicksburg;

Chickamauga;

Chattanooga;

Atlanta Campaign;

Overland Campaign;

Siege of Petersburg;

March to the Sea Campaign;

Appomattox.

They gave everything they had: their lives.

There were a series of hills around the area, which dominated the landscape. Which army controlled the heights would control the battlefield, and the Union army managed to hold the high ground.

The British lost 2 men and The U.S. Lost only 700 men

By turning down a senior position in the Union army, of which he would probably have become General-in-Chief in a few months.

Even though he disapproved of secession, he felt he should go with his state (Virginia), and so he resigned from the US Army to join the Confederates.

His string of victories in summer 1862 brought England and France close to granting recognition to the Confederacy and sending military aid, but his momentum was checked by the unexpected defeat at Antietam. Two more spectacular wins followed, but the second one cost him his most brilliant lieutenant Stonewall Jackson, and his health also started to fail at this time. Defeat at Gettysburg (sometimes called the Confederate High Watermark) ended his glory days, and he was on the defensive from that point onwards until he surrendered to U.S. Grant at Appomattox.

He had been appointed to the newly-created post of General-in-Chief of the Confederates at the end of January 1865, too late to make any difference.

He remains the embodiment of the Lost Cause - a popular but largely-mythical legend of courage, honour and noble leadership.

Federal Forces were solidly entrenched in easily defensible positons on the high ground with good interior lines of communication, able to readily reinforce threatened points. They were well supplied, and had good morale, with the added incentive of defending their home territory. Confederate commander Robert E. Lee ordered Pickett to mount what was, in essence, a suicidal assault against the center of the Union line, uphill, against superior numbers of well-motivated defenders.

Ther were three battles fought at Chatanooga

First Battle of Chatanooga (June 7-8, 1862)

Union Brigadier General James S. Negley

Confederate Major General Edmund Kirby Smith

Second Battle of Chatanooga (August 21, 1863)

Union Colonel John T. Wilder

Confederate Lieutenant Genral Daniel H. Hill

Third Battle of Chatanooga, or The Chatanooga Campaign (November 23-25, 1863)

Union General Ulysses S. Grant

Confederate General Braxton Bragg

Vicksburg had withstood a number of Union attempts to capture this fortress city on the Mississippi River. When after a long siege, the city surrendered, it was a propaganda victory for the North. US Grant led the Union forces in a series of battles to capture Vicksburg. When it fell, the Mississippi River was in the control of the Union. The captured Rebels were paroled and some returned to fight again. One problem about Vicksburg was that now a Union garrison was required to keep it in Union hands.

The Battle of Gonzales (October 2, 1835) was the result of the attempts of the Mexican government to retrieve a small smooth bore cannon (six pounder) that had been given in 1831 to the settlers at Gonzales as a defense against attacks by Tonkawa and Comanche Indians.

This was the first battle of the Texas Revolution (1835-1836).

The Allies lost about 95,000 killed, wounded or captured. The Japanese lost about 19,000 killed or wounded.

Civil War (1861-1865)

Total servicemembers (Union)
2,213,363
Battle deaths (Union)
140,414
Other deaths in service (nontheater) (Union)
224,097
Nonmortal woundings (Union)
281,881
Total servicemembers (Conf.)
1,050,000
Battle deaths (Conf.)
74,524

The North (Union) side was victorious at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), although casualties were high on both sides. As a result of the battle, the forces under Robert E. Lee ceased their offensive plans in the North. Combined with other defeats, Gettysburg represented a severe loss of manpower and morale in the South.

The obvious answer would be July 4th 1863, when a jubilant Northern public got the news of two great victories - one in the East, Gettysburg (ending Lee's hopes of invading the Union), and one in the West, Vicksburg (liberating the Mississippi).

It is possible to name two other milestones to Southern defeat, which may have been as significant.

Lincoln's issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation (effective January 1863) made it impossible for Britain and France to aid the Confederates without looking pro-slavery themselves.

And Lincoln's election win in 1864 put an end to any hopes of a compromise peace (which would probably have meant Southern independence). It meant the North was voting to fight on.

Even though it was a major loss for the Confederacy, General Robert Lee had to surrender for the Civil War to be officially over. There were still battles after the surrender because it took a while for the word to get around.

Lee withdrew to Virginia in good order, able to conduct defensive operations for another twenty-one months.

Yes, he had 196 slaves.

The bloodiest battle of the Civil War was fought there from July 1st to July 3rd of 1863.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is the site of a massive and extremely costly battle in the American Civil War. The battle raged from July 1 to July 3 in 1863, in and around the town itself. It was the climax of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. After defeating Union General George Gordon Meade's Union Army of the Potomac on the first day, and nearly winning the second day, Lee launched an assault against the Union center in what has become know as "Pickett's Charge," which many consider to be the "High Water Mark" of the Confederate Cause in the Civil War. After briefly breaking the Union line, the Confederates were forced back with terrible losses, effectively ending the battle. Total casualty reports differ, but the figure is most commonly put as 51,112 Union and Confederate killed, wounded, captured, or missing, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and the bloodiest battle in American History ("battles" that last 30 days, like the "Battle" of the Bulge in World War Two, are too long to be called "battles."

Being unable to sieze the high ground on the first day put Lee at a disadvantage. Stuart's cavalry was out of place for much of the battle and unable to reconnoiter for Lee or give him much needed timely intelligence in order to make intelligent decisions as the tide of battle changed. For the first time, Lee was fighting without the assistance of his favorite subordinate commander, Stonewall Jackson, who had been killed by friendly fire at Chancellorsville. Lee's experience may have taught him the wrong lesson. His success against superior forces in the past made him believe that they could also defeat a well-defended position. Finally, he disrespected the forces he fought against. His victories against the Army of the Potomac did not take into consideration that they had finally beaten the learning curve, and had learned how to defeat him. They was fighting to defend their home soil, from a well-defended position were highly trained, experienced, and determined.

After Federal troops gained command of the high ground on the hilltops, their strategy consisted of sitting tight and making the the Southern troops attack them.

Because the Union previously asked Lee to command the Union but Lee said he would fight with whoever Virginia fought for and Virginia was in the Confederate states

IMPROVEMENT.

That's correct, but Lee didn't and couldn't "decide" to become the Commander of the Confederate troops.

He was instead "appointed" to General in Chief by President Davis on Feb. 6,1865.

The battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1-3 1863. the battle was fought with rifles and cannons. Both were single shot weapons, requiring time to reload, as apposed to modern weapons which reload almost instantaneously.

The battle of Fredericksburg happened Dec.11-15,1862.

The Battle of the Ardene's (commonly referred to as the Battle of the Bulge) lasted for 31 days. It began on December 16, 1944 when the German Army launched a massive artillery barrage followed by a 3 Army attack. The battle ended on January 15, 1945 when Allied forces met up, closing of the Ardene's. And it was in a forest and there were no fighter planes involved. There were 700 tanks on the Allies side and only 500 on the Axis side.

In the 1863 battle that took place at Gettysburg, General Lee and his Confederate army were defeated for a variety of reasons. The tenacious defense of the Union enemy, miscalculations on Lee's part, the absence of Lee's main cavalry force, and peculiar sluggishness on the part of Lee's corps commanders at critical stages of the battle -- these would be primary reasons that the Union force won the three-day battle.