Battle of Gettysburg

They ate corn, bacon, collected berries, hard tack, and once in a while they ate beef stew and plain Irish stew, corn meal, water, coffee, hoe cake, baked beans, goober peas (boiled peanuts), sometimes dried beef, occasionally salted pork, and biscuits.

Though Gettysburg is often touted as the turning point of the war, the capture of Vicksburg which effectively closed the Mississippi to Southern boat traffic is actually the most decisive strategic achievement. It completed phase two of the Anaconda Plan.

Attached is a list of the battles that took place in Virginia during the Civil War: Aldie Amelia Springs Appomattox Courthouse) Appomattox Station Aquia Creek Auburn Ball's Bluff Beaver Dam Creek Berryville Big Bethel Blackburn's Ford Boydton Plank Road Brandy Station Bristoe Station Buckland Mills Cedar Creek Cedar Mountain Chaffin's Farm Chancellorsville Chantilly () Chester Station () Cloyd's Mountain () Cockpit Point () Cold Harbor () Cool Spring () Cove Mountain () Crater () Cross Keys () Cumberland Church () Darbytown and New Market () Darbytown Road () Deep Bottom I () Deep Bottom II () Dinwiddie Court House () Dranesville () Drewry's Bluff () Eltham's Landing () Fair Oaks & Darbytown Road () Fisher's Hill () Five Forks () Fort Stedman () Fredericksburg () Fredericksburg II () Front Royal () Gaines' Mill () Garnett's & Golding's Farm () Glendale () Globe Tavern () Guard Hill ( Hampton Roads () Hanover Courthouse () Hatcher's Run ( Haw's Shop () High Bridge () Jerusalem Plank Road() Kelly's Ford (va029) Kernstown I () Kernstown II () Lewis's Farm () Lynchburg () Malvern Hill () Manassas I () Manassas II () Manassas Gap () Manassas Station Ops. () Marion () McDowell () Middleburg () Mine Run () Morton's Ford () Namozine Church () New Market ( New Market Heights ) North Anna () Oak Grove () Old Church () Opequon ( Peebles' Farm () Petersburg () Petersburg () Petersburg () Piedmont () Port Republic () Port Walthall Junction () Proctor's Creek () Rappahannock Station ( Rappahannock Station () Ream's Station () Ream's Station () Rice's Station () Rutherford's Farm () Saint Mary's Church () Salem Church () Saltville () Saltville () Sappony Church () Savage's Station () Sailor's Creek () Seven Pines ( Sewell's Point () Spotsylvania Court House () Staunton River Bridge () Suffolk / Hill's Point () Suffolk /Norfleet House () Sutherland's Station () Swift Creek () Thoroughfare Gap () Tom's Brook () Totopotomy Ck/Bethesda Ch () Trevilian Station () Upperville () Walkerton () Ware Bottom Church () Waynesboro () White Oak Road () White Oak Swamp () Wilderness () Williamsburg () Wilson's Wharf () Winchester I () Winchester II () Yellow Tavern () Yorktown For more information about these battles, visit http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/Battles/bystate.htm

He was the victor of Gettysburg, only a few days after being appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac.

He held on to this command later, when Grant became General-in-Chief, even though Grant was travelling with Meade's army in a mobile HQ, which caused some confusion.

The exact death toll from the Gettysburg conflict will never be known. The most trusted estimates are at least 3,155 Union and perhaps 4,000 or more Confederate. Nearly all Union deaths were recorded but people who died after the fight from wounds might be missed. In the Southern Army, some units were so torn up that there were no functioning officers to report casualties. Estimates of 3000, 4000, 4700, and even more are reasonable. Some state records were so completely in chaos that (for example) Alabama reports fewer than 1000 dead for the whole war; we know that the 15th Alabama men were nearly all killed or captured at Gettysburg. The Southern numbers might be significantly higher but there is no way to be certain. Some died in the multi-day ambulance journey to and across the Potomac River back to Virginia but there is little note of them.

It is difficult to pinpoint a "high water mark" for the Confederacy during the US Civil War. And, the same can be said of a Union "high water mark". Here the answer does revolve around the surrender of the South, but in each case it involves a period in which a major victory was won, and , or the reaction to it.The question regarding a Southern high point involves a subjective answer. One could easily see that the defeat of the Union in the ill fated Peninsula campaign in 1862, placed the Union in an embarrassing situation, and a huge Federal army had to retreat, after a perfect plan had been evolved. It also marked the beginning of the Robert E. Lee portion of the war. After he took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, things looked brighter for the Confederacy.

Lincoln memorialized them in the Gettysburg Address.

As the top man, he has to be blamed.

Other factors:

His closest colleague, James Longstreet, did not feel wholehearted about the campaign in general, so he was in low morale.

Cavalry leader Jeb Stuart had been absent for most of the battle, so Lee could not be briefed on the enemy's position.

Also Lee's health was starting to fail, and he was not feeling well during the three days of the battle.

President Lincoln unfairly criticized General George G. Meade for not attacking the retreating forces of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. With that said, it needs to be stated that both President Lincoln and his General in Chief, Henry W. Halleck had been closely monitoring the Confederate movements from the Shenandoah Valley after the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville. Along with Major General Joseph Hooker, the three of them allowed Lee to advance through Maryland and into Pennsylvania. Meade replaced General Hooker only three days before the Battle of Gettysburg began. To say this was short notice in light of the damage that Lee could have caused is an understatement. After Meade successfully held back the offensive assaults by General Lee, instead of being hailed a hero, which he was, he was criticized. General Meade was a capable and experienced general. His decision not to challenge Lee's rear guard was a military decision based on on the ground circumstances. Meade was not going to lose men in what he considered to be a futile series of attacks.To be fair, Lincoln failed to remember that even US Grant was not in position to pursue General Beauregard after Grant's victory at Shiloh. Lincoln had no military experience to speak of. It was not for frivolous reasons that Lincoln's Republican Party formed the Congressional Committee to oversee the conduct of the war. And experienced military generals were not speaking about the possibility of having a military dictator run the Union's war efforts. Lincoln was a superb political leader and president. He was not qualified to command even a regiment let alone the massive armies of the Union.

West Ms. Baumann' History class???

By 1863 the South's homeland was getting beat up pritty badly since most of the battles were fought on Southern terrritory. The homefront the most important recource was starving so were the Johnny Rebs. General Lee wanted to hurt the northern supply so that they could win.

the battle of vicksburg

Most consider the Battle of Gettysburg the turning point of the Civil War.

Up until Gettysburg, the Confederate Army was winning the war, and was months away from invading Washington D.C.

General Lee intended to push the Union up to Pennsylvania, cutting the Union Army off from D.C, and then take D.C with no resistance (considering the entire union force would be pinned in Penn).

In Gettysburg, Lee and his staff became reckless, which led the Union forces to push the Confederate forces back. After this victory, the Confederacy's morale dropped and they seemed to stay on the run until the end of the war.

When on the march, Union soldiers usually slept in small shelter tents. These tents were carried in their knapsacks.

In Virginia, nothing much happened until Grant launched his Overland campaign in May 1864. After that, there was almost-continuous fighting until Lee's surrender. Battles included The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Coldharbour, Petersburg and Appomattox.

In Tennessee/Georgia, there was Chickamauga and Chattanooga, followed by Sherman's pursuit of Joe Johnston via Kennesaw Mountain to Atlanta. There were no major battles after that, except Bentonville, the Confederates' last throw.

There were also some minor battles West of the Mississippi.

That is as far into enemy territory as the South ever got.

general irvin mcdowell

Before the war in a letter to his wife he described himself as "very solitary" writing that his only true companions were his "dogs and cats". According to the lonely calvary officer, his dog went with him to his office each morning and lay down "from eight to four without moving".

During his U.S. army days Lieutenant Colonel Lee once crossed the "narrows" between Fort Hamilton and Staten Island, New York.Halfway over the body of water he spied a female dog with its head partly above the waves. He rescued her, named her Dart, and took her home with him.

One of her puppies once jumped out high window to join the family at church. Lee was so impressed by the dogs valor that he allowed him to "go into the church afterwards, whenever he wished".

The only animal Lee ever took to war however was a hen named Nellie who followed him on every one of his campaigns. Legend has it that the hen would lay one egg under Lee's cot each morning, providing him breakfast.

Abraham Lincoln

The Battle of Gettysburg Is considered the turning point of the Civil War because the Confederates had previously won a considerable amount of battles, and after that, Union took control of the war.

The Battle of Gettysburg failed to accomplish its objectives and it cost General Lee and the South more than one-third of his entire army. The South was not able to topple the Lincoln government, not able to force the Union to negotiate an end to the War, and not able to do well enough to gain support from major European powers. The South was never again able to stage a large offensive against the Union.

Illinois Iowa Wisconsin Michigan Indiana Ohio Pennsylvania New York Massachusetts Connecticut Rhode Island Maine Vermont New Hampshire were all the Free states at this time. The free "territories" were Minnesota Washington and Oregon. California was also a free state.

They all cost a lot more right now.

reform organizations

In the largest sense, Union strategy became part of the so-called Anaconda Plan. This strategy put forth by General in Chief Winfield Scott laid out a plan to capture control of the Mississippi River and blockade Southern ports.Most historians agree that the blockade was as could as it could be based on the huge Southern coastline and the number of ports and ships allocated to block off the ports.

Oddly enough, the US Treasury put forth a plan for having licensed dealers sell cotton from the South to Northern textile mills. It took some time before President Lincoln ended this plan.

The ability for obtaining supplies from overseas was clearly a problem for the North and despite all their efforts many supplies, including firearms got through the blockades. Upon US Grant's capture of Vicksburg in 1863, Grant reported that he had seized 60,000 British made Enfield rifles.