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The fall of Vicksburg in the summer of 1863 brought the Mississippi entirely under Union control and split the Confederacy in half. Union forces used their increasing control of the waterways to concentrate more and more strength at decisive points while Southern armies could barely risk an advance with exposed waterways in their rear.
- Overview
- Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania
- The first day’s battle (July 1)
- The second day (July 2)
- The third day and Pickett’s Charge (July 3)
- Significance, legacy, and casualties
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, during the American Civil War, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
American Civil War
Read more about what happened during the American Civil War.
Who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg?
The Battle of Gettysburg, a major battle of the American Civil War, was fought between the Union army (the North) and the Confederate army (the South).
Confederate States of America
After defeating the Union forces of Gen. Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee decided to invade the North in hopes of further discouraging the enemy and possibly inducing European countries to recognize the Confederacy. Confederate morale was high while defeatist sentiment was spreading in the North, and Lee’s army numbered more than 71,000 troops.
American Civil War Events
Battle of Fort Sumter
April 12, 1861 - April 14, 1861
Shenandoah Valley campaigns
July 1861 - March 1865
On July 1 one of Buford’s brigades, armed with the newly issued Spencer repeating carbines, delayed Heth’s division until Gen. John F. Reynolds’s I Corps began to arrive at about 11:00 am. A vigorous counterattack drove Heth’s two leading brigades back with heavy losses on both sides. Reynolds was mortally wounded in the engagement; he would be the highest-ranking officer to die at Gettysburg and one of the most senior commanders to be killed in action during the war.
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By 1:00 pm all three divisions of the I Corps were deployed along Seminary Ridge, and two divisions of Gen. Oliver O. Howard’s XI Corps had arrived to defend the northern approaches to the town. A third division of the XI Corps was posted on Cemetery Hill. Howard reached the field about noon, turning his XI Corps over to Gen. Carl Schurz and succeeding Gen. Abner Doubleday in overall command of the battlefield. The Federals resisted on both fronts until about 2:30, but an attack by Gen. Jubal Early’s division against the northeast flank of the XI Corps led to collapse of their entire position. The XI Corps was routed, exposing the flank of the I Corps and forcing it to retreat. Before the defenders could rally on Cemetery Hill, the two Union corps had sustained more than 50 percent casualties. Lee now had superior strength available, but, being in the dark as to the enemy’s true dispositions, he did not want to bring on a general engagement until Longstreet’s corps arrived.
By dawn Meade’s troops had occupied a line along Culp’s Hill, Cemetery Hill, and Cemetery Ridge. Both opposing commanders recognized that a Confederate success on the Federal right would jeopardize Meade’s position by threatening his line of communication along the Baltimore Pike. Lee wanted to exploit this strategic weakness, but Ewell argued that Longstreet should make the main attack on the opposite flank. Longstreet, on the other hand, contended that Lee should make Meade attack.
Delayed by the opposition of his corps commanders, Lee did not issue his orders until 11:00 am. Longstreet was to envelop the Federal south flank and attack north along the Emmitsburg Pike, where Lee erroneously believed Meade’s main line to be. Hill and Ewell were to make secondary attacks. When Longstreet’s artillery started preparatory firing at 3:00 pm, Meade rushed to the heretofore neglected south flank and found that Sickles had not positioned his III Corps along Cemetery Ridge as directed but had moved forward to higher ground. This created a dangerous salient and weakened the south flank, but it was too late to pull him back. Gen. John Bell Hood’s division of Longstreet’s corps attacked the Union left at 4:00 pm.
In spite of Longstreet’s objections, Lee was determined to attack again on the third day. Meade, on the other hand, was less confident, and it was only after a formal council of war that he decided to stay and fight. While Ewell made a secondary attack against Culp’s Hill, Lee planned to hit the Federal center with 10 brigades, three of which were the fresh troops of Gen. George Pickett’s division. Although this attack has been immortalized as “Pickett’s Charge,” that general’s only overall responsibility was to form the divisions of Brig. Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew (who had assumed command of Heth’s division after Heth was wounded on July 1) and Gen. Isaac Trimble (who had taken over Gen. Dorsey Pender’s division after Pender was mortally wounded on July 2) as they reached their attack positions on his left. Longstreet, not Pickett, was in command of the operation. Shortly after 1:00 pm the Confederates started a tremendous artillery bombardment, which was answered immediately by Federal counterfire.
At 3:00 pm the infantry moved out of the woods in parade ground order and started across the 1,400 yards (1,280 meters) of open fields toward Cemetery Ridge. The Federals watched in awed silence as some 15,000 Confederate troops moved toward them. Then the Federal artillery, which had ceased fire an hour earlier to save ammunition, went back into action with devastating effect at a range of about 700 yards (640 meters). Almost unscathed by the Confederate artillery preparation, most of which had gone over their heads, the roughly 10,000 Federal infantry against whom the attack was directed waited coolly behind stone walls and held their fire until the Confederates were within effective range. The southern spearhead broke through and penetrated onto Cemetery Ridge, but there it could do no more. Critically weakened by artillery during their approach, formations hopelessly tangled, lacking reinforcement, and under savage attack from three sides, they marked “the high tide of the Confederacy” with the bodies of their dead and wounded. Leaving 19 battle flags and hundreds of prisoners, the Confederates retreated, demoralized but without panic. Part of one Union brigade advanced to hasten their retreat, but the Army of the Potomac had been too roughly handled to mount a counterattack.
Early in the day, Ewell had attacked Culp’s Hill without success. Stuart, whose bone-tired brigades had arrived the previous evening, was driven back by three Federal cavalry brigades when he tried to envelop Meade’s strategic north flank. At the other end of the lines, Federal cavalry was foolishly employed in futile and costly charges across rough terrain against Hood’s infantry.
Lee waited during July 4 to meet an attack on Seminary Ridge that never came. That night, taking advantage of a heavy rain, he started retreating to Virginia through the South Mountain passes. Lee was held up at Williamsport for a week waiting for the Potomac River to run down, but on the night of July 13 he withdrew his army and trains into the Shenandoah Valley before Meade, who had appeared on his front the day before, could launch an attack.
After the war, when Gettysburg was recognized as the turning point, Southern sentiment charged Longstreet with “losing the war” by not properly cooperating with his commander on July 2 and 3. Longstreet was unenthusiastic about the invasion of Pennsylvania and advocated forcing the Federal army to attack. Confederate successes at First and Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg had convinced him that the war could be won by adopting a tactical defensive posture while conducting strategic offensive operations. However, according to Lee’s biographer, Douglas Southall Freeman, “Lee never gave any intimation that he considered Longstreet’s failure at Gettysburg more than the error of a good soldier. To Longstreet’s credit was the belief that Cemetery Ridge, on July 2–3, was too strong to be stormed successfully. If, when the balance of Longstreet’s account is struck, it still is adverse to him, it does not warrant the traditional accusation that he was the villain of the piece.”
Lee’s defeat stemmed from overconfidence in his troops, Ewell’s inability to fill the boots of Gen. Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson, and faulty reconnaissance. The last cannot be attributed entirely to Stuart’s unfortunate raid. Lee was so dependent on Stuart personally that he failed to properly employ the four cavalry brigades left at his disposal. Meade has been criticized for not destroying the Army of Northern Virginia by a vigorous pursuit. However, it must be said to his credit that only five days after taking command, Meade had stopped the Confederate invasion and won a three-day battle. Coming the day before Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s triumph at Vicksburg, Meade’s victory meant that destruction of the Confederacy was only a matter of time.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Warren County, MS | May 18 - Jul 4, 1863. Vicksburg’s strategic location on the Mississippi River made it a critical win for both the Union and the Confederacy. The Confederate surrender there ensured Union control of the Mississippi River and cleaved the South in two. How it ended. Union victory.
9 de nov. de 2009 · The Battle of Vicksburg was a decisive Union victory during the American Civil War that divided the Confederacy and cemented the reputation of Union General Ulysses S. Grant.
February 1862 - July 1863. Location: Mississippi River. United States. Participants: Confederate States of America. United States. Context: American Civil War. Mississippi Valley Campaign, the campaigns and battles of the American Civil War that were fought for control of the Mississippi River.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
31 de ene. de 2013 · The capture of the Confederate river fortress at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 was a major turning point of the Civil War. Please consider these facts in order to expand your appreciation of this dramatic campaign. Fact #1: Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis both saw Vicksburg as “the key” to the Confederacy.
It ended with the surrender of the last Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River, Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 and of Port Hudson, Louisiana on July 9, 1863. Flag Officer Foote initially commanded the Union naval forces, which were later led by Farragut and Porter.
