Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
July 1-3, 1863
Robert E. Lee was feeling confident after his victory at Chancellorsville, but the situation facing the Confederacy was grim. The Union blockade was tightening, Grant had Vicksburg under siege, and the Army of the Potomac was poised across the Rappahannock. So in June, Lee decided to make another bold move into the North, a repeat of his earlier campaign that was repulsed at Antietam Creek. Advancing with a force of 75,000 men, Lee planned to pillage the Pennsylvania farmland, encourage antiwar Democrats in the North, reduce pressure on Confederate armies in the West, and perhaps reopen the issue of European intervention. Lee was vague about his precise objective, content to see how the situation developed, but Harrisburg seemed to be where he was headed. By chance the most famous battle of the war took place at the crossroads town of Gettysburg. On July 1, Confederate forces converged on the town from west and north [see map], driving Union defenders back through the streets to Cemetery Hill. In one of the great controversies of Lee's command, Lee had instructed Richard S. Ewell to take the high ground "if practicable." Ewell determined that it was not practicable. During the night, Winfield Scott Hancock arrived with Federal reinforcements sent by commanding general George Meade. On July 2, Lee attempted to envelop Meade's army, first striking the Union left flank at the Peach Orchard, Wheatfield, Devil’s Den, and the Round Tops with Longstreet’s and Hill’s divisions, and then attacking the right at Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill with Ewell’s divisions. By evening, the Federals retained the Round Tops; during the morning of July 3, Ewell's infantry were driven from Culp’s Hill, and Jeb Stuart's troopers were turned back by George A. Custer's cavalry. In the afternoon, after an intense artillery bombardment, Lee attacked the Union center on Cemetery Ridge (held by the tough Federal I and II Corps). In a reversal of Fredericksburg, this time the federals held the high ground as the Confederates charged into their lines and were slaughtered. An assault by three of Longstreet's divisions--commanded by Pickett, Pettigrew and Trimble--threatened the Union line but was driven back with severe casualties; half of the attackers in "Pickett's Charge" (6,500 men) were cut down. On July 4, Lee began withdrawing his battered army toward the Potomac. Each side suffered abut 23,000 casualties in the three days of fighting; the total cost of Lee's Gettysburg campaign was nearly 50,000 men. Lee lost a third of his army; Meade had a reserve of 20,000 fresh troops and reinforcements brought his strength back up to 85,000, but he let Lee slip away. Still, it was an important Union victory, achieved the same day that Grant took Vicksburg. Gettysburg was Lee's worst setback, arguably because he was a commander who preferred to suggest rather than order, trusting others to act on their own initiative and judgment. (Both Ewell and Longstreet have been blamed for the loss; Lee took responsibility and offered to resign.) But perhaps the finger-pointing misses the point: the Federals had the stronger position this time, and they fought well.
© 2004 David C. Hanson, Virginia Western Community College
