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Washington, D.C., was in a panic! 72,000 Confederate troops were just sixty miles away near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. What led up to this Battle? Two months before, at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own men on May 2, 1863, and died shortly thereafter. Though Confederates won the Battle of Chancellorsville, the loss of Jackson was devastating, as most historians speculate that had Jackson been at Gettysburg two month later, the South may have won. Robert E. Lee was now under a time deadline. Mounting casualties of the war were causing Lincoln's popularity to...

Outside, a heavy summer rainstorm thrashed the streets of Richmond, Va. Inside Libby Prison that afternoon — July 8, 1863 — hundreds of captured Union officers sprawled across the bare wooden floors of the converted tobacco warehouse, picking lice out of their underwear and passing around copies of Richmond newspapers. The news was grim for the Yankees: Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army had defeated Gen. George Meade’s Union troops at a Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg. “OUR ARMY AGAIN VICTORIOUS,” read the headline in The Richmond Examiner, “MEADE’S ARMY ANNIHILATED.” “THE ENEMY ROUTED,” reported the Richmond Dispatch. “FORTY THOUSAND PRISONERS...

July 3 marks the last day of the battle of Gettysburg 150 years ago -- Pickett's Charge, the "high water mark of the Confederacy." July 4 is of course Independence Day, but this year it is also the sesquicentennial of the surrender of Vicksburg, which split the rebel states in two by securing the length of the Mississippi for the Union. This week, a century and a half ago, marked the certain beginning of the end for the Confederacy and thus of slavery and the rise of the great Republic of freedom. To commemorate this week, I am spending the...

On June 10, 1863, the lead troops of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia left the army’s staging area near Culpeper Court House, Virginia and began a march northward. Their destination: Pennsylvania – where Lee hoped to win a major battle on Northern soil and end the Civil War with a Southern victory. Soon his army would be trailed by his main Northern adversary, the Federal Army of the Potomac. Ahead of both armies, across the Potomac River and in the heartland of southern Pennsylvania, lay the quiet crossroads town of Gettysburg, which would become the site of...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... . U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. . . Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family...