Posted on 07/01/2007 5:23:20 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
1863 : The Battle of Gettysburg begins
The largest military conflict in North American history begins this day when Union and Confederate forces collide at Gettysburg. The epic battle lasted three days and resulted in a retreat to Virginia by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
Two months prior to Gettysburg, Lee had dealt a stunning defeat to the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville. He then made plans for a Northern invasion in order to relieve pressure on war-weary Virginia and to seize the initiative from the Yankees. His army, numbering about 80,000, began moving on June 3. The Army of the Potomac, commanded by Joseph Hooker and numbering just under 100,000, began moving shortly thereafter, staying between Lee and Washington, D.C. But on June 28, frustrated by the Lincoln administration's restrictions on his autonomy as commander, Hooker resigned and was replaced by George G. Meade.
Meade took command of the Army of the Potomac as Lee's army moved into Pennsylvania. On the morning of July 1, advance units of the forces came into contact with one another just outside of Gettysburg. The sound of battle attracted other units, and by noon the conflict was raging. During the first hours of battle, Union General John Reynolds was killed, and the Yankees found that they were outnumbered. The battle lines ran around the northwestern rim of Gettysburg. The Confederates applied pressure all along the Union front, and they slowly drove the Yankees through the town.
By evening, the Federal troops rallied on high ground on the southeastern edge of Gettysburg. As more troops arrived, Meade's army formed a three-mile long, fishhook-shaped line running from Culp's Hill on the right flank, along Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge, to the base of Little Round Top.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
If Jackson had survived to fight at Gettysburg, I would probably need a passport to fly from LA to Miami.
I was fortunate enough to visit the Gettysburg Battle field and to walk the hollowed grounds paid for by the blood of our countrymen to uphold the union or fight for states rights. One can only imagine the individual courage and will to stand shoulder to shoulder in a firing line using outdated Napoleonic tactics designed for weapons which were effect at 100 yds with weapons that were accurate to kill at ½ mile. Their legacy must be protected and their stories told so much individual heroism by those that stood and fought those 3 days from the fight for Seminary Ridge to Pickett’s Charge. I think I need to watch the movie Gettysburg today to honor their memory. I always enjoy watching Ted Turner being cut down in Pickett’s Charge (too bad we can’t get any of the liberals to honor those fighting for our freedoms as I type this, they are always living in the past).
Two corrections to what I wrote: It was General Ewell, not “Euwell.” And it was Cemetery Hill that Ewell failed to take that first day, not Culp’s Hill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_S._Ewell
Lee did not march into Pennsylvania to dig in. He knew he had to have a decisive victory.
Not true. Stuart left something like two brigades of cavalry with Lee, concededly under subordinates he didn’t like. But they did a capable job of screening Lee’s right flank on the march north and reconning ahead. what Lee didn’t have was Stuart. But Lee’s orders [read suggestions] left Stuart the latitude to try tanother risde around the Union Army. This time it didn’t work. But Lee had cavalry. He just didn’t use it well.
And as for the North’s luck, to paraphrase Georger Pickett explaining the South’s loss, the Army of the Potomac had something to do with that.
Most brilliant on the North American continent, for sure.
Have you read Newt’s three book series on an alternate Gettysburg campaign?
He visited Custer on July 3rd. George gave him a warm reception before seeing him off.
To some folks every Confederate general OTHER than Lee was responsible for their defeat at Gettysburg.
Lee marched into Pennsylvania because: [a]He did not want to be re-deployed to Tennessee with the bulk of his army [a plan being bandied about in Richmond], [b] He wanted to take the pressure off the farms of Northern Virginia for the summer of 1863, [c] He wanted to live off the agricultural bounty of Pennsylvania for a season.
Lee’s 1863 campaign was a raid, plain and simple. It only became an invasion after he got his butt kicked.
A large part of that northern “luck” could be attributed to Lee’s hubris.
The romantic version is that Ewell is to blame for everything. In fact, it's not at all clear Jackson, Patton, or Joshua with the Israelites could have taken that hill.
It leads me to ask how good is an army when the loss of a single general---who isn't even the commanding general---dooms it to defeat?
When approaching the little parking lot adjacent to LRT my headlights shone on a statue of a rifleman in a kneeling position .... darn near scared the life out of my wife.
Exactly where Lee ordered him. Better question might be where is Robertson?
Heck if Ewell hadn’t marched to the sound of the guns A.P. Hill may have spent all day in front of McPherson’s ridge.
My brother and I were up there on the 4th of July one year just when a huge thunderstorm was coming in. It was packed with folks and it was quite the scramble as everyone ran for cover.
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