[CurlyBill]

I feel Gettysburg has been overplayed.

I disagree to some extent. Had the Confederates won the Battle of Gettysburg, they could have quickly moved through Maryland and into Washington, DC around the same time Vicksburg was falling. Having laid siege to Washington, DC (with the remnants of the Army of the Potomac in his wake) Lee would probably have forced Lincoln to negotiate some form of a settlement. Furthermore, despite the fact that the Union was carving up the west, a win at the battle of Gettysburg would have changed the complection of the war. Had the Confederates won the war, I believe that slavery would have been abolished (albeit years later than it was) and we would still have been one country today. Just my $.02...

[SAMWolf]

Toward The Angle
Brigadier Gen. Richard Brooke Garnett leading his Brigade of 5 Virginia regiments at Gettysburg, July 3rd, 1863

The high Tide
It was the "High Tide" of the Confederacy -- Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. It began with a long gray line of 15,000 troops arranged in "magnificent order" for a half a mile. Soon the ranks were shredded by shot and shell, and they shrank into small groups of men, gathered under tattered red banners. The most determined crossed the Emmitsburg Road and continued into the face of deadly Northern fire blazing from a stone wall on Cemetery Ridge. More and more fell until, finally, the great assault collapsed. It was the end of Lee's hope to end the war at Gettysburg.

[Non-Sequitur]

Had the Confederates won the Battle of Gettysburg, they could have quickly moved through Maryland and into Washington, DC around the same time Vicksburg was falling. Having laid siege to Washington, DC (with the remnants of the Army of the Potomac in his wake) Lee would probably have forced Lincoln to negotiate some form of a settlement.

What the heck, I might as well toss in my $0.02 worth as well. I respectfully disagree with you. Say that Pickett had split the Union line on the third day and sent the Army of the Potomac into retreat. Lee now has thousands of dead and tens of thousands of wounded to care for, he's shot off most of his ammunition, and he is still hundreds of miles into the Union. The Army of the Potomac is damaged but still dangerous. Washington D.C. has thousands of troops in dozens of forts defending it. Lee had no choice. He was in no position at all to proceed on to Baltimore or Philadelphia or Washington. He had to go home regardless, back to Virginia before his line of retreat was cut.