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Battle of Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg (locally ) (July 1–3, 1863) was fought in the American Civil War between the Union and Confederate armies in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, is widely considered the Civil War's turning point, leading to an ultimate victory of the Union and the preservation of the nation. The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of both the Civil War and of any battle in American military history up to that time, claiming over 50,000 combined casualties. Union major general George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate general Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, halting Lee's invasion of the North and forcing his retreat. After his success in the Battle of Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, in May 1863, Lee led his Confederate forces through the Shenandoah Valley to begin the Gettysburg campaign, his second attempt to invade the North. With Lee's army in high spirits, he intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war-ravaged Northern Virginia in the hopes of penetrating as far as Harrisburg or Philadelphia, which he hoped would convince northern politicians to end the war. President Abraham Lincoln initially prodded Major General Joseph Hooker into pursuing Lee, then relieved him of command just three days before the Battle of Gettysburg commenced, replacing him with Meade. On July 1, 1863, as Lee's forces moved on Gettysburg in the hopes of destroying the Union army, the two armies encountered each other, and the battle commenced. Low ridges to the northwest of Gettysburg were initially defended by a Union cavalry division under Brigadier General John Buford, soon reinforced by two corps of Union infantry. Two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, however, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, leading them to retreat through the streets of Gettysburg to the hills just south of the city. On the second day of battle, on July 2, the Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon, Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union's left flank, leading to fierce fighting at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard. On the Union's right flank, Confederate demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill.

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See also

• ▸Eadweard Muybridge
• ▸Khirbet Minya
• ▸E-6 process

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.