The Battle of Gettysburg

History

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1-3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point (Robert, 1863, 12).

In September 1862, when General Lee and Stonewall Jackson were at Frederick, examining their maps, planning the battle at Sharpsburg, their attention was drawn to Gettysburg. Given the road net and its location relative to Frederick and Washington, they easily could see that Gettysburg was the perfect point upon which to converge for a classic encounter battle. If the Rebel army could be thrown, like a fisherman's net, across the space between the South Mountain and the Susquehanna, reaching as far as Harrisburg to the north, and Wrightsville to the east, the Union army would be induced to conform in order to cover Washington and Baltimore (Bearss, 2006, 53-60). As time passed, however, and the enemy did not advance to attack, appearing instead to be standing on the defensive near Gettysburg, the commander of the Union army would be induced by "Lincoln's politics" to move, however tentatively, toward Gettysburg at which point the Rebel army would fall upon the enemy's advance, throw it into retreat, and pursue it to Washington.

Lee and Jackson knew that the army was in no condition then, to undertake such a campaign. At the moment the army's only choice was to fight somewhere on the defensive or retreat into Virginia. Once the Battle of Antietam was over, "though" and the army was in front of Winchester, in peaceful camp along the Opequon, General Lee returned to the idea of drawing the enemy into battle at Gettysburg. In early October 1862, he sent JEB Stuart, with his cavalry, on a reconnaissance of the countryside around Gettysburg. Reaching the ford in the dark morning hours of the 10th, Stuart crossed over into Maryland and headed northwest to Mercersville, circling then to the north, to Chambersburg. At Chambersburg, he turned east and passed through the South Mountain by the Cashtown Gap, drawing topographical maps of the terrain, the water sources, and pastures as he went (Robert, 1863, 12).

At Cash-town, he continued east, crossing the eight miles of rolling countryside between that place and Gettysburg, before turning south toward Fairfield and making his way down the right bank of the Monacacy to White's Ferry at the Potomac. Crossing over, under fire from a Union regiment trying to block the ford, he reported to General Lee, who met him at Leesburg. Through the winter of 1862, General Lee developed the plan of operation that would lead his army to the battle of Gettysburg.

The necessity of his plan of operations Lee made plain to his government. On June 8, 1862, Lee wrote this to Secretary of War Seddon: "There is nothing to be gained by this army remaining quietly on the defensive (Robert, 1863, 12).

Discussion

Lee's Movement from Virginia to Pennsylvania

After Stonewall was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville, Lee ...