Gettysburg (CG 64) - Naval Cruise Book

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The Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863 It was the high tide of the Confederacyg the farthest North General Robert E. Lee would ever march his men, and it proved to be a crushing blow to the South. The Union victory at that small town in rural Pennsylvania affected politics around the world. The Confederate defeat at Gettysburg dashed their hopes once and for all, that European powers would recognize the South as an independent state. The war lasted nearly two long years beyond Gettysburg, and General Lee would once again lead his forces to victory, but never again on Northern soil. The tide of the Confederacy began to ebb when the Union soldiers, giving their full measure of devotion, stood firm at the Angle and repulsed Pickett's charge. Gettysburg became a battlefield more by chance than by design. Cn June 3rd, after his stunning victory at Chancellorsville against a vastly superior force. Lee marched north again in an attempt to take pressure off Vicksburg. then under siege. He passed through western Maryland and into Pennsylvania. with Harrisburg. its capital, as the objective. Union forces under General Joseph Hooker paralleled his route in order to protect Washington and Baltimore. but Hooker resigned as Commander of the Army of the Potomac and was succeeded by General George Gordon Meade. Lee ordered his army, by then almost at the Susquehanna Rwer. to turn back toward Cashtown, and units of the two armies met by chance at Gettysburg on June 30th. The next day the battle was on as Confederates drove the Union through 30 Gettysburg to a line formed by Culps Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and Little Round Top south of town. Lee moved his forces to Seminary Ridge, almost a mile from the Union line, placing them in a north-south arc that stretched almost five miles. The fighting that started late on July 2nd continued until 10 o'clock at night as Lee sought to tum the Union flanks before Meade could concentrate all his forces. General James Longstreet, who was to attack the critical left flank, would spend the remainder of his life denying that his delays cost the Confederacy a victory at Gettysburg, but it was not until 4 PM. that his cannon roared into action preceding the attack. By then, fresh Union troops had moved into the Wheat field and Devil's Den, names that by nightfall would become immortalized by the blood of thousands of dead and wounded soldiers. Nor was General Dick EwelI's attack on the other flank an unmitigated successg it lacked coordination and was bogged down as additional infantry units and cannons joined General Meade's line of blue. Delays had cost Lee a decisive victory. W, V V4 V V ls. ' . .i i 1 ., if if r ' f , , 'D4 n I 1 9 I Above from left to right- General Robert E. Lee commanded the Confederate forces and General George G. Meade led the Union forces. Right - General Meade and his staff. Top right - Generals Hancock and Birney and their staffs take a lTlOm9m to DOSE for a photograph. Middle right - The aftermath of Picketfs Charge. l i i i i l i 5 1 2 l , Q ll i ii i i

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