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the Gettysburg Story
Prior to 1861, the United States of America "were" known as
separate states that created most of
their own rules and
regulations. An ongoing debate argued whether to have each
state or a singular central government
decide issues such as
taxation, commerce of products and, in particular, the issue
of slavery. The northern states opposed
slavery while the
southern states, whose economy depended on it,
supported the institution.
So, in 1861, realizing debate could no longer resolve the
dissension and division, the southern states
seceded from
the government and formed their own Confederacy of States.
They even elected their own president, Jefferson
Davis.
President Lincoln, who was then president of the United
States, believed "a house divided can not stand." Thus,
a
Civil War, where brother fought against brother, broke
out to decide whether the United States would remain
one country
or split into two.
In 1861 and 1862, Confederate armies achieved many
victories over their Northern counterparts. By
the summer
of 1863, the brilliant General Robert E. Lee was in command
of the Army of Northern Virginia. He decided
upon an invasion
of the north, which would pull both armies from war torn
northern Virginia, where most of the fighting
had previously
been. By invading the north and particularly, winning a victory
in the north, it might cause disenchanted
northerners to
pressure the Lincoln administration to seek a settlement
toward peace, thus ending the war. This decision
eventually
brought the war to the doorsteps of a small, rural south
central Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg.
General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, 75,000 strong, was
travelling north to central Pennsylvania.
On June 30, Lee
learned that the 95,000 men of the Union Army of the
Potomac, led by Maj. General George G. Meade,
were
pursuing them.
July 1, 1863
Lee ordered several brigades to travel east to check their
location and to forage
for supplies for his troops. Northwest of
the town of Gettysburg they met. A skirmish ensued and as
the battle heated,
word was sent back to both commanders
that the enemy was found and reinforcement troops proceeded
to the area. Over
the next 2 days Lee’s army converged onto
Gettysburg from the west and north while Meade’s army
arrived
from the south and southeast. Thus a battle never
planned occurred simply by circumstance.
As southern forces continued
a relentless attack against the
entrenched Union troops, the additional arriving Confederate
forces launched an all-out
offensive which drove the Union
forces through the streets of Gettysburg to a defensive line
south of town. Thus, after
the first day of battle the 5 mile
Confederate line traveled from Seminary Ridge on the west
side of the town of Gettysburg,
through the town and eastward
toward the area called Culp's Hill. As additional Northern
reinforcements arrived on the
field, they occupied a 2 mile
defensive position commonly referred to as a fishhook
formation along Cemetery Ridge and
Culp's Hill.
July 2, 1863
The second day of battle was initiated by a series of
uncoordinated and fragmented
Confederate attacks on the
Union defensive position south of the town. While
simultaneous attacks were supposed to have
occurred on
Culp's Hill and Cemetery Ridge, the attacks took place six
hours apart and were unsuccessful. Though Union
forces
held onto Culp's Hill, the Confederate forces did drive back
the Union troops in areas referred to as the Peach
Orchard,
Wheatfield, Valley of Death and Devils Den with a staggering
amount of casualties. The Confederate advance
of the right
flank had initially succeeded but was stopped by heroic
efforts of Union forces in an area known as Little
Round Top.
Having been basically successful in 2 days of battle with the
Union army, General Lee, believing
his army was invincible
and undefeatable, decided to attack what he thought to be the
weakest position of the Union
line the next day. At the same
time General Meade held a council of war with his Corp
commanders and decided to remain
in a defensive position
for the battle anticipated the next day. Thus the decision
made by both commanders would lead
to one of the most
famous days of the American Civil War.
July 3, 1863
The third day of battle began with another unsuccessful
attempt to take over and
occupy Culp's Hill. Meanwhile, a
mile east of Gettysburg a Confederate Cavalry of 6,000
troopers held orders to attack
the Union rear. Union cavalry
with a strength of 5,000 confronted them in a hot firefight
that contained and turned
the Confederates back.
General Jeb Stuart led the southern forces and among the
Union leadership was General George
Armstrong Custer.
Between the Union line on Cemetery Ridge and the
Confederate outposts in the town, was the home of
Mrs.
McClellan with her new baby. Helping her with the
child’s care were her mother and her unmarried sister,
Jennie
Wade. Throughout July 1 and 2 Jennie baked bread
for grateful Union soldiers. On the morning of July 3rd, while
Jennie
stood in the kitchen kneading dough, a bullet pierced
the door and struck her, killing her instantly. The cries of
her
sister and mother attracted Union soldiers who carried
Jennie’s body to the cellar. Jennie was the only Gettysburg
citizen
killed in the battle.
At 1:00 p.m., the largest cannonade that ever occurred on
the North American continent preceded
the planned charge.
Unknown to General Longstreet, in charge of the famous
assault, the cannon fire, which was to decimate
the Union
centre overshot their target and did nothing more than
devastate farm fields far behind the Union troops.
When the cannonade ceased 12,000 Confederate soldiers
marched from Seminary Ridge in parade dress
formation to
launch a famous, heroic attack upon the Union center, forever
ingrained and immortalized in history as
Pickett's Charge.
The Confederate objective was a small clump of trees, 1 mile
away across an open field. Once the smoke
from the
cannonade cleared the field, Union forces watched their
soon to be combatants in awe. They admired the intense
patriotism
and desperate dedication of the men before them.
Still, once within range, the Union artillery hit and mowed
down the
columns of men like blades of grass. Two out of
three Confederate soldiers would not return.
Incredibly, a small number of Confederate forces reached
the small clump of trees in their brave
determination and
held the land for a brief period of time. Their courage and
heroism gave way to the devastating realities
of war as
Union forces engulfed them from three sides. The group
of trees became known as the High Water Mark of the
Confederacy.
Picketts division and other elements in
the attack were virtually destroyed.
Retreating back to Seminary Ridge, General Lee waited
and upon seeing General Pickett and realizing
the defeat
that occurred, advised Pickett to reform his division in the
event of a Union counterattack. Pickett, looking
at Lee
responded, "General Lee, I have no division." With these
words, and after 3 days of devastating carnage, the
battle
ended with the Confederates being defeated and retreating
back to Virginia the next day. Sadly, the horrors of
the war
would continue for another two long, bloody years.
By coincidence or perhaps an omen, the next day happened
to be July 4th, known as America’s Independence Day.
It was on July 4th, 1776 that the first
13 colony states
formally broke away from Great Britain and formed a new
nation called the United States of America.
In perhaps
another omen that the United States should be one country,
this same day, the Confederate stronghold and
gateway to
the west, the city of Vicksburg, MS fell to a Union general,
who 2 years later, would accept the surrender
of General Lee
and Confederate forces at Appomattox, VA.
That General - Ulysses S. Grant.
As the two armies departed Gettysburg to continue the war
elsewhere, the 2,000 citizens of Gettysburg
came out of their
cellars and back from their hurried escape to nearby towns.
They returned to a community in shambles
with almost every
property damaged, houses looted, and all crops and food
destroyed or stolen. Left behind were tens
of thousands of
casualties in and around the town. Nearly every house, barn
and public building housed countless wounded
badly needing
attention. Many dead were left decaying where they fell,
thousands of others were in shallow graves being
dug up
by animals. Lingering odours were sickening.
The carnage, destruction but untold heroic acts of valour of
both Union and Confederate soldiers
was immortalized in
the history of mankind four and a half months later when
President Lincoln delivered the famous
speech known
and recognized as "The Gettysburg Address."
Though the war lasted 4 long years and resulted in over
600,000 deaths and 3,000,000 casualties of
both northern
and southern young men, the nation was reborn as one in
1865 at the close of the war. From that time on,
the United
States would always be referred to with a singular verb:
The United States is one country.
The Gettysburg Address
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers
brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived
in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing
whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field
of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that
field as a final resting-place for those who here
gave their
lives that this nation might live. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we should do
this. But, in a larger sense,
we cannot dedicate…
we cannot consecrate…we cannot hallow…this
ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who
struggled here, have consecrated it far above
our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note nor
long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here. It is
for us, the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to
the unfinished work which they who fought here
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for
us
to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us…that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion
to that cause
for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion; that we here highly resolve that these
dead
shall not have died in vain; that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom;
and that government of
the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.
November
19, 1863
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