After
his astounding victory at the Battle
of Chancellorsville, Virginia, in
May 1863, Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia in its second
invasion of the North—the Gettysburg Campaign. With his army in high
spirits, Lee intended to collect supplies in the abundant Pennsylvania
farmland and take the fighting away from war-ravaged Virginia. He
wanted to threaten Northern cities, weaken the North's appetite for war
and, especially, win a major battle on Northern soil and strengthen the
peace movement in the North. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Maj.
Gen. Joseph Hooker moved his Union Army of the Potomac in pursuit, but
was relieved of command just three days before the battle. Hooker's
successor, Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade moved northward, keeping his
army between Lee and Washington, D.C. When Lee learned that Meade was
in Pennsylvania, Lee concentrated his army around Gettysburg.
Elements of the two armies collided west and north of the town on July
1, 1863. Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. John Buford slowed the
Confederate advance until Union infantry, the Union 1st and 11th Corps,
arrived. More Confederate reinforcements under generals A.P. Hill and
Richard Ewell reached the scene, however, and 30,000 Confederates
ultimately defeated 20,000 Yankees, who fell back through Gettysburg to
the hills south of town--Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill.
On the second day of battle, the Union defended a fishhook-shaped range
of hills and ridges south of Gettysburg with around 90,000 soldiers.
Confederates essentially wrapped around the Union position with 70,000
soldiers. On the afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy assault on
the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Devil's Den, Little
Round Top, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard and Cemetery Ridge. On the
Union right, demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on
Culp's Hill and East Cemetery Hill. Although the Confederates gained
ground, the Union defenders still held strong positions by the end of
the day.
On July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged
to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry
assault by 12,000 Confederates against the center of the Union line on
Cemetery Ridge--Pickett's Charge. The charge was repulsed by Union
rifle and artillery fire, at great losses to the Confederate army. Lee
led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. As many as 51,000
soldiers from both armies were killed, wounded, captured or missing in
the three-day battle. Four months after the battle, President Lincoln
used the dedication ceremony for Gettysburg's Soldiers National
Cemetery to honor the fallen Union soldiers and redefine the purpose of
the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.