First Day: July 1, 1863The events that started the Battle of Gettysburg started in June of 1863 when the Confederate army began crossing the Potomac River for its second invasion of the North. On June 29th, the new federal commander General Meade ordered 94,000 men to head to the battlefield. In response General Lee ordered his army who have been past from Chambersburg to the outer parts of Harrisburg, to stay around Cashtown. The next day, General Johnston Pettigrew’s brigade of General Ambrose Powell Hill Third Corps go into the crossroads of Gettysburg, where it encountered a small amount of Union soldiers. General Pettigrew and General Henry Heth, despite Lee's order to not start until the army was all there, Pettigrew ordered two of their brigades to attack in the morning.
Gettysburg was occupied by two brigades of the Union. General John Buford, who had taken up a defensive position west of Gettysburg on Herr's Ridge. Buford anticipated Confederate attack and asked for infantry support. The first shots of the Battle of Gettysburg were fired about 7:30 a.m. After fighting for three hours Buford’s soldiers had moved back to McPherson’s Ridge until Union infantry from General John Reynolds and the Corps came to the battlefield. The Confederates saw early success in North Chambersburg Pike but were eventually driven back after suffering a lot of losses around an unfinished railroad. South of Chambersburg the Union's Iron Brigade made great gains, until death of Reynolds, who was shot while leading his troops just inside of McPherson’s Woods. General Heth’s entire Confederate engaged and the Iron Brigade began losing ground. The Union commanders ordered a retreat to Cemetery Hill, because it was high ground. Realizing the strength of the Union defensive position, Robert E. Lee ordered General Richard Ewell to attack the hill before the entire Union army could gather there but that was unsuccessful. |
The next morning of July 2, 1863, most of the soldiers on both sides had arrived on the field. The Union defensive position look like a fish hook curving around Cemetery Hill and moving down Cemetery Ridge. General Daniel Sickles was unhappy with the position of three of his corps south on the Cemetery Ridge had advanced west without orders. Lee’s plan called for order attacks on both Union forces while two divisions signal against the Union right at Culp’s and Cemetery Hills General James Longstreet's First Corps moved to the south and make the main attack on the Union's left side. Because of bad information of General J.E.B. Stuarts soldiers, the Confederate command was not aware of Sickles reinforcements delays kept the Confederate attacks from beginning.
Information about the Confederate soldiers movements were received to the Union commander by signal soldiers on Little Rock Top. General Gouverneur Warren wanted to spring into action so he begged for any available soldiers luckily General Meade had sent General George Sykes to help the Union. At the same time Colonel Strong Vincent took up position on Little Round Top without waiting for orders from his leaders. In the bloodiest fighting at Gettysburg, the combat spread to the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard and as far north of Cemetery Ridge. Out of 262 men who made the charge, only 47 lived afterwards. While the Southerners captured Devil’s Den and the Peach Orchard, the Federal line on Little Round Top and Cemetery Ridge held firm. |
Third Day: July 3, 1863
On July 3, 1863, the Confederate failed to remove the main part of the Union line. Around dawn Union artillery on Culp's Hill began to shoot a lot of canon on the lower slopes that have been lost in a earlier fight. The Confederate were attacking for seven hours but couldn't break through the Union line.
Lee reconsidered his plan and thought of attacking in the middle of the Union line. General Lee ordered 12,500 soldiers to attack at Cemetery Ridge, a battle called Pickett's Charge. Confederate gunners kept on shooting and the Union was unable to shoot their target since the infantry camouflaged in the woods. The Union decided to switch to canister shot and musket fire and things began to change for them. They began to hit their target of Confederate soldiers. As the south move towards the north soldiers there were gasps in the Union line. Trying to take advantage of that the Confederate went inside the gaps only to be confronted with hand to hand and point blank artillery fire. The lost of life was large for the southerners , they lost about fifty percent of their soldiers. When the Battle of Gettysburg ended, as many as 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or missing. General Lee retreated and led his army back to Virginia to treat the injured. |