UNION ARMY WINS BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG AFTER PICKETT’S DESPERATE CHARGE ON THE THIRD DAY RESULTS IN 7,000 CONFEDERATE DEAD OR WOUNDED IN LESS THAN AN HOUR
In what turned out to be the turning point of the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia’s invasion of the North was stopped at Gettysburg by Union forces led by recently-appointed General George Meade.
After two days of fighting, the Union and Confederate forces had suffered an incredible 35,000 fatalities. Lee tried to gain the initiative on the third day with a massive bombardment of Union positions. The Union responded with its own bombardment, reported to be the heaviest of the Civil War.
Mistakenly believing the Confederates’ artillery had softened up the Union lines, Lee ignored the advice of his subordinates and ordered General George Pickett and others to send 15,000 soldiers into what turned out to be a one mile long killing field to take the appropriately-named Cemetery Ridge. Pickett’s troops were mowed down one after another like sitting ducks and Pickett never forgave Lee for the slaughter of his men.
Realizing Gettysburg was unwinnable, Lee reluctantly withdrew his army. Meade’s Army of the Potomac was too battered to pursue and destroy the vulnerable Confederates as they retreated, but Lee never again attempted to invade the North and spent the rest of the war trying to fend off Union forces as they moved through the South to their ultimate victory.
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