Risultati di ricerca
The Battle of Gettysburg (locally / ˈ ɡ ɛ t ɪ s b ɜːr ɡ / ⓘ) was a three-day battle in the American Civil War fought between Union and Confederate forces between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
- July 1–3, 1863
- Union victory
- Overview
- Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania
- The first day’s battle (July 1)
- The second day (July 2)
- The third day and Pickett’s Charge (July 3)
- Significance, legacy, and casualties
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, during the American Civil War, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
American Civil War
Read more about what happened during the American Civil War.
Who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg?
The Battle of Gettysburg, a major battle of the American Civil War, was fought between the Union army (the North) and the Confederate army (the South).
Confederate States of America
After defeating the Union forces of Gen. Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee decided to invade the North in hopes of further discouraging the enemy and possibly inducing European countries to recognize the Confederacy. Confederate morale was high while defeatist sentiment was spreading in the North, and Lee’s army numbered more than 71,000 troops.
American Civil War Events
Battle of Fort Sumter
April 12, 1861 - April 14, 1861
Shenandoah Valley campaigns
July 1861 - March 1865
On July 1 one of Buford’s brigades, armed with the newly issued Spencer repeating carbines, delayed Heth’s division until Gen. John F. Reynolds’s I Corps began to arrive at about 11:00 am. A vigorous counterattack drove Heth’s two leading brigades back with heavy losses on both sides. Reynolds was mortally wounded in the engagement; he would be the highest-ranking officer to die at Gettysburg and one of the most senior commanders to be killed in action during the war.
Students save 67%! Learn more about our special academic rate today.
Learn More
By 1:00 pm all three divisions of the I Corps were deployed along Seminary Ridge, and two divisions of Gen. Oliver O. Howard’s XI Corps had arrived to defend the northern approaches to the town. A third division of the XI Corps was posted on Cemetery Hill. Howard reached the field about noon, turning his XI Corps over to Gen. Carl Schurz and succeeding Gen. Abner Doubleday in overall command of the battlefield. The Federals resisted on both fronts until about 2:30, but an attack by Gen. Jubal Early’s division against the northeast flank of the XI Corps led to collapse of their entire position. The XI Corps was routed, exposing the flank of the I Corps and forcing it to retreat. Before the defenders could rally on Cemetery Hill, the two Union corps had sustained more than 50 percent casualties. Lee now had superior strength available, but, being in the dark as to the enemy’s true dispositions, he did not want to bring on a general engagement until Longstreet’s corps arrived.
By dawn Meade’s troops had occupied a line along Culp’s Hill, Cemetery Hill, and Cemetery Ridge. Both opposing commanders recognized that a Confederate success on the Federal right would jeopardize Meade’s position by threatening his line of communication along the Baltimore Pike. Lee wanted to exploit this strategic weakness, but Ewell argued that Longstreet should make the main attack on the opposite flank. Longstreet, on the other hand, contended that Lee should make Meade attack.
Delayed by the opposition of his corps commanders, Lee did not issue his orders until 11:00 am. Longstreet was to envelop the Federal south flank and attack north along the Emmitsburg Pike, where Lee erroneously believed Meade’s main line to be. Hill and Ewell were to make secondary attacks. When Longstreet’s artillery started preparatory firing at 3:00 pm, Meade rushed to the heretofore neglected south flank and found that Sickles had not positioned his III Corps along Cemetery Ridge as directed but had moved forward to higher ground. This created a dangerous salient and weakened the south flank, but it was too late to pull him back. Gen. John Bell Hood’s division of Longstreet’s corps attacked the Union left at 4:00 pm.
In spite of Longstreet’s objections, Lee was determined to attack again on the third day. Meade, on the other hand, was less confident, and it was only after a formal council of war that he decided to stay and fight. While Ewell made a secondary attack against Culp’s Hill, Lee planned to hit the Federal center with 10 brigades, three of which were the fresh troops of Gen. George Pickett’s division. Although this attack has been immortalized as “Pickett’s Charge,” that general’s only overall responsibility was to form the divisions of Brig. Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew (who had assumed command of Heth’s division after Heth was wounded on July 1) and Gen. Isaac Trimble (who had taken over Gen. Dorsey Pender’s division after Pender was mortally wounded on July 2) as they reached their attack positions on his left. Longstreet, not Pickett, was in command of the operation. Shortly after 1:00 pm the Confederates started a tremendous artillery bombardment, which was answered immediately by Federal counterfire.
At 3:00 pm the infantry moved out of the woods in parade ground order and started across the 1,400 yards (1,280 meters) of open fields toward Cemetery Ridge. The Federals watched in awed silence as some 15,000 Confederate troops moved toward them. Then the Federal artillery, which had ceased fire an hour earlier to save ammunition, went back into action with devastating effect at a range of about 700 yards (640 meters). Almost unscathed by the Confederate artillery preparation, most of which had gone over their heads, the roughly 10,000 Federal infantry against whom the attack was directed waited coolly behind stone walls and held their fire until the Confederates were within effective range. The southern spearhead broke through and penetrated onto Cemetery Ridge, but there it could do no more. Critically weakened by artillery during their approach, formations hopelessly tangled, lacking reinforcement, and under savage attack from three sides, they marked “the high tide of the Confederacy” with the bodies of their dead and wounded. Leaving 19 battle flags and hundreds of prisoners, the Confederates retreated, demoralized but without panic. Part of one Union brigade advanced to hasten their retreat, but the Army of the Potomac had been too roughly handled to mount a counterattack.
Early in the day, Ewell had attacked Culp’s Hill without success. Stuart, whose bone-tired brigades had arrived the previous evening, was driven back by three Federal cavalry brigades when he tried to envelop Meade’s strategic north flank. At the other end of the lines, Federal cavalry was foolishly employed in futile and costly charges across rough terrain against Hood’s infantry.
Lee waited during July 4 to meet an attack on Seminary Ridge that never came. That night, taking advantage of a heavy rain, he started retreating to Virginia through the South Mountain passes. Lee was held up at Williamsport for a week waiting for the Potomac River to run down, but on the night of July 13 he withdrew his army and trains into the Shenandoah Valley before Meade, who had appeared on his front the day before, could launch an attack.
After the war, when Gettysburg was recognized as the turning point, Southern sentiment charged Longstreet with “losing the war” by not properly cooperating with his commander on July 2 and 3. Longstreet was unenthusiastic about the invasion of Pennsylvania and advocated forcing the Federal army to attack. Confederate successes at First and Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg had convinced him that the war could be won by adopting a tactical defensive posture while conducting strategic offensive operations. However, according to Lee’s biographer, Douglas Southall Freeman, “Lee never gave any intimation that he considered Longstreet’s failure at Gettysburg more than the error of a good soldier. To Longstreet’s credit was the belief that Cemetery Ridge, on July 2–3, was too strong to be stormed successfully. If, when the balance of Longstreet’s account is struck, it still is adverse to him, it does not warrant the traditional accusation that he was the villain of the piece.”
Lee’s defeat stemmed from overconfidence in his troops, Ewell’s inability to fill the boots of Gen. Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson, and faulty reconnaissance. The last cannot be attributed entirely to Stuart’s unfortunate raid. Lee was so dependent on Stuart personally that he failed to properly employ the four cavalry brigades left at his disposal. Meade has been criticized for not destroying the Army of Northern Virginia by a vigorous pursuit. However, it must be said to his credit that only five days after taking command, Meade had stopped the Confederate invasion and won a three-day battle. Coming the day before Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s triumph at Vicksburg, Meade’s victory meant that destruction of the Confederacy was only a matter of time.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
29 ott 2009 · The Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. After a great victory over Union forces at...
Adams County, PA | Jul 1 - 3, 1863. The Battle of Gettysburg marked the turning point of the Civil War. With more than 50,000 estimated casualties, the three-day engagement was the bloodiest single battle of the conflict. How it ended. Union victory.
La battaglia di Gettysburg (1º-3 luglio 1863) è considerata una delle battaglie più importanti della guerra di secessione americana, conclusa con una netta vittoria delle forze dell' Unione dell' Armata del Potomac, che arrestarono l'offensiva in Pennsylvania dell'esercito confederato dell' Armata della Virginia Settentrionale .
Battle of Gettysburg, (July 1–3, 1863) Major engagement in the American Civil War at Gettysburg, Pa., regarded as the war’s turning point. After defeating Union forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee decided to invade the North with more than 71,000 troops.
1 lug 2020 · Gettysburg | July 1-3, 1863 (May 2020) American Battlefield Trust. On the morning of July 1, an engagement between Union cavalry commanded by John Buford and Confederate infantry and artillery commanded by Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill set into motion one of the most famous battles in military history.
