#38, Battle of Gettysburg: Three Days That Determined Whether America Would Survive
The Battle of Gettysburg from July 1 to 3, 1863, produced 51,000 total casualties, approximately 23,049 Union and 28,063 Confederate killed, wounded, captured, or missing. It was the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil and the turning point of the Civil War. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania with 75,000 men, seeking a decisive victory that would force the Union to negotiate peace.
The fighting consumed every feature of the landscape: Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top, the Devil's Den, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Cemetery Ridge. On the third day, Lee ordered 12,500 Confederate soldiers to charge across three-quarters of a mile of open ground directly into massed Union artillery and rifle fire. Pickett's Charge reached the stone wall at the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy" before being shattered. Only half returned. Gettysburg ended Lee's strategic offensive capability and, combined with the fall of Vicksburg the next day, split the Confederacy in two. The battle's aftermath inspired Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, 272 words that redefined American democracy and remain the most quoted speech in the nation's history.
