Battle of Gettysburg

1. Battle of Gettysburg

2. Information • July 1st 1863 to July 3rd 1863 • Gettysburg, Pennsylvania • First shot at 7:30 am by Lieutenant Marcellus Jones of the 8th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry • Union wins

3. Union

4. Stats • Union Gen. George G. Meade • Strength: about 83,000 • Casualties: 23,500

5. Union First Day • Reynolds's I Corps arrived to reinforce Buford’s Division against Confederates. • General Reynolds is struck by a bullet in the head and Howard replaces him. • Union forces begin to retreat from the area as the Confederates troops massed there begin to push them back. • Union troops reform a defensive line at Seminary Ridge and await the Confederate advance. To the north of town on Oak Ridge the Union troops are pushed back. • The Union forces retreat back through Gettysburg. • Colonel Charles Coster’s First Brigade is ordered down Cemetery Hill and into town to slow down the Confederate advance, and protect the Union retreat. • As Union reinforcements arrive they are positioned along Cemetery Hill into defensive positions. The retreating Union troops are reformed as well.

6. Union Second Day • Union Brigadier General Warren notices that Little Round Top is undefended and Colonel Strong Vincent reinforces the hill just as the Confederate assault begins. Colonel Strong Vincent is mortally wounded. • -Nearly out of ammunition, and his men exhausted, Chamberlain orders a bayonet charge of the 20th Maine down the hill and effectively ending the Confederate assault on Little Round Top. • -Often referred to as the "Bloody Wheatfield" due to the catastrophic losses by both sides in just a few hours of fighting on this 20-acre sigh the Union forces commanded the field. • - Finally, the fight subsided close to midnight and the Confederates retreated to lower Culp's Hill.

7. Union Third Day • The Union artillery on Baltimore Pike opened up on the Confederates. Then by a Union infantry assault, they went downhill off Culp's Hill and attacked through the woods. The Union commanders rotated troops to keep a constant rate of fire. • On the Union side, General Hancock was wounded in the thigh and he issued and order that he not be removed from the battlefield. • Union soldiers fought hand to hand combat with the survivors of Pickett’s charge.

8. Confederates CSA

9. Stats • Commander: Robert E. Lee • Strength: 71,699 • Killed: 4,708 • Wounded: 12,693

10. Confederates First Day • Confederates arrived at battle field first • They drove Union out of town • Set up defensive positions on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill

11. Confederates Second Day • July 2 • Occupied a line west of the Emmetsburg Road along the Seminary Ridge • Lee’s Plan: Assault on west/ southernmost end of Union line • Lieutenant General James & Lieutenant General A.P. Hill to help carry out plan • Hill had been sick the previous day and failed to his commands

12. Confederate Retreat • On the 3rd/ final day (July 3) • Lee was attempting one last time, to break Union lines • Most Confederates got shot by the time they reached the Union line • To avoid further disaster Lee retreated

13. Weapons Used By Confederates • Rifled muskets • Parrot riffled cannon, Napoleon smoothbore cannon • explosive shells, canister, double-canister, • sniper • Cavalry sabers • pistols • Howitzers • Etc.

14. Results and Effects from the Battle of Gettysburg

15. Soldiers killed and wounded • Of the 88,000 Northern troops in the battle, more than 23,000 casualties about 26.1 percent. • Of 75,000 Confederate troops, more than 28,000 casualties approximately 37.3 percent.(1/3 of Lee’s army was destroyed) • More than 7,000 men died over the course of those three days. • The North won and the South was doomed.

16. Confederates were defeated • The whole tide of the war was changed because for the first time, the Confederate army suffered a terrible defeat. • Up to that point, Lee had won most battles against the Federal Army and he was moving into Pennsylvania to gather more supplies and stores for his army. • He had exhausted Virginia and knew there was a lot of food in Pennsylvania.

17. The Plan • Lee also thought it might be possible to invade Washington. But his real hope was to pin one more terrible loss on the Federal Army and persuade it to make peace. • There were no plans to attack the Federal Army at Gettysburg and no plans for the Federal Army to attack the Confederates.

18. Final Days in Battle • Lee waited for a Union counterattack on July 4 but it never came • The battle was a crushing defeat for the Confederacy. • The North rejoiced while the South mourned, its hopes for foreign recognition of the Confederacy erased. • Lee offered his resignation to President Jefferson Davis, but was refused. • Though the great Confederate general would go on to win other victories, the Battle of Gettysburg (combined with Ulysses S. Grant's victory at Vicksburg, also on July 4) irrevocably turned the tide of the Civil War in the Union’s favor.

19. Lee’s final thought about the Battle • Lee is quoted as saying-"this is all my fault, it is I that have lost this fight." He retreated back into Virginia and his grand plan to produce a victory on Union soil was defeated and the tide of the whole war was changed.