The Battle of Gettysburg Essay
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought from July 1 – July 3, 1863 and is most commonly considered as the turning point in the American Civil War. It was fought between the Union, which was the North, and the Confederacy, which was the South. The majority of this war was based on slavery and whether it should be allowed in America or not, however, state sovereignty also took on a major role in the conflict. The Confederacy, consisting of eleven southern states, had seceded from the Union, which consisted of 23, in hopes of being recognized as an independent nation with their own rules and regulations, but the Union was not about to let that happen. Arguments over slavery became a heated topic, and eventually led to violence. An example of this would be the Charles Sumner incident, or the various fistfights in Congress. Regardless of what had gone on in the past, war now seemed inevitable.
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Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: The battle began on July 1, 1863, just Northwest of Gettysburg on Cashtown Road. It was here that the Confederate cavalry ran into Union horsemen. The first shots were fired and both sides sent for reinforcements and back up. Unfortunately, the Confederacy recruits arrived first, and by afternoon had driven the Union South of town, where they rallied into defensive positions on Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill. Here, the battle would wage on until the following day.
July 2, 1863: By this morning, 150,000 Union and Confederate troops had converged on the little Pennsylvania town. The southerners occupied a line West of the Emmittsburg Road, along the Seminary Ridge. The northern men waited along Cemetery Ridge. Cemetery Ridge was a slightly more elevated crest that ran south toward two hills, Big and Little Round Top. General Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy called for an assault on the left, or southernmost end of the Union line. General Lee was a mystically skilled commander who constantly out-thought his attackers and forced them to assault him under bad conditions.
July 3, 1863: The battle was almost over. The Union had General George Gordon Meade, who was appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac after fighting in the battle of Chancellorsville. He was a brave and honorable man, who constantly pushed himself to the limits with his fighting tactics. General Meade continued to have his men stretch along Cemetery Ridge southbound, until they eventually had men fighting on Big Round Top. This final day of the battle was one of great tragedy for the Confederacy. At about three in the afternoon, General Lee ordered the most fateful assault of the war, against the center of the Union line. As the Confederate Brigades got closer, more and more were killed by canon fire. The Confederacy took control of some Union canons at one point, but had lost too many people on the way. Lee’s plan had failed, and he could do no more than understand that. The Confederacy never fully recovered from this battle, making it harder to win the Civil War later on.
Throughout the entire war, both sides had their advantages and disadvantages. The North had a free population of about 22 million, while the South had only 9 million, 4 million which were slaves. The North was a modern industrial power, while the South was overwhelmingly rural. The North processed nine–tenths of the nation’s industrial capacity, four–fifths of its bank capital, and three–fourths of its taxable wealth. The North financed 60 percent of its war effort through the sale of bonds in its prosperous region. Its paper currency inflated by only 80 percent during the whole war. The South, on the other hand, had to finance the war by printing paper money that inflated 9,000 percent in four years. To succeed, the South had only to defend their territory, and Northern armies had to operate in hostile territory in which transportation and communications was very difficult. All in all, the Union had more advanced weapons, accurate from beyond 300 yards away, and were just too much for the Confederacy.
The Battle of Gettysburg was one of the most costly battles in terms of lives lost without a shadow of a doubt. In the end, the Union had 3,155 soldiers killed, 14,530 wounded, and 5,365 missing, which is a total of 23,040. The Confederacy had 2,600 - 4,500 killed, 12,800 wounded, and 5,250 missing, making a total of 20,650 - 25,000 +. There were many final outcomes to this battle, all which revolutionized the way we live today. The first was the fact that the Union had overtaken the Confederacy, making it one large nation…The United States of America. The Emancipation Proclamation was later established after the Civil War, freeing slaves in the South permanently. The U.S. was now a nation-state, but suffered incredible debt after the war, and the South remained the poorest region for a long time. Finally, the status of the Trans-Mississippi West was settled on Northern Terms.
To conclude, the Battle of Gettysburg was one of the most important battles for the Civil War. Indeed, it can be seen as the turning point of the Civil War, but many believe that holds not true. With swords and sabers, guns and canons, this Nation suffered and learned from its experiences, making it one of the greatest countries today. Although we lost many, many lives in this particular battle, we showed our ability to overcome domestic problems such as slavery and discrimination, and fully recover with flying colors…Red, White, and Blue.
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