By the summer of 1863, the American Civil War was largely seen as a war in two distinct theaters — the East and the West.

In the West, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who was commanding the Army of Tennessee was fighting the Confederacy with great success. However, that was not the situation in the East.

Although the North outnumbered the South and had a great deal of resources to call upon, the Confederacy had managed to win a series of significant battles under the leadership of Gen. Robert E. Lee, who had previously been offered command in the Union. Adding to this, the North had gone through a series of commanders rapidly that kept the army in disarray.

In June, Lee was informed that he would have enough resources to make a push onto northern soil, if deemed opportune. The idea was that if the Confederacy could win a significant battle, and perhaps take a key city in the Union, then the northern political structure would begin to waver and pull out of the war.

Some states, such as Illinois and Indiana, had already discussed leaving the war and many had become wary of a conflict that had lasted so long already. Lee decided on an invasion of Pennsylvania, with Harrisburg as the target city.

The campaign to invade Pennsylvania came to fruition in June 1863, as Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia traveled north through the Shenandoah Valley.

Meanwhile, Lee’s trusted cavalry commander, Gen. J .E. B. Stuart, had moved off to create a series of disturbances behind enemy lines. This would prove a mistake. Instead of guiding the army and providing reconnaissance, Stuart fell into a series of traps by Union cavalry. He was unable to join his commander until the final hours of the Battle of Gettysburg.

In a 1868 letter recounting the battle, Lee said, “It was commenced in the absence of correct intelligence. It was continued in the effort to overcome the difficulties by which we were surrounded, and it would have been gained could one determined and united blow have been delivered by our whole line.”

By the final days of June, the army’s vanguard was approaching Harrisburg, while Lee and the rest of the army were following behind, approaching Gettysburg from the West.

Gettysburg itself held no true value, other than its significance as a key intersection in which the Army of Northern Virginia would enter and then turn due north.

In a stroke of luck, the Union had dispersed its cavalry to find Lee’s army and one of these elements bumped into its main body at Gettysburg on the morning of July 1.

For the North, the new commanding officer was Gen. George G. Meade. President Abraham Lincoln hoped that Meade could do what the generals before him could not — stop the Confederates once and for all.

Meade was known as a rugged, tough commander who had a West Point education coupled with experience in previous wars.

On the morning of July 1, United States cavalry had placed itself in a position to buy time until Meade could pull the various parts of the Army of the Potomac into position to stop Lee in his tracks at Gettysburg.

The small town of Gettysburg became a fulcrum of activity as two armies clashed unexpectedly across rolling hills and small farms. Civilians quickly evacuated to the surrounding countryside with a few remaining to protect their livelihoods or to help the “boys in blue” with food and care.

One resident, Sarah Broadhead, was going about her daily business when the first shots were fired, “I had just put my bread in the pans when the cannons began to fire, and, true enough, the battle had begun in earnest … What to do or where to go, I did not know.”

The battle began north of town as the two forces struggled for strategic ground.

In the initial conflict, Confederate troops got the better of the Union soldiers and drove them south of town. In that moment, Lee actually had more men and was able to consolidate more quickly. The elements of Meade’s army were approaching from various roads, largely scattered and unorganized.

By nightfall, the Southerners had secured the town and everything north of it. However, Meade’s army had fallen back to key positions south of town that would make the next day’s fighting an entirely different affair.

On the morning of July 2, Lee had no choice but to engage Meade.

By mid-day, the Union army had anchored itself on two pieces of high ground that are well-known today; Culp’s Hill and Little Round Top. Between these two, the Northern troops created a line on an elevated piece of ground known as Cemetery Ridge, thus forming a battle line known today as the “fishhook.”

Throughout the day, Lee pushed wave after wave of troops against the two corners of the line at Little Round Top and Culp’s Hill. But the Union was entrenched on the high ground behind rocks and, in many cases, breastworks.

Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain of the 20th Maine was on the extreme left of the Union line on Little Round Top. He held back several Confederate assaults. Running out of ammunition, Chamberlain ordered a counterattack that secured the Union left flank.

“At that crisis, I ordered the bayonet,” Chamberlain said of the battle. “The word was enough. It ran like fire along the line, from man to man, and rose into a shout, with which they sprang forward upon the enemy, now not 30 yards away.”

Chamberlain’s actions that day would earn him the respect of the nation and a Congressional Medal of Honor.

As darkness approached, both sides had taken a heavy toll but Meade had held the Union line intact.

At 11 p.m. July 2, Meade said of the battle, “The enemy attacked me about 4 p.m. this day, and after one of the severest contests of the war, was repulsed at all points.”

As the morning of July 3 approached, the Union was in one of the best defensive positions it held the entire war.

The same could not be said of Lee.

His choices were retreat back home — with the possibility of never having the strength to return — or make one last push.

Lee decided to take the parts of his army that had not yet engaged and use them in a last ditch effort to strike the middle of Meade’s line on Cemetery Ridge. This was to be coupled with an attack from the rear by Stuart’s cavalry which had arrived on the battlefield.

However, this plan was blocked by the unexpected arrival of the Union Cavalry.

In the middle of the afternoon, 11,000, or more, Confederate men marched three-quarters of a mile over open ground against the center of Meade’s line, which largely rested behind stone walls on elevated ground.

This became the infamous “Pickett’s Charge” of the Civil War, named after Gen. George Pickett, one of Lee’s division commanders. Pickett’s men took close to 50% casualties as they tried to close the gap and reach the stone wall.

Through shell and musket fire, the Confederates were cut down in droves, with only a few reaching the enemy, and even then, those few were repulsed quickly.

Lt. Lemuel Hoyle, who was in the North Carolina Regiment that made the charge, in a letter home told of the carnage.

“The fighting was perfectly fearful, and the slaughter tremendous,” Hoyle wrote to his family. “Our men fought with the accustomed valor and determination of Southern soldiers, but in vain, we had to fall back to our original positions, and all of our men, who were so badly wounded that they could not crawl off or killed, near the enemy works, fell into their hands.”

With nothing left to give and heavy casualties, Lee received one of his first solid defeats.

What was supposed to be a surprise attack into Pennsylvania had turned into an unexpected battle by both sides that amounted in the vicinity of 50,000 casualties, making it easily one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

At the Battle of Gettysburg were approximately 90,000 Union and 70,000 Confederacy soldiers — making it one of the larger battles of the war, as well.

By the morning of July 4, Lee’s army began the long trek back home, leaving many killed and wounded from both sides behind.

Gettysburg was devastated. Every home in the town became a hospital. Many buildings were burned or destroyed.

For months, wounded were treated in homes and farms. The dead were buried in farm fields up to five miles away.

For the North, the early days of July 1863 were the first significant victory — it raised morale across the Union and placed fear in many Southerners who had not known defeat before.

Gettysburg is often considered the turning point of the war. While this holds some truth, it is coupled with an event on July 4.

The day following the Battle of Gettysburg, Grant defeated and captured the Confederate Army in the West, thus ending the conflict in that theater.

However, the conflict with the Confederate Army in the East would continue until April 9, 1865.

Brad Pflugh is department chairman of history at Knoch High School.

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