Battle of Gettysburg

Battle of Gettysburg

Battle of Gettysburg, battle fought July 1 through July 3, 1863, considered by most military historians the turning point in the American Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg was a decisive engagement in that it arrested the Confederates' second and last major invasion of the North, destroyed their offensive strategy, and forced them to fight a defensive war in which the inadequacies of their manufacturing capacity and transportation facilities doomed them to defeat.

The Army of the Potomac, under the Union general George Gordon Meade, numbered about 85,000; the Confederate army, under General Robert E. Lee, numbered about 75,000. After the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2 to 4, an important victory for the Confederates, Lee divided his army into three corps, commanded by three lieutenant generals: James Longstreet, Richard Stoddert Ewell, and Ambrose Powell Hill. Lee then formulated a plan for invading Pennsylvania, hoping to avert another federal offensive in Virginia and planning to fight if he could get the federal army into a vulnerable position; he also hoped that the invasion might increase Northern war-weariness and lead the North to recognize the independence of the Confederate States of America. In pursuit of this plan, Lee crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains, proceeded up the Shenandoah Valley, and, crossing Maryland, entered Pennsylvania. Upon learning federal troops were north of the Potomac, Lee decided to concentrate his whole army at Gettysburg.

On June 30, Confederate troops from General Hill's corps, on their way to Gettysburg, noted federal troops that Meade had moved down to intercept the Confederate army. The battle began on July 1 outside of Gettysburg with an encounter between Hill's advance brigades and the federal cavalry division commanded by Major General John Buford, supported by infantry under Major General John Fulton Reynolds. Hill encountered stubborn resistance, and the fighting was inconclusive until Ewell arrived from the north in the afternoon. The Confederates pushed against General Oliver Howard's corps and forced the federal troops to retire from their forward positions to Culp's Hill and Cemetery Ridge, southeast of Gettysburg. The fighting had been heavy on both sides, but the Union troops suffered more losses. More than 4000 men were taken prisoner by the Confederates, and Federal General John Reynolds was killed in battle. The federals did manage to capture Confederate General Archer, the first Confederate officer to be taken prisoner after Lee assumed command of the Confederate army. The corps led by Ewell did not move in to attack the Union troops but waited for General Longstreet to bring in his corps to reinforce the outnumbered Confederate troops.

On the following day, July 2, Meade formed his main forces in the shape of a J (resembling a fishhook), extending westward from Culp's Hill and southward along Cemetery Ridge to the hills of Little Round Top and Round Top. The Confederates, on the other hand, were deployed in a long, thin, concave line, with Longstreet and Ewell on the flanks and Hill in the center.

Lee, against the advice of Longstreet and despite the fact that he had no cavalry, resolved to attack the federal positions. Longstreet was unable to advance until late afternoon, thus allowing the federal troops to make preparations for the expected assault. General Abner Doubleday of the federal army strengthened his hold on Cemetery Hill. The federals held Cemetery Ridge and Little Round Top, but Longstreet moved Confederate troops along Peach Orchard, driving the federals from their positions there. Although Ewell won part of Culp's Hill, he was unable to break the federal line there or on the eastern part of Cemetery Ridge. On the night of July 2, Meade held a council of war in which the decision was made not to retreat. On the third day of battle, the federals were secure in their positions and the Confederates had lost their offensive stance. General Lee decided to mount an attack despite opposition from other Confederate generals. The offensive did not begin until after noon. Groups from three Confederate divisions, including the division led by Major General George E. Pickett, totaling fewer than 15,000 men, took part in a memorable charge on Cemetery Ridge against a withering barrage of federal artillery and musket fire. The attack is known as Pickett's Charge. Although the Confederate troops breached Meade's first line of defense, the strain on the Confederates proved too great, and they fell back, having lost over three-fourths of their force.

With the repulse of Pickett's Charge, the Battle of Gettysburg was virtually over. On the night of July 4, Lee began his retreat to Virginia, expecting a counterattack from the federal army. Meade, however, did not attack, due perhaps to heavy rains which hampered pursuit of the retreating Confederates. During the three days of battle, the Union Army had about 23,000 casualties, and the Confederates had at least 25,000.

Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg Address

 

Gettysburg Address, famous speech delivered by United States president Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He presented it at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, honoring those who died in the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg earlier that year.

This brief discourse followed a two-hour oration by Edward Everett, the main speaker at the event and one of the most famous speakers of the time. In the contemporary newspaper reports of the dedication ceremonies, Everett's remarks were lauded highly and given prominence on the front page, while the words of Lincoln were relegated to an inside page. Everett, however, was sufficiently moved by the simple and sincere eloquence of Lincoln to write the following note to him on the day after the dedication: “I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.” Today, the Gettysburg Address is universally recognized not only as a classical model of the noblest kind of oratory but also as one of the most moving expressions of the democratic spirit ever uttered.

The writing of the Gettysburg Address has become an American myth. The most popular version states that Lincoln wrote the address on the back of a used envelope. In fact, President Lincoln wrote two drafts of the brief speech and made some changes to the text as he spoke. He subsequently wrote copies of the address that he presented. The text follows.

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

“But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation

 

Issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, this famous document, printed here in its entirety, granted freedom to more than 3 million United States slaves. Lincoln's decree was later made law by passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.


The Emancipation Proclamation

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.


Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:


“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.


“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.”


Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion again the United States, the following, to wit:


Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.


And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.


And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.


And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.


And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.


In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration