Most famous for "Pickett's Charge
" on the Union center. Confederate General Longstreet, in command of this operation, objected to it. Preceded by a massive Confederate 180 cannon bombardment of Union positions, probably largest of the war. The bombardment was ineffectual, although it caused havoc & carnage on the far side of Cemetery Ridge. A morning Culp's Hill attack was also turned back by the Union, as well as two cavalry attacks on the Union flanks. Union casualties for the three days were were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing). Confederate casualties are estimated at 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing).
Although the war ground on for three more years, it gradually became a war of attrition by the United States, which had all the advantages in manpower & industrial might, & one of stubborn defense by the Confederate states in the hopes that the North would grow war weary, Lincoln would be defeated for reelection, & some major European power would intercede. But the combination of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg defeat followed immediately on July 4th by the fall of Vicksburg - cutting the Confederacy in half, pretty much spelled doom for the traitorous slavers of the South. The Confederates never again had the resources to invade the North.
Labels: Civil War Sesquicentennia
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson