Key Words: War, Rights, and Dedication On July 1st 1863,the first day of the Gettysburg battle started. The Confederate Cavalry attacked a Union Calvary division that the Confederates greatly outnumbered. The Union Calvary was able to hold the Confederates off and actually drive them back until late that afternoon.
The Battle of Antietam is viewed as the bloodiest day ever, with more than 23,000 warriors injured, killed, or missing. The Battle of Antietam occurred close Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland. The fight was battled on September 17 1862. A large portion of the war had been battled in Virginia, as of right now.
“My dead and wounded were nearly as great in numbers as those still on duty”. This quote from Colonel William C. Oates demonstrates the catastrophe and death that occurred in Gettysburg. The battle of Gettysburg started early July 1st 1863, when General Robert E. lee led his army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in late June. The Union army, led by General George G. Meade, was staying in the town of Gettysburg. The battle went on to last until July 3rd, when that night General Lee pulled his forces out of Gettysburg and pushed back to Virginia.
First of all the geography forced the Confederates to switch from offense to defense. The Battle of Gettysburg was the first and last battle fought in the North. All the other battles were fought in the South so the Confederate’s people and towns were constantly in danger. Document A illustrates that the General Lee were tired of being on the defense and wanted to be on the offense for a change. Document A states that even though the Confederates tried their hardest they were pushed back onto the defensive and ultimately lost the war (273).
The Civil War was the bloodiest battle on American soil, killing around 600,000 men on both sides. With so many deaths, individuals have been recognized as heroes or villains. One of the heroes of the Civil War was Joshua Chamberlain, a brigadier general who helped the Union win the Battle of Gettysburg. He lead the 20th Maine Regiment on a bayonet charge down Little Round Top, forcing John Bell Hood and his Confederate army to retreat. Their charge had the Union successfully defend the crucial Little Round Top.
The Battle of Antietam was considered the bloodiest day in American history killing, injuring, and capturing 23,000 men in Sharpsburg, Maryland. The battle was led by Robert E. Lee of the Army of Northern Virginia and General George McClellan of the Potomac. General McClellan was chosen by President Lincoln over John Pope to lead the Union in this battle. McClellan was very pretentious, and most of the cabinet members choose Pope over McClellan, but Lincoln went against them and choose McClellan. He was questioned on his ability to take on General Lee because he took serious risks to maintain his success during the Civil War.
After the recognition of destruction and death struck General Lee, the Confederate Army retreated back to Virginia on September 18th. Reacting as a cautious leader would, McClellan hesitated attacking the vulnerable troops of the Confederate’s as they escaped back into the safety of the South. With both sides wounded and tired, Lee’s bluster to keep the fight going gave the Confederates enough time to gather their wounded and abscond the scene of battle. After Lee took his soldiers back South, McClellan wrote ‘that after a “careful survey of the situation and condition of our army, the strength and position of the enemy, I concluded that the success of an attack on the 18th was not certain”’. McClellan’s hesitation in pursuit was seen as a
After General Grant won a key battle at Vicksburg, forces under Sherman headed East toward Meridian. Meridian was a key railroad center. Sherman decided to split his army and meet at Meridian. After it was captured, he would then move on Selma, Alabama. Sherman sent several distractions, to confuse confederate general Polk and also surrounded Mobile Bay so they could not send reinforcements to their confederate counterparts.
Review of the Killer Angels by Michael Shaara The Killer Angels is a fiction book authored by Michael Shaara and published in 1974 by Ballantine Books, in New York City. Shaara, an educator, and a novelist, was born in 1928 in Jersey City. In 1975, his book, the Killer Angels won the Pulitzer Prize for the best story telling novel. The book details the events of 1863 which occurred during the civil war of Gettysburg, in America (Shaara 3).
In the fall of 1863 General William T. Sherman started planning for the next portion of his battles across the southern states and ending in the Carolinas to try and finally end the Civil War. The campaigns and battles proceeding the spring of 1864 had been conventional warfare, hand to hand and geared more directly at the troops, ships, battery emplacements, and key military facilities. Sherman left Vicksburg February 3, 1864 giving explicit orders to destroy the railroad tracks across Mississippi, as well any facility or establishment that could be utilized in helping or supporting the Confederate war efforts. Sherman continued this reign of destruction the Carolina’s.