people on both sides predicted it would be over by the end of the first summer. The Confederacy, committed to defending the rights of each state, and their institution of slavery; and the Union, committed to keeping the country intact as it had been prior to the start of the war, and to ending the practice of slavery, as well as being committed to punishing the South for trying to leave the Union, kept the war raging. Each side was convinced their beliefs were the right ones. As the war reached the end of its first summer, no one could predict when the war and the killing of our nation’s young men would end.
Here the legend began. Two years after the war had started at Fort Sumter; the war had visited many other places, places where peace, family, farming, religion, and even local politics should have been the issues, not visits by soldiers fighting a war killing each other. The war between the two large armies stopped in places called Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Court House, Vicksburg, and in many other places, places where the tragedy of war robbed families of their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons. The war also robbed many others, in places where the battles were being fought, of their right to the pursuit of happiness.
In many of the war’s early battles the Confederate army, seemingly more organized and more determined than the larger and better equipped Union army, won more of the battles than they lost. Then both sides came to Gettysburg. Here the two sides fought a three day battle which many people soon believed caused a turn in the South’s fortunes to occur. It was a turn which saw the Union army finally start to fight with much more conviction. That conviction finally came to the Union army, in part, because Lincoln and his generals finally realized in order to win the war they had to defeat the Confederate army itself; trying to conquer their land, like some of the early Union generals had tried to do, would not lead to the end of the war. Devastating the Confederate armies with huge losses of men and interrupting their supply and communication lines were among the keys to securing a victory. Soon President Lincoln and his new commanding general, General Ulysses S. Grant, along with some of Grant’s most trusted generals, would employ that tactic in their future campaigns against the Confederacy.
The Confederate army had fought well at Gettysburg, but decisions which had been made to attack the Union army at times during this battle, especially when the Union army held the high ground, proved to be poor ones. Attacking an army who was continually being resupplied with more men and with more equipment as the battle went on was also among the poor decisions which were made. Those decisions, influenced in part by other factors, such as poor communication at times between General Lee and his generals, as well as the South’s cavalry unit being elsewhere during a significant part of the three day battle, doomed the Confederate army at Gettysburg. These failures would rob them of one of their most precious resources, one they could never replenish as easily as the Union army could. That resource was their men. Unlike the South, the North had a much larger portion of the nation’s population to draw from and finding replacement troops was far easier for the North during the war. The poor tactical decisions which were made, coupled with the sheer strength and size of the Union army, as well as the terrain which the Confederate army had to fight on, all proved too much for the Confederacy to overcome at Gettysburg.
The Confederate army lost far too many men during this battle as over twenty-three thousand soldiers were either killed, wounded, captured, or missing by the time it was over. While the Union army lost a similar number of men, just like the other needs of war, such as food, weapons, and horses, the Union absorbed those losses far better than the Confederate army could. Perhaps those losses
Here the legend began. Two years after the war had started at Fort Sumter; the war had visited many other places, places where peace, family, farming, religion, and even local politics should have been the issues, not visits by soldiers fighting a war killing each other. The war between the two large armies stopped in places called Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Court House, Vicksburg, and in many other places, places where the tragedy of war robbed families of their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons. The war also robbed many others, in places where the battles were being fought, of their right to the pursuit of happiness.
In many of the war’s early battles the Confederate army, seemingly more organized and more determined than the larger and better equipped Union army, won more of the battles than they lost. Then both sides came to Gettysburg. Here the two sides fought a three day battle which many people soon believed caused a turn in the South’s fortunes to occur. It was a turn which saw the Union army finally start to fight with much more conviction. That conviction finally came to the Union army, in part, because Lincoln and his generals finally realized in order to win the war they had to defeat the Confederate army itself; trying to conquer their land, like some of the early Union generals had tried to do, would not lead to the end of the war. Devastating the Confederate armies with huge losses of men and interrupting their supply and communication lines were among the keys to securing a victory. Soon President Lincoln and his new commanding general, General Ulysses S. Grant, along with some of Grant’s most trusted generals, would employ that tactic in their future campaigns against the Confederacy.
The Confederate army had fought well at Gettysburg, but decisions which had been made to attack the Union army at times during this battle, especially when the Union army held the high ground, proved to be poor ones. Attacking an army who was continually being resupplied with more men and with more equipment as the battle went on was also among the poor decisions which were made. Those decisions, influenced in part by other factors, such as poor communication at times between General Lee and his generals, as well as the South’s cavalry unit being elsewhere during a significant part of the three day battle, doomed the Confederate army at Gettysburg. These failures would rob them of one of their most precious resources, one they could never replenish as easily as the Union army could. That resource was their men. Unlike the South, the North had a much larger portion of the nation’s population to draw from and finding replacement troops was far easier for the North during the war. The poor tactical decisions which were made, coupled with the sheer strength and size of the Union army, as well as the terrain which the Confederate army had to fight on, all proved too much for the Confederacy to overcome at Gettysburg.
The Confederate army lost far too many men during this battle as over twenty-three thousand soldiers were either killed, wounded, captured, or missing by the time it was over. While the Union army lost a similar number of men, just like the other needs of war, such as food, weapons, and horses, the Union absorbed those losses far better than the Confederate army could. Perhaps those losses
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