Pages

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Battle of Gettysburg

Gettysburg

The battle of Gettysburg took place on July 1-3, 1863 in Pennsylvania,  it is known as one of the battles with the most casualties which totaled up to around 51, 112. The south fought the battle of Gettysburg for two main reasons, one was to gain control of the land and make the union bring their troops off of the front lines and to Gettysburg giving Lee the advantage needed to take the north. The Confederate force of 75,000 men start advancing up towards Gettysburg, Lee's strategy for this war was to bring the fighting out of the south and back up into the north, also to scare and threaten cities such as Harrisburg, Washington D.C. At the start of the battle the Union was forced to retreat, many of people fled especially free African Americans who where afraid of being capture, although many people hid or fled there where a few who risked family and home helping union troops, one of these brave Northerners was Fannie Buehler, she took in many wounded Union troops into her house and treated to their wounds, sadly though in the end she was killed for helping the soldiers. Union troops arrive that night and begin setting up barricades on Cemetery and Gulps hill giving them the higher ground advantage. When the time came Lee and his commanders decided that they were going to charge up the middle, they figured that if they were to send a few men around to the flanks of the battle field that the Union would move out to the flanks and Lee's men could just charge up the middle. The Union commander George Meade realized what they where doing and did not move; Lee's men charged right up the middle into enemy fire, they also had the lower ground causing many casualties for the Confederates allowing a union victory.     


No comments:

Post a Comment