Use this animated map to learn about the Battle of Gettysburg
Use this animated map to learn about the Battle of Gettysburg
Overview of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863) during the American Civil War.
© Civil War Trust (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
June, 1863. Two hundred thousand are dead and the Civil War is barely half over. Now, General Robert E. Lee aims to move the war from Virginia and win a major battle in the North. He hopes to stoke the fire of a growing peace movement.
His 75,000 man army of northern Virginia moves swiftly into south central Pennsylvania. Union General George Gordon Meade and his 95,000 strong army of the Potomac moves toward Lee. Lee concentrates his army where ten roads converge; Gettysburg. Lee's move north will spark the largest battle in American history. It will last for three days.
The battle starts west of Gettysburg. Union General John Buford's cavalry men shoot at lead elements of Confederate General Henry Heth's division before falling back as Heth advances. Buford holds near Gettysburg until General John Reynolds 1st Corps arrives. Infantry against infantry, fighting intensifies on both sides of the Chambersburg Pike.
As the highest ranking Union officer on the field, Major General John Reynolds escalates the battle as he desperately tries to support Buford. While ordering a Wisconsin regiment forward, he is shot in the back of the neck and killed, just as the battle begins to escalate. Confederate General Robert Rodes' division arrives on Oak Hill. Though his division is twice the size of his opponent, Rodes' initial attacks are poorly coordinated and repulsed.
Then, General Jubal Early's division arrives from the northeast. Despite Union reinforcements, Rodes and Early manage to break their right flank. The Yankees are fighting a losing battle on the left, too. After a savage firefight in Herbst Woods, they fall back to Seminary Ridge. Cannons and small arms blast the attacking rebels, reinforced by Dorsey Pender's division.
The numbers come to bear, and the Union line collapses. Some escape via an unfinished railroad bed. Others are trapped in Gettysburg streets. The defeated Yankees reform on Cemetery Hill, where General Howard has left a brigade and an array of cannons. The Confederates probe, but do not attack.
It was one of the bloodiest days of the war, but the worst was yet to come. By the afternoon, the Confederates have wrapped around the Union position, which now resembles a giant fishhook. But the Federals occupy the high ground, and General Meade's interior lines will allow him to easily reinforce threatened sectors.
In the afternoon, Union General Dan Sickles moves his 3rd Corps to the peach orchard and the Emmitsburg Road, where he thought he could better use his artillery. But this creates a lengthy bulge in the Union line, and Sickles lacks the men to defend it. General Meade is forced to send his entire 5th Corps, and parts of others, to reinforce Sickles, opening gaps in his center and on his right. General Lee orders Longstreet to make the main attack upon the Union left. General Hill is to threaten the center, and General Ewell is to assault the Union right.
Longstreet's divisions, under John Bell Hood and Lafayette McLaws, line up on Seminary Ridge along with Richard Anderson's division of Hill's Corps, ready to make the assault. It is one of the hottest days of the year.
Advancing under a hail of fire, Hood's brigades commingle and split apart. Some, slam into the 3rd Corps troops at Devil's Den, while others assault Little Round Top, where just-arrived 5th Corps soldiers await them. Both sides send in reinforcements. Control of Devil's Den changes hands three times.
Alabama and Texas soldiers charge Little Round Top again and again, but fall back. At last, a bayonet charge by main troops sends the exhausted attackers back for good. The Union's extreme left flank is secure.
Meade scrambles reinforcements from the 2nd and 5th Corps to support Sickles. As McLaw's Confederate division enters the fray, the action shifts toward the peach orchard, which falls quickly. The fight for the wheatfield nearby is less decisive, changing hands six times in some of the battle's bloodiest combat.
Hood and McLaw's men push on towards Cemetery Ridge, joined by part of Anderson's division. There, troops that vacated to reinforce Sickles had left a half mile gap near the Union center. The Union Army can be cut in two, but reinforcements via interior lines save the day. The exhausted rebels are pushed back.
Other Confederates renew efforts to capture Little Round Top, entering what comes to be called the Valley of Death. They, too, are thrown back. The fighting finally ceases on the south end of the battlefield. In what General Longstreet termed the best three hours fighting ever done by any troops on any battlefield, more than 14,000 men became casualties of war, and the battle is far from over.
At dusk, General Ewell moves on the Union right. Two of Jubal Early's brigades sweep toward Cemetery Hill, obscured by the gathering darkness. The Union line is thinly held by battle weary 11th Corps soldiers.
Louisianans and North Carolinians overwhelm them. Portions of east Cemetery Hill are captured. Meade's army will lose the battle if Cemetery Hill falls. But Union reinforcements surge onto the hill before Confederates can exploit their gains. Early's men are thrown back, as General Edward Johnson's division moves to attack Culp's Hill.
Most of the breastworks on Culp's Hill are empty, their brigades sent to reinforce Sickles. Only 1,300 Union soldiers, under General George Sears Greene remained to face Johnson's attacking 4,500. Greene's men hold firm against numerous nighttime assaults, but some of Johnson's men gain a foothold in the abandoned trenches on the lower hill.
By 10:00 PM, the day's fighting comes to a halt. The past two days have borne 37,000 casualties. By now, Gettysburg is the bloodiest battle of the war and another day of horrible combat is yet to come.
General Lee sees an opportunity, hoping to take Culp's Hill in a morning assault. He adds three brigades to bolster his left, but General Meade has ordered the return of the five brigades that left Culp's Hill to aid Sickles. Bolstered by a stream of reinforcements, Lee is badly outnumbered.
For seven hours, the battle rages. Initial Union attacks are stymied, including an ill-fated move near Spangler's Spring. But by 11:00 AM, the Union numbers weigh too heavily, and the Confederates are forced out of their captured entrenchments.
Lee now orders a massive assault on the Union center. General George Pickett leads the only fresh division in Lee's army, and he warns the Corps of the attack under Longstreet's command. Meade is ready, having anticipated such a move the night before. He is the first Union army commander to decisively outguess Robert E. Lee.
At 1:00 PM, Lee bombards the Union defenses, hoping to soften them up. Meade responds, and together they create the largest artillery barrage in the Western hemisphere. Ultimately, Lee's bombardment fails. Nevertheless, Pickett's attack commences at 3:00 PM. Twelve thousand men emerge from Seminary Ridge. They must cross one mile of open ground. Union artillery opens at long range and tears gaps in the Confederate line.
Meade orders more than 20,000 reinforcements to converge upon the center. Ohio, New York, and Vermont troops position themselves upon the flank of the Confederate advance, the Confederates are moving into a great pincer of Yankees. The Southerners in a rifle range. And fewer than half cross the Emmitsburg Road. But with second and third line troops coming up, some manage to breach the Union position.
A ferocious melee ensues. As tens of thousands of Union reinforcements arrive, the Confederate attackers dwindle. Lee's men don't stand a chance.
Those who cross the stone wall are either killed or captured. Lee's great moment of opportunity has become his greatest defeat by far. Scarcely half of the men who made the attack return to Seminary Ridge.
As events unfold in the center, cavalrymen are active on the flanks. In hopes of threatening the Union rear, Confederate General Jeb Stewart's horsemen try to swing around the Union Army. They are stopped east of Gettysburg by Union cavalrymen under General David M. Gregg. General George Custer leads a charge of Michiganders that highlights the repulse.
South of Gettysburg, Union cavalry hit the Confederate flank and rear with no success. Charge and countercharge produce no real result for either side. The Battle of Gettysburg is over.
Lee has lost, but remains on the field. He hopes to repulse a counterattack on July 4th to even the odds. Meade does not take the bait. That night, Lee pulls back through the mountains to the Potomac River. His lumbering wagon train of wounded is miles long.
Meade plans to attack, but Lee's river position is too strong. The Army of Northern Virginia, beaten as it had never been beaten before, moves back into Virginia, and the war will go on another twenty-one months.
In the battle's wake, Gettysburg is a place of horror. Wounded soldiers outnumber citizens by more than twelve to one. Every home, church, and farm becomes a hospital. Most of the dead are buried near where they fell. Some are tossed into rocky chasms, others lay exposed to the elements.
Local citizens thought that Union soldiers should be buried in some organized fashion on the battlefield they had won. Thus, the first National Cemetery on a battlefield was born. 3,512 Union soldiers are moved from their battlefield graves to the new Soldiers' National Cemetery.
As the work progresses, organizers hold a dedication ceremony on November 19, 1863. Fifteen thousand people attend. Edward Everett is the main speaker. President Abraham Lincoln delivers a few appropriate remarks-- the Gettysburg Address. In two minutes, Lincoln covers the history of the republic, the raging war, the need to continue the fight, and lays out a vision for the future. It stands among the greatest speeches in American history.
His words give increased purpose to the loss of life in evidence. The sacrifice that would be necessary in ever greater numbers, in hundreds of hollow places yet unnamed, with the hope that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
His 75,000 man army of northern Virginia moves swiftly into south central Pennsylvania. Union General George Gordon Meade and his 95,000 strong army of the Potomac moves toward Lee. Lee concentrates his army where ten roads converge; Gettysburg. Lee's move north will spark the largest battle in American history. It will last for three days.
The battle starts west of Gettysburg. Union General John Buford's cavalry men shoot at lead elements of Confederate General Henry Heth's division before falling back as Heth advances. Buford holds near Gettysburg until General John Reynolds 1st Corps arrives. Infantry against infantry, fighting intensifies on both sides of the Chambersburg Pike.
As the highest ranking Union officer on the field, Major General John Reynolds escalates the battle as he desperately tries to support Buford. While ordering a Wisconsin regiment forward, he is shot in the back of the neck and killed, just as the battle begins to escalate. Confederate General Robert Rodes' division arrives on Oak Hill. Though his division is twice the size of his opponent, Rodes' initial attacks are poorly coordinated and repulsed.
Then, General Jubal Early's division arrives from the northeast. Despite Union reinforcements, Rodes and Early manage to break their right flank. The Yankees are fighting a losing battle on the left, too. After a savage firefight in Herbst Woods, they fall back to Seminary Ridge. Cannons and small arms blast the attacking rebels, reinforced by Dorsey Pender's division.
The numbers come to bear, and the Union line collapses. Some escape via an unfinished railroad bed. Others are trapped in Gettysburg streets. The defeated Yankees reform on Cemetery Hill, where General Howard has left a brigade and an array of cannons. The Confederates probe, but do not attack.
It was one of the bloodiest days of the war, but the worst was yet to come. By the afternoon, the Confederates have wrapped around the Union position, which now resembles a giant fishhook. But the Federals occupy the high ground, and General Meade's interior lines will allow him to easily reinforce threatened sectors.
In the afternoon, Union General Dan Sickles moves his 3rd Corps to the peach orchard and the Emmitsburg Road, where he thought he could better use his artillery. But this creates a lengthy bulge in the Union line, and Sickles lacks the men to defend it. General Meade is forced to send his entire 5th Corps, and parts of others, to reinforce Sickles, opening gaps in his center and on his right. General Lee orders Longstreet to make the main attack upon the Union left. General Hill is to threaten the center, and General Ewell is to assault the Union right.
Longstreet's divisions, under John Bell Hood and Lafayette McLaws, line up on Seminary Ridge along with Richard Anderson's division of Hill's Corps, ready to make the assault. It is one of the hottest days of the year.
Advancing under a hail of fire, Hood's brigades commingle and split apart. Some, slam into the 3rd Corps troops at Devil's Den, while others assault Little Round Top, where just-arrived 5th Corps soldiers await them. Both sides send in reinforcements. Control of Devil's Den changes hands three times.
Alabama and Texas soldiers charge Little Round Top again and again, but fall back. At last, a bayonet charge by main troops sends the exhausted attackers back for good. The Union's extreme left flank is secure.
Meade scrambles reinforcements from the 2nd and 5th Corps to support Sickles. As McLaw's Confederate division enters the fray, the action shifts toward the peach orchard, which falls quickly. The fight for the wheatfield nearby is less decisive, changing hands six times in some of the battle's bloodiest combat.
Hood and McLaw's men push on towards Cemetery Ridge, joined by part of Anderson's division. There, troops that vacated to reinforce Sickles had left a half mile gap near the Union center. The Union Army can be cut in two, but reinforcements via interior lines save the day. The exhausted rebels are pushed back.
Other Confederates renew efforts to capture Little Round Top, entering what comes to be called the Valley of Death. They, too, are thrown back. The fighting finally ceases on the south end of the battlefield. In what General Longstreet termed the best three hours fighting ever done by any troops on any battlefield, more than 14,000 men became casualties of war, and the battle is far from over.
At dusk, General Ewell moves on the Union right. Two of Jubal Early's brigades sweep toward Cemetery Hill, obscured by the gathering darkness. The Union line is thinly held by battle weary 11th Corps soldiers.
Louisianans and North Carolinians overwhelm them. Portions of east Cemetery Hill are captured. Meade's army will lose the battle if Cemetery Hill falls. But Union reinforcements surge onto the hill before Confederates can exploit their gains. Early's men are thrown back, as General Edward Johnson's division moves to attack Culp's Hill.
Most of the breastworks on Culp's Hill are empty, their brigades sent to reinforce Sickles. Only 1,300 Union soldiers, under General George Sears Greene remained to face Johnson's attacking 4,500. Greene's men hold firm against numerous nighttime assaults, but some of Johnson's men gain a foothold in the abandoned trenches on the lower hill.
By 10:00 PM, the day's fighting comes to a halt. The past two days have borne 37,000 casualties. By now, Gettysburg is the bloodiest battle of the war and another day of horrible combat is yet to come.
General Lee sees an opportunity, hoping to take Culp's Hill in a morning assault. He adds three brigades to bolster his left, but General Meade has ordered the return of the five brigades that left Culp's Hill to aid Sickles. Bolstered by a stream of reinforcements, Lee is badly outnumbered.
For seven hours, the battle rages. Initial Union attacks are stymied, including an ill-fated move near Spangler's Spring. But by 11:00 AM, the Union numbers weigh too heavily, and the Confederates are forced out of their captured entrenchments.
Lee now orders a massive assault on the Union center. General George Pickett leads the only fresh division in Lee's army, and he warns the Corps of the attack under Longstreet's command. Meade is ready, having anticipated such a move the night before. He is the first Union army commander to decisively outguess Robert E. Lee.
At 1:00 PM, Lee bombards the Union defenses, hoping to soften them up. Meade responds, and together they create the largest artillery barrage in the Western hemisphere. Ultimately, Lee's bombardment fails. Nevertheless, Pickett's attack commences at 3:00 PM. Twelve thousand men emerge from Seminary Ridge. They must cross one mile of open ground. Union artillery opens at long range and tears gaps in the Confederate line.
Meade orders more than 20,000 reinforcements to converge upon the center. Ohio, New York, and Vermont troops position themselves upon the flank of the Confederate advance, the Confederates are moving into a great pincer of Yankees. The Southerners in a rifle range. And fewer than half cross the Emmitsburg Road. But with second and third line troops coming up, some manage to breach the Union position.
A ferocious melee ensues. As tens of thousands of Union reinforcements arrive, the Confederate attackers dwindle. Lee's men don't stand a chance.
Those who cross the stone wall are either killed or captured. Lee's great moment of opportunity has become his greatest defeat by far. Scarcely half of the men who made the attack return to Seminary Ridge.
As events unfold in the center, cavalrymen are active on the flanks. In hopes of threatening the Union rear, Confederate General Jeb Stewart's horsemen try to swing around the Union Army. They are stopped east of Gettysburg by Union cavalrymen under General David M. Gregg. General George Custer leads a charge of Michiganders that highlights the repulse.
South of Gettysburg, Union cavalry hit the Confederate flank and rear with no success. Charge and countercharge produce no real result for either side. The Battle of Gettysburg is over.
Lee has lost, but remains on the field. He hopes to repulse a counterattack on July 4th to even the odds. Meade does not take the bait. That night, Lee pulls back through the mountains to the Potomac River. His lumbering wagon train of wounded is miles long.
Meade plans to attack, but Lee's river position is too strong. The Army of Northern Virginia, beaten as it had never been beaten before, moves back into Virginia, and the war will go on another twenty-one months.
In the battle's wake, Gettysburg is a place of horror. Wounded soldiers outnumber citizens by more than twelve to one. Every home, church, and farm becomes a hospital. Most of the dead are buried near where they fell. Some are tossed into rocky chasms, others lay exposed to the elements.
Local citizens thought that Union soldiers should be buried in some organized fashion on the battlefield they had won. Thus, the first National Cemetery on a battlefield was born. 3,512 Union soldiers are moved from their battlefield graves to the new Soldiers' National Cemetery.
As the work progresses, organizers hold a dedication ceremony on November 19, 1863. Fifteen thousand people attend. Edward Everett is the main speaker. President Abraham Lincoln delivers a few appropriate remarks-- the Gettysburg Address. In two minutes, Lincoln covers the history of the republic, the raging war, the need to continue the fight, and lays out a vision for the future. It stands among the greatest speeches in American history.
His words give increased purpose to the loss of life in evidence. The sacrifice that would be necessary in ever greater numbers, in hundreds of hollow places yet unnamed, with the hope that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.