The History of the US Civil War
The Battle of Gettysburg (Introduction) 

Contents: Introduction | Background and movement to battle | First day of battle | Second day of battle | Third day of battle | Picket's Charge | Cavalry | Aftermath | References | Gettysburg National Military Park

The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1 – July 3, 1863), fought in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as part of the Gettysburg Campaign, was the bloodiest [1] battle of the Civil War and is frequently cited as the war's turning point. [2] Union Major General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North.

Following his brilliant success at Chancellorsville in May 1863, Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley for his second invasion of the North, hoping to reach as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even Philadelphia, and to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved almost on the eve of battle and replaced by Meade.

The two armies began to collide at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there. 

Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division, which was soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry.  However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south.

On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out resembling a fishhook. Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union left flank and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard. On the Union right, demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. Across the battlefield, despite significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines.

On the third day of battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Pickett's Charge was repulsed by Union rifle and artillery fire at great losses to the Confederate army. Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between 46,000 and 51,000 Americans were casualties in the three-day battle. 

That November President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor the Union dead and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.

[1] Gettysburg was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the war. Antietam, the culmination of Lee's first invasion of the North, had the largest number of casualties in a single day. In comparison, Antietam had about 23,000 casualties in fighting that lasted from dawn until late afternoon, but the second day of Gettysburg had roughly 20,000 casualties in fighting that lasted only a few hours, from around 4 p.m. until shortly after dark. The casualty rate at the peak of the fighting on the second day in the areas of the Wheatfield, Little Round Top, and Devil's Den has been estimated to be faster than one casualty per second.

[1] Rawley, p. 147. Sauers, p. 827. McPherson, p. 665; McPherson cites the combination of Gettysburg and Vicksburg as the turning point.