Today marks the 144th anniversary of the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. Not that this date is a REALLY special marker or anything. Usually you see 50th, 100th, 200th, etc. We were just watching the film Gettysburg the past few nights and it seemed appropriate. I, for one, really, really like history. It is by far my favorite school subject. I’m really interested in the Civil War now. The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most important battles in the whole war, I think.
The Battle of Gettysburg took place over a period of three days, from July 1-3, 1863. After fighting for two days it looked like the Confederates were losing. This was unusual as they had won every major battle up until this point. The second day had not gone well at all. Some of the men had been sent to try to capture a hill called Little Round Top. They were not able to take it and they lost many men. On the third day the Southern Army possessed Seminary Ridge and the Northern Army had Cemetery Ridge. Between them was more than a mile of open field, with the Federal (Union) Army having slightly higher ground. Other than the fields, only a road, some fences and a stone wall separated the two armies. So on that third day, Robert E. Lee, thinking they could win, ordered what is now known as Pickett’s Charge. Or basically, he wanted 15,000 of his men to march a mile across open fields, under heavy artillery fire to try to defeat the Federals. Also, the South was running low on ammunition. Pickett’s Charge was a total defeat on the part of the Confederate Army. They lost the Battle of Gettysburg, which is probably what caused them to lose the entire war.
In three days during the Battle of Gettysburg, over 53,000 men died. Of the officers that I’ve listed below, Lewis Armistead (Confederate) and John Reynolds (Federal) lost their lives during the battle.
Some of the major officers involved at Gettysburg are a follows:
Federal (Union)
George G. Meade
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
John Buford
Winfield Scott Hancock
John Reynolds
Confederate
Robert E. Lee
James Longstreet
Lewis A. Armistead
George Pickett
A.P. Hill
J.E.B Stuart
Jubal Early
Richard Ewell
Henry Heth
I think that the Civil War is really sad. For example, some of the men on opposing sides were best friends. Winfield Hancock was very good friends with Lewis Armistead. Hancock was wounded during the battle, but he didn’t die. However Armistead was mortally wounded and died two days later. Both were stationed in California at the start of the war. The night before Hancock and Armistead had parted ways, Armistead promised Hancock that if he ever raised a hand against him in battle, he wished that God would strike him dead. Armistead was one of the Confederate officers during Pickett’s Charge. They were opposing Hancock’s men. As I said before, Armistead was wounded and died from it. The whole thing was very sad.
So as tomorrow is Independence Day, I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to remember what happened at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania those three days of July 1863.
