One hundred fifty years ago today was the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Gen. Robert E. Lee is still determined to engage and defeat the enemy now firmly entrenched along the high ground. He has a three-part plan to split the Union army in two and destroy it in place. His plan will go dreadfully wrong. His first effort to take Culp’s Hill on the Union right is repulsed. Part 2 called for Gen. Jeb Stuart’s 5,000 man cavalry brigade to ride around the Union lines and attack the center from the rear. That plan was thwarted when the youngest general in the Army, 23-year old Gen. George Armstrong Custer, intercepted the Stuart’s cavalry with a force 1/10 the size and stopped the attack before it could reach the Union lines. The final assault called for more than 13,000 men led by Gen. George Picket in a line over a mile long to march straight at the middle of the Union lines. They had to cross more than a mile of open ground in the face of massed artillery batteries and entrenched infantry. This assault, forever known as “Picket’s Charge”, suffered horrific losses. A small number of Confederates breached the Union lines but were quickly repulsed by reserve forces rushed in to fill the gap. This is now known as the high water mark of the Confederacy because they would never again threaten the Northern states. On Independence Day 1863 the shattered Army of Northern Virginia retreated back across the Potomac. The equally exhausted Union Army was unable to give chase and so the war would go on. In the west Gen. Ulysses Grant finally secured victory at the Mississippi river stronghold of Vicksburg. Two great victories for the Union, but far from enough to end the war. You can read more about the 3rd day’s fighting here: militaryhistoryonline/gettysburg/getty3.aspx
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:39:16 +0000
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