At the end of the first day, things were not looking very hopeful for the Union army. This resulted in the end of the Battle of Gettysburg, with the Confederate army retreating south. Between the Confederate and Union armies, more than 7, soldiers died during the Battle of Gettysburg, with the Confederate army suffering the greater loss.
In addition to deaths, more than 33, soldiers were wounded. Out of a total of approximately , soldiers total between both armies , that means 4. During the first hours of battle, Union General John Reynolds was killed, and the Yankees found that they were outnumbered. The battle lines ran around the northwestern rim of Gettysburg. The Confederates applied pressure all along the Union front, and they slowly drove the Yankees through the town.
By evening, the Federal troops rallied on high ground on the southeastern edge of Gettysburg. The Confederates held Gettysburg, and stretched along a six-mile arc around the Union position. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! At a. During the preceding week, , Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme, and , British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into As part of their campaign to capture Spanish-held Santiago de Cuba on the southern coast of Cuba, the U.
In May , one month after the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, a Spanish fleet docked in the July 1 will later become known as Canada Day. During the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Meanwhile, in a controversial move, Lee allowed Jeb Stuart to take a portion of the army's cavalry and ride around the east flank of the Union army. Lee's orders gave Stuart much latitude, and both generals share the blame for the long absence of Stuart's cavalry, as well as for the failure to assign a more active role to the cavalry left with the army.
Stuart and his three best brigades were absent from the army during the crucial phase of the approach to Gettysburg and the first two days of battle. By June 29, Lee's army was strung out in an arc from Chambersburg 28 miles 45 km northwest of Gettysburg to Carlisle 30 miles 48 km north of Gettysburg to near Harrisburg and Wrightsville on the Susquehanna River.
Halleck, who were looking for an excuse to get rid of him, immediately accepted. They replaced Hooker early on the morning of June 28 with Maj.
George Gordon Meade, then commander of the V Corps. On June 29, when Lee learned that the Army of the Potomac had crossed the Potomac River, he ordered a concentration of his forces around Cashtown, located at the eastern base of South Mountain and eight miles 13 km west of Gettysburg. Johnston Pettigrew, ventured toward Gettysburg.
In his memoirs, Maj. Henry Heth, Pettigrew's division commander, claimed that he sent Pettigrew to search for supplies in town—especially shoes. John Buford arriving south of town, and Pettigrew returned to Cashtown without engaging them. When Pettigrew told Hill and Heth what he had seen, neither general believed that there was a substantial U.
Despite General Lee's order to avoid a general engagement until his entire army was concentrated, Hill decided to mount a significant reconnaissance in force the following morning to determine the size and strength of the enemy force in his front. Around 5 a. The Army of the Potomac, initially under Maj. Joseph Hooker Maj. George G. Meade replaced Hooker in command on June 28 , consisted of more than , men in the following organization:.
During the advance on Gettysburg, Maj. Note that many other Union units not part of the Army of the Potomac were actively involved in the Gettysburg Campaign, but not directly involved in the Battle of Gettysburg. These included portions of the Union IV Corps, the militia and state troops of the Department of the Susquehanna, and various garrisons, including that at Harpers Ferry. In reaction to the death of Lt. Thomas J. First Day of Battle July 1, Anticipating that the Confederates would march on Gettysburg from the west on the morning of July 1, Buford laid out his defenses on three ridges west of the town: Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge and Seminary Ridge.
These were appropriate terrain for a delaying action by his small cavalry division against superior Confederate infantry forces, meant to buy time awaiting the arrival of Union infantrymen who could occupy the strong defensive positions south of town at Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and Culp's Hill.
Buford understood that if the Confederates could gain control of these heights, Meade's army would have difficulty dislodging them. Heth's division advanced with two brigades forward, commanded by Brig. James J. Archer and Joseph R. They proceeded easterly in columns along the Chambersburg Pike. Three miles 5 km west of town, about a.
According to lore, the Union soldier to fire the first shot of the battle was Lt. Marcellus Jones. In Lt. Jones returned to Gettysburg to mark the spot where he fired the first shot with a monument.
Eventually, Heth's men reached dismounted troopers of Col. William Gamble's cavalry brigade, who raised determined resistance and delaying tactics from behind fence posts with fire from their breechloading carbines. Still, by a.
John F. Reynolds finally arrived. North of the pike, Davis gained a temporary success against Brig. Lysander Cutler's brigade but was repulsed with heavy losses in an action around an unfinished railroad bed cut in the ridge.
Iron Brigade under Brig. Solomon Meredith enjoyed initial success against Archer, capturing several hundred men, including Archer himself. General Reynolds was shot and killed early in the fighting while directing troop and artillery placements just to the east of the woods.
Shelby Foote wrote that the Union cause lost a man considered by many to be "the best general in the army. Abner Doubleday assumed command. Fighting in the Chambersburg Pike area lasted until about p. It resumed around p. John M. The 26th North Carolina the largest regiment in the army with men lost heavily, leaving the first day's fight with around men.
By the end of the three-day battle, they had about men standing, the highest casualty percentage for one battle of any regiment, North or South. Slowly the Iron Brigade was pushed out of the woods toward Seminary Ridge.
Hill added Maj. William Dorsey Pender's division to the assault, and the I Corps was driven back through the grounds of the Lutheran Seminary and Gettysburg streets.
As the fighting to the west proceeded, two divisions of Ewell's Second Corps, marching west toward Cashtown in accordance with Lee's order for the army to concentrate in that vicinity, turned south on the Carlisle and Harrisburg roads toward Gettysburg, while the Union XI Corps Maj.
Oliver O. Howard raced north on the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road. By early afternoon, the U. However, the U. The leftmost division of the XI Corps was unable to deploy in time to strengthen the line, so Doubleday was forced to throw in reserve brigades to salvage his line. Around 2 p. The Confederate brigades of Col. Edward A. O'Neal and Brig. Alfred Iverson suffered severe losses assaulting the I Corps division of Brig. John C. Robinson south of Oak Hill. Early's division profited from a blunder by Brig.
Francis C. Barlow, when he advanced his XI Corps division to Blocher's Knoll directly north of town and now known as Barlow's Knoll ; this represented a salient in the corps line, susceptible to attack from multiple sides, and Early's troops overran Barlow's division, which constituted the right flank of the Union Army's position.
Barlow was wounded and captured in the attack. Howard ordered a retreat to the high ground south of town at Cemetery Hill, where he had left the division of Brig. Adolph von Steinwehr in reserve. Winfield S. Hancock assumed command of the battlefield, sent by Meade when he heard that Reynolds had been killed. Hancock, commander of the II Corps and Meade's most trusted subordinate, was ordered to take command of the field and to determine whether Gettysburg was an appropriate place for a major battle.
Hancock told Howard, "I think this the strongest position by nature upon which to fight a battle that I ever saw. General Lee understood the defensive potential to the Union if they held this high ground. He sent orders to Ewell that Cemetery Hill be taken "if practicable. The first day at Gettysburg, more significant than simply a prelude to the bloody second and third days, ranks as the 23rd biggest battle of the war by number of troops engaged.
About one quarter of Meade's army 22, men and one third of Lee's army 27, were engaged. Second Day of Battle July 2, Plans and Movement to Battle. Longstreet's third division, commanded by Maj. George Pickett, had begun the march from Chambersburg early in the morning; it did not arrive until late on July 2. The Union line ran from Culp's Hill southeast of the town, northwest to Cemetery Hill just south of town, then south for nearly two miles 3 km along Cemetery Ridge, terminating just north of Little Round Top.
The shape of the Union line is popularly described as a "fishhook" formation. The Confederate line paralleled the Union line about a mile 1, m to the west on Seminary Ridge, ran east through the town, then curved southeast to a point opposite Culp's Hill.
Thus, the Union army had interior lines, while the Confederate line was nearly five miles 8 km long. Lee's battle plan for July 2 called for Longstreet's First Corps to position itself stealthily to attack the Union left flank, facing northeast astraddle the Emmitsburg Road, and to roll up the U.
The attack sequence was to begin with Maj. Richard H. Anderson's division of Hill's Third Corps. The progressive en echelon sequence of this attack would prevent Meade from shifting troops from his center to bolster his left.
At the same time, Maj. Lee's plan, however, was based on faulty intelligence, exacerbated by Stuart's continued absence from the battlefield. Instead of moving beyond the U. Sickles had been dissatisfied with the position assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge. Seeing higher ground more favorable to artillery positions a half mile m to the west, he advanced his corps—without orders—to the slightly higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road.
This created an untenable salient at the Peach Orchard; Brig. Andrew A. Humphreys's division in position along the Emmitsburg Road and Maj.
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