The Battle of Gettysburg took place over a 3 day span from July 1-3, ending in Picketts Charge.
Goals of the Confederacy- the Confederacy had just won a big battle in Chancellorsville, Virginia and were hoping to push further into the North and continue their invasion
- they wanted to advance towards the White House - they wanted to fuel the peace movement in the North so that the war would end sooner - Virginia had been an area of conflict for a long time so they wanted to get out of the war torn state and let it recover |
Goals of the Union- they needed to stop the Confederate Army at Gettysburg because they couldn't let them advance into Northern territory
- they wanted to destroy General Robert E. Lee's army - if they lost at Gettysburg and were forced to retreat, then peace talks would have been a lot more prominent since there would be an imminent threat of the Confederate army invading the capital in the North - it was do or die for the Army of the Potomac, if they lost the battle they would have most likely lost the war |
Geography and Facts:
- The Army of the Potomac set up defenses in a series of ridges and hills around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
- The Army of the Potomac set up in a fish hook formation to defend against the Confederacy
- Some of the famous hills of the battle were Cemetery Hill, Little Round Top, Devil's Den, and Culp's Hill
- Total casualties in the war were extremely high
- Union casualties were around 20,000
- Confederate casualties were somewhere in between 20,000 and 28,000
- The Battle of Gettysburg had the most casualties of any battle in the entire Civil War