Gettysburg 160
Today marks the final day of the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg—the largest land battle ever fought on the North American continent.
On the afternoon of July 3, 1863, Pickett’s charge—an event many contend was the turning point in the Civil War—got underway only to be smashed by Union defenders on Cemetery Ridge. Pickett’s failed assault wrapped up three days of fierce fighting in brutal Pennsylvania heat. The day after Pickett’s charge, the exhausted, depleted, and demoralized Confederate army packed up, headed south, and crossed the Potomac River back into Virginia. The war would last nearly two more years, but for all intents and purposes, the South could never recover and would not invade the North again.
Allen Guezlo’s book on the Gettysburg campaign and battle is a wonderfully written volume, and must reading for anyone interested the Civil War or curious about this battle. I highly recommend it.
This is from my review, which you can read in its entirely here: A Review of Allen Guelzo's Gettysburg
If you've read Michael Shaara's Killer Angels or have seen the glue-on beard marred epic movie "Gettysburg" (which actually isn't that bad, except for Martin Sheen's horrible portrayal of Robert E. Lee as some sort of Eastern mystic), then you probably believe that the South's failure to capture Little Round Top toward the end of the second day’s fighting (July 2) was the turning point of the three-day battle. Not true.
Guelzo makes a compelling case that while a serious Confederate effort to turn the Union flank at Little Round Top nearly succeeded, and was indeed thwarted by the heroics of the 20th Maine (led by Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain), the real turning point of the second day was the failure of Longstreet's men to break through the Union line just south of Cemetery Ridge at dusk--largely due to the long forgotten suicide charge of the Union's 1st Minnesota (who don't appear in Shaara's novel or the film).
The near-success of Longstreet's corps (which ultimately was staved-off by the Union because of fatigue, loss of daylight, and due to communication issues among Confederate reserve units--if only someone had a cellphone!) was precisely why Lee attempted to do the same thing again on the third day with the infamous Pickett's Charge. This is the very moment, perhaps, when the South lost all chance to defeat the Union army and end the war in victory (a negotiated surrender). Lee was not making a "chips all in" move of desperation. Rather, in light of the Napoleonic tactics of the day, he was attempting to exploit a weakness in the Union line which gave way the day previous. The South had come very close to victory and following up was the obvious thing to do. As for the manner in which the orders for the third day were executed, well, that is a different matter.