1. Events Leading Up to the Battle of Gettysburg Before the war had even begun, there were many occurences that created this dispute at Gettysburg. The Battle of Chancellorsville was a huge turning point for the American Civil War, and it is widely considered Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory. Similarly, the Emancipation Proclamation, delivered by Abraham Lincoln in 1842, is also an important event that twisted the future affairs in our nation. The march into Pennsylvania in late June led directly to the war of Gettysburg. The Emancipation Proclamation Even before the Civil War began, Abraham Lincoln believed that slaves should be emancipated, or freed from legal restrictions. Lincoln supported a program in which slaves would be freed gradually, …show more content…
It stated that if the confederacy was still in rebellion by January 1, 1863, they would be forced to free all slaves. When the Confederacy did not yield, Lincoln issued the last Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863. The proclamation read "that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free.” Despite its broad wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. For one thing, it applied only the Confederate states, leaving slavery untouched in the border states. It also exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. But although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery entirely, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Northerners and transformed the character of the war. After his speech, every advance of Union troops expanded the slaves freedom. The Battle of Chancellorsville Fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863, The Battle of Chancellorsville is a great example of teamwork, where the Union defeated the …show more content…
Only nightfall blocked a complete victory. At the time, Jackson was critically injured by one of his own men, and him and his troops were scouting out in the dark. The most intense part of this battle occurred the very next day, on May 3. By May 6, Hooker lost 17,278 men, while Lee lost 12,826 men, along with Jackson. This meant that Lee had earned the victory in Chancellorsville, which led to the battle of Gettysburg less than a month later. The Gettysburg Campaign In the wake of the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville, Lee chose to go through Potomac to invade a second time in the North. This would take pressure off of Virginia’s farms during the growing season, especially in the Shenandoah Valley. To add on, any victories won on Northern soil would put an immense amount of political pressure on Lincoln’s administration to negotiate a settlement to the war, or could lead to the a military alliance with England and France, which the South had strived for. As the reports arrived that the Confederates had crossed the Potomac and were on Northern soil, Hooker dispersed his army widely while trying to protect the other places they would attack, like Washington, Philadelphia, and
Both Armies repositioned their artillery to the most advantageous position but it appeared that the Army of Northern Virginia had surrounded the Army of the Potomac but in a less defensible position. When two Armies meet on a battlefield the overall objective is to eliminate the opposition, so one of them would have to make a move. Lee ordered Generals Longstreet and Ewell to attack but due to a lack of decisive action on Longstreet’s part, the day would end in the bloodiest offensive of the battle and Longstreet would suffer great losses by Cemetery Hill .
From July 1st to July 3rd, 1863, the most famous and most important Civil War Battle took place in the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Confederates under Robert E. Lee advanced on the Union in hopes of taking the major city of Philadelphia, Baltimore, or even Washington D.C. Union commander General George Meade was sent to make sure none of this would happen. General Robert E. Lee was determined to invade the North and win a victory important for southern morale, leads his army toward Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he hopes to destroy railroad bridges linking east with west. He is unaware that a large union force headed by General Meade is headed in the same direction.
The Battle of Gettysburg lead by Robert E. Lee was a three-day battle and was an immense turning point in the war for the Confederate army. Lee had designed brilliant plans for battle, but they were not always fully thought out and executed. Furthermore at Gettysburg Lee’s battle plans seemed to be a big guess or gamble and not really certain at all. Having well thought out
The famous Battle of Gettysburg was a major part of the Civil War. Before the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate army had the advantage: however, the events occurring in the months following the historic battle are what truly gave the Union Troops the greatest advantage leading to their victoryThe Turning Point of the Civil War
After giving an introduction of the events leading up to the Vicksburg campaign, you see the reasons why they attacked. To gain full control of the Mississippi River. By discussing Pemberton’s action of moving a majority of his army towards Grant’s army. Resulting in great loss of life and moral for his troops. The communication problems which caused Pemberton’s army to be unprepared for Grant’s fast approaching army. That the capture of Jackson, Mississippi was harmful for the city of Vicksburg. Without supplies running through Jackson they had no way to feed themselves. By then going over the large defenses of Vicksburg and how much it mattered to the Confederates. Then going over the remainder of the war and how Vicksburg’s fall effected it. After all of the researching I found the answer. Without supplies an army can’t function and the Confederates relied on one location for that. The battle of Vicksburg was the most important battle in the Civil War because it cut off the supply route between the two divisions of the Confederates. If Robert E. Lee’s army actually did win the battle of Gettysburg but lost Vicksburg, the outcome of the war would have been the same. A Union victory over the Confederate Army. The Union would most likely still win if it was the other way around but it would have lasted longer. We will never know this for sure but a Gettysburg loss was better than a Vicksburg loss. Most people who do not research into this are taught that Gettysburg was more important. It was important but not nearly as important as the Battle of
After the Union Army successfully took Falmouth, General Lee anticipated their next course of action would be to take Fredericksburg. General Lee had the troops moved from Culpepper and Winchester and reassembled on the high ground surrounding Fredericksburg (Yandoh, 2001). Knowledge of the area put General Lee’s forces at an advantage, as they took the high ground along Marye’s Heights. A defensive posture provided the best fields of fire and cover and concealment, which proved to be a severe disadvantage for Union forces. Weather was a factor for both sides because snowfall restricted travel and pre-dawn fog in the early morning obscured vision (Franklin, 1998). Neither side had an advantage do to the poor
The Civil War is one of the defining wars in the history of this great nation. The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in American history, and a turning point in the four year war. At the time, Gettysburg was a small, quiet town generally unaffected by the war. General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America and General George Meade of the Union converged in Gettysburg, and a conflict quickly arose. After three long days of battle the Union pulled away with a victory, though not an easy one. This essay will outline the six themes of history; in essence the who, what, when, where, why, and who cares of this infamous battle.
On May 2, 1864, the Army of the Potomac, nominally under the command of Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, but taking orders from Grant, crossed the Rapidan River at three separate points and converged on the Wilderness Tavern, which had been the concentration point for the Confederates one year to the day earlier when they launched their devastating attack on the Union right flank at Chancellorsville. But Grant chose to set up his camps to the west of the old battle site before moving southward. Unlike the Union army of a year before, Grant had no desire to fight in the Wilderness.
When the Civil War was approaching its third year, United States President Abraham Lincoln was able to make the slaves that were in Confederate states that were still in rebellion against the Union forever free. Document A states that on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and that every enslaved person residing in the states that were “In rebellion against the United States” were free and that the Executive Government of the United States and that the military and naval authority were to recognize them and could not act against them at all. Although the Proclamation did not free every slave in the Confederacy, it was able to release about 3.5 million slaves. Along with freeing all of those slaves, it also stated that African American men were allowed to enlist with the Union and aid them in the war.
With his army, Lee intended to collect supplies in Pennsylvania and take the fighting away from war in Virginia. He wanted to threaten Northern cities, weaken the North, and win a major battle on Northern soil and strengthen the peace movement in the North. Prodded by President Lincoln, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker moved his Union Army of the Potomac in pursuit, but was relieved of command just three days before the battle. Hooker's successor, Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade moved north, keeping his army between Lee and Washington, D.C. When Lee learned that Meade was in Pennsylvania, Lee concentrated his army around
In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was in fact “proclaimed” there was still slavery in a new name. Just because, slavery was no longer permitted, it did not eliminate the ability for sharecropping to exist. The Emancipation Proclamation did not even free all slaves, meaning slaves in the borderline states were not free. The only slaves that were free, were the slaves that were in the states that went against the Union. However, it can be observed that there was a technological and medical revolution.
Lincoln 's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, was to up the North 's support so they wouldn 't go to the confederate side. Not only a change in North war, but a change in the slavery, like granting the slaves their freedom so they wouldn 't have any more slave revolts which would cause even more chaos in other words another war. "The Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to the slaves in the Confederate states if the states did not return to the Union by January 1,1863. In addition, under the proclamation, freedom would only come to the slaves if the Union won the war." Abraham Lincoln president at the time, the northerners also known as the Union, the south also known as the confederates, and slave states still in
Fought in the Wilderness region of Virginia, Chancellorsville was General Robert E. Lee’s greatest defensive victory, Lee was outnumbered 60,000 men to 80,000 men behind them due to Joseph Hooke’s well executed march and river crossing, but Hooker proceeded to completely waste his advantage by not raising defenses near the Chancellor Farm. Lee arrived and proceeded to plan his own flank
Lincoln declared that “all persons held as slaves” in areas in rebellion “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Not only liberate slaves in the border slave states, but the President has purposely made the proclamation in all places in the South where the slaves were existed. While the Emancipation Proclamation was an important turning point in the war. It transformed the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom. According the history book “A People and a Nation”, the Emancipation Proclamation was legally an ambiguous document, but as a moral and political document it had great meaning. It was a delicate balancing act because it defined the war as a war against slavery, not the war from northern and southern people, and at the same time, it protected Lincoln’s position with conservatives, and there was no turning
The drive to end slavery in the United States was a long one, from being debated in the writing of the Declaration of Independence, to exposure of its ills in literature, from rebellions of slaves, to the efforts of people like Harriet Tubman to transport escaping slaves along the Underground Railroad. Abolitionists had urged President Abraham Lincoln to free the slaves in the Confederate states from the very outset of the Civil War. By mid-1862, Lincoln had become increasingly convinced of the moral imperative to end slavery, but he hesitated (History.com). As commander-in-chief of the Union Army, he had military objectives to consider (History.com). On one hand, emancipation might