The Civil War, which took place 1861 through 1865, was a war of great turmoil, controversy and inner conflict. It shaped the future lives of Americans and was a huge decider in the government that we all know today. The Civil War was not only a turning point in American history, but it was also a benchmark in the abolishment of slavery and the unionization of the country. During the seven years of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg was one of the most significant battles as it marked the turning point of the War in terms of its victor and it also painted the landscape of our country’s future. The Civil War brought about many challenges that the Northern and Southerners did not know how to handle. Disagreements and divisions in power and beliefs were common but never had these differences drawn the people of the United States into a full out war against one another. General Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Confederate Army, led the South. He was a great advocate for slavery. He was one of the many generals who had opposing beliefs that caused huge factions that led up to the Civil War. General Lee wanted to invade the North for many …show more content…
reasons, but his biggest hope was to move the battlegrounds out of Virginia to give the South some relief. The battle had begun in 1861, and had torn up the land of the South ever since. The industry of the South was drastically devastated, and The North felt no stress on their economy. Not only did the South suffer from the costs of the war and the casualties that came with it, but their economy was hit hard as well. The land around them had been torn to pieces from thousands of soldiers at war. General Lee hoped to take the fighting to the North. He wanted the North’s land to feel the stress of the war and the economy to take a hit like his lands in the South had. General Robert E. Lee tested his soldiers’ strength when he invaded the North for the second time by advancing into Gettysburg. He had just defeated the Union army led by George G. Meade in the Battle of Chancellorsville, so he had a lot of confidence at the start of the Battle of Gettysburg. The battle of Chancellorsville was said to be the greatest victory of General Lee’s, and so the battle of Gettysburg was preceding a very large victory and Lee felt his troops were ready for yet another victory. The battle of Gettysburg was the largest battle of the civil war.
It was a turning point in the war and it killed 618,000 people. The North forces were led by Henry Keith. The fight took place just South of Geetysburg. The main base for the South was at Seminary Ridge. The ridge was mostly grassy with some forest areas within. The federal government had forces that were set up all along the edges. The area that the North rested on was uphill. This gave the North a severe advantage. General Stuart was sent by Robert Lee with tons of horses to spy on the Union. This tactic was used to try and get information on them and find ways to penetrate their defense. General John Buford had all his men resting uphill. When the forces clashed, his army had the advantage. They were looking down on the South and eventually crushed
them. On July 1st, General Meade was put into command. He moved his army onto Cemetery Ridge. This area, along with Culps Hill, would act as a very protected area for the North. The North had an army stretching three miles long. Along the three miles were 50,000 men. The South had about five miles of men, with approximetly 50,000 men as well. On the 2nd day of July, Colonel Chamberlain was told to hold his position at Cemetery Ridge. He knew that he had to protect the left side of where his Union army stood. If the side was compromised, the whole plan could be destroyed. The Union forces started to come through the forests when Colonel Chamberlain saw them. He sent orders to close the gap in the forest allowing the men through. For a while he was successful until another attack wave came through from the South. Eventually, the Souths forces penetrated. Now that Chamberlain had less men, he moved his army more to the left. He was low on ammo, as well as supplies. Miraculously, the South were not able to take control. Chamberlain and his army with bayonets were able to hold out on the south. The confederates thought they had finally won but the North managed to keep it together. Three days before the battle of Gettysburg, George Meade replaced Hooker. The North had the South outnumbered by about 25,000 men. This number made the South look at large. It seemed as if they had a huge advantage. The South had about twice as many men as the Union when the battle first started because not all of the army was there yet. The Union had the better weapons though, and the South had single fire rifles. The Union army set up base by McPhersons Ridge. The men who set up here were some of the first men to enter the area. They managed to fight General Robert Lee until more Union forces could come for back up. The South did not expect the reinforcements and were hit hard by this new wave of Union soldiers. The Confederates retreated and then came back quickly. They flanked the North forces and were able to force a retreat. The Union soldiers had lost Gettysburg. So on the second day, the North forces were stationed at the top of Cemetery Hill and The Ridge. General Sickles did not follow orders when he proceeded to Devils Den. He was ordered to go to Little Round Top but he saw no reasoning behind this. Instead, he marched to Devils Den and engaged in heavy fighting. He was forced to retreat with his army. General Robert E. Lee had a strategy for the second day. He wanted to focus on flanking. He thought if he flanked every angle then he could penetrate the defense atleast once. The Union army stayed on the hill and kept their advantage. General Lee couldn’t penetrate the defense and had to come up with a new strategy. His strategy focused on Culps Hill. He attacked but was driven backwards, and decided to attack the front instead. Confederates and Union soldiers met around the Round Tops and had a small battle. The confederates retreated into the woods, and started devising their strategy. They shot artillery at the Unions center hoping to collapse the defensive walls. After this, Picket and his men charged the walls. This was known as Pickets Charge. 15,000 men charged the Union enter through an open field. They took heavy casualties while the Union was not very affected. This battle is said to have lost the war for the South. Pickett charging his men through the open field caused the South to lose tons of men. 12,000 men were killed during Picketts Charge. General Robert Lee could be to blame for the loss of the war. He made many mistakes which proved to be fatal. The confederates had an abundance more resources and plenty more money than the Union. They also had better prepared soldiers and generals to lead. The one advantage towards the North was their population. Towards the end of the war this advantage seemed to be huge. The confederates were forced to attack and retreat many times in the battle which is why they lost so many men.
The Civil War was a major point in American History. It has influenced everyone in America in many ways. The War was conducted in two main areas of the United States. These two parts were in the area east of the Mississippi River and in the area west of the Mississippi River. The control of both of these fronts was vital for victory by either the Union or the Confederacy. On March 8, 1862, a small skirmish at Pea Ridge, Arkansas led to the Union's domination of the west. The Battle of Pea Ridge had a great impact on the civil war by giving control of the west to the Federal forces (Battle).
The Civil War, beginning in 1861 and ending in 1865, was a notorious event in American history for many influential reasons. Among them was the war 's conclusive role in determining a united or divided American nation, its efforts to successfully abolish the slavery institution and bring victory to the northern states. This Civil War was first inspired by the unsettling differences that divided the northern and southern states over the power that resided in the hands of the national government to constrain slavery from taking place within the territories. There was only one victor in the Civil War. Due to the lack of resources, plethora of weaknesses, and disorganized leadership the Southern States possessed in comparison to the Northern States,
The famous Battle of Gettysburg was a major part of the Civil War. Before the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate army had the advantage. Although the casualty tolls of both armies were relatively close in numbers, the North and the South’s attitudes towards the war completely differed after the Battle of Gettysburg. The events occurring in the months following the historic battle were what gave the Union Troops the greatest advantage leading to their victory at the end of the Civil War.
The battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the civil war because a lot of the generals lost their lives from the great wars. According to the letters (Doc C) from General Robert E. Lee states “ General Barksdale is killed. Generals Garnett and Armstead are missing. Generals Pender and Trimore wounded in the leg. General Heth injured in the head. General Kemper is feared.” This shows that the battle of Gettysburg changed from that point on because the less generals that they had the harder it would be to train their soldiers, the less soldiers that know what to do it will be harder fight in the civil war. This connects back to why the
The American Civil War was caused because of the North and South differences in economies, disagreements about abolishing slavery and whether the state or federal government had more power. These three factors played a key role in America's deadliest war. Understanding the causes of the Civil War is important because the war was one of the most important events in our nation's history. After the Civil War all men were truly created equal, it reunited the country as one, and redefined what it meant to be an
Southern and Northern People had different ideas about the civil war. There were problems within their country and they wanted to fix them. They knew the country was created for the people and was run by the people. They wanted the nation to succeed, but one side wanted it to be free for all people no matter the race, while the southern wanted to keep slaves. With these complete opposites ideas of thinking the southern states decided their only option was to separate from the Union. They split and this left the country confused. Confused about what was in store for the nation they had grown to love. It was no longer clear what they future held for American and it would take a couple of years to get the country moving down the path that leads to the world we live in today.
The South was fighting against a government that they thought was treating them unfairly. They believed the Federal Government was overtaxing them, with tariffs and property taxes making their lifestyles even more expensive than they already had been. The North was fighting the Civil War for two reasons, first to keep the Nation unified, and second to abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the commander and chief of the Union or Northern forces, along with many other Northerners, believed that slavery was not only completely wrong, but it was a great humiliation to America. Once we can see that with these differences a conflict would surely occur, but not many had predicted that a full-blown war would breakout.
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.
Since the beginning of the Market Revolution, the institution of slavery became the leading factor that intensified the relations between the North and the South. Regarding the geographic differences between the North and South, the South was primarily agrarian and the North was mainly urban. Therefore, the North rapidly industrialized while the South remained relatively rural and cotton-slave based. As a result, the Market Revolution economically separated the North and the South and created a second party system. Thus, the issues of pro-slavery and anti-slavery arose between the Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans in the 1850s. The North desired to halt the expansion of slavery into western territories while the South strongly opposed. These two opposing parties led to radical abolitionism in the North, William Henry Seward and John Brown, and extreme secessionism in the South, James Henry Hammond, and South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. Due to their strict ideologies regarding slavery, both parties could not compromise on the issue of the expansion of slavery. Therefore, according to Americans in the years prior to the Civil War, conflict was inevitable.
In 1863, the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was awoken to the beginning of what was to be the turning point of the Civil War for the Union. It began as a small skirmish, but by its end it involved so many Americans to which would become one of the bloodiest battles ever taken place on Unites States soil. The Battle of Gettysburg was not only a turning point in the war.
The majority of speculations regarding the causes of the American Civil War are in some relation to slavery. While slavery was a factor in the disagreements that led to the Civil War, it was not the solitary or primary cause. There were three other, larger causes that contributed more directly to the beginning of the secession of the southern states and, eventually, the start of the war. Those three causes included economic and social divergence amongst the North and South, state versus national rights, and the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case. Each of these causes involved slavery in some way, but were not exclusively based upon slavery.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, there was great conflict throughout the United States. The North and South had come to a crossroads at which there was no turning back. The Secession Crisis is what ultimately led to the Civil War. The North and the South disagreed on slavery and what states would be free states. The South despised Lincoln's election and rose up in revolt by forming the Confederate States of America.
The Civil War was a battle between the northern states and the southern states. The southern states wanted to secede
Following the American Civil War, the whole nation was forever changed and was the result of many good and bad things. Although it was a very costly war and was So, the Civil War did define us and made us the good and the bad things we are and led to an extremely significant change because slavery was abolished once and for all and African American rights followed many years later, the Federal Government imposed more power over the states, our country was divided for a while, and it left the nation in debt due to the fact that we fought each other.
History helps us understand and learn about the turning points during the Civil war that made an impact in our country. One of this turning points was the battle of Antietam and Gettysburg. It was the bloodiest single day of fighting in American history with the death of 2,100 soldiers and 2,700 Confederates. In addition to that about 18,500 soldiers and Confederates were tragedy wounded. Even though it was not a military victory, it was surely a strategic defeat for the Confederacy.