Battle Of Gettysburg Essay Research Paper Gettysburg

Battle Of Gettysburg Essay, Research Paper

Gettysburg was the Army of the Potomac’s only great victory on the battlefield.

Antietam, certainly a strategic victory, showed Robert E. Lee’s unstoppable killing

machine was indeed stoppable. And the Army of the Potomac did eventually

force Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia from its impregnable Petersburg trenches.

But Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse finally came when the Rebel army

was so weakened that surrender was almost a foregone conclusion. Such Union

victories as the ones at Sayler’s Creek and Five Forks in the final weeks before

the historic surrender on April 9, 1865 can hardly be called great battlefield

victories. While the AOP can only notch one momentous battlefield win onto their

belt, they were, of course, on the winning side in lesser battles that did not

significantly impact either the tactical or strategic situations. Malvern Hill, the last

major action of the Seven Days campaign where Confederate forces were

severely and boldly repulsed, is one such example. When analyzing Gettysburg it

has become commonplace to ask why Lee and his army failed to win a great

victory. Fewer people look to the other side of the equation and ask why Meade

and the AOP won. What circumstances changed to enable the AOP to transform

a long string of defeats into a great victory. The odds were certainly against them

in many ways. The AOP had become accustomed to losing. Fresh from two

devastating defeats within the past six months, the AOP was chasing a seemingly

invincible fighting machine. To heighten the odds against the blue underdogs,

they were given a new commander, Major General George Meade, only four days

before they were to fight what would become the battle of their lives. So why did

the Union win at Gettysburg. The men in blue fought like demons along their line,

of this there is no doubt. But the Union had fought admirably before. While it was

the 90,000 front-line men who held their own, ultimately giving better than they

got, in the final analysis something else must help explain this rather unusual

occurrence–a spectacular, indisputable Federal victory in the East. The answer is

found in the performance of the AOP’s officers. Gettysburg was clearly the

best-led fight the AOP would ever engage in (and this includes later battles when

U.S. Grant would be on hand to conduct the proceedings). Everyone from lowly

Lieutenants to Major Generals performed exceptionally well under the most dire

circumstances. Perhaps even more impressive, the officers in blue were in “top

form” for three consecutive days. A failure or let-down from even one of the

critical players over that three day period could have easily erased R.E. Lee’s

only out-right defeat from the history books. Day 1, July 1, 1863 saw the start of

the best three days of the AOP’s life. Brigadier General John Buford, recognizing

the fact that whoever held the high ground south of Gettysburg would control the

killing fields, dismounted his cavalry for a showdown with Major General Henry

Heth’s infantry division. Deployed to the west of Gettysburg to slow Heth’s

advance, the 2,700 dismounted troopers, firing rapidly with their breech-loading

carbines, stalled the 7,500 Confederates for one crucial hour. Colonel Thomas

Devin’s and Colonel William Gamble’s cavalry brigades fought ferociously under

mounting pressure, and held on long enough for infantry reinforcements to arrive

from Major General John Reynolds’ I Corps. Reynolds became the ranking Union

commander when he arrived on the field, and he never gave retreat a thought.

Like Buford, he recognized the importance of holding the high ground south and

east of Gettysburg. Within an hour and at Reynolds’ urging, the famous Iron

Brigade quick-timed onto the field and slammed into Heth’s Rebels. Suddenly the

graybacks, facing infantry and not just dismounted cavalry, retreated back across

Willoughby Run, a small stream a mile or so west of Gettysburg. Reynolds’

decisiveness in committing his troops without delay was the last contribution he

would make for his country. Within minutes of arriving on the field, directing

sorely needed reinforcements to Buford’s hard-pressed cavalry, this excellent

general (some would say the best general in the AOP) fell, struck behind the ear

by a Minie ball. Major General Abner Doubleday then became the senior officer

on the field. Doubleday’s performances before and after Gettysburg can best be

described as mediocre. On July 1, however, he fought the battle of his life. The

fury of this first day’s fighting is often overshadowed by the carnage of July 2 and

3, but Doubleday did not hesitate to commit all the troops he had on hand in a

desperate attempt to blunt the Confederate attack. Even Doubleday’s unit placed

in reserve, the Iron Brigade’s 6th Wisconsin, engaged the 2nd Mississippi when

that

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