Gettysburg Essay Research Paper Battle of Gettysburg

Gettysburg Essay, Research Paper

Battle of Gettysburg

Introduction: Driving through Gettysburg people see statues and marking at different sites, if you re do not know much history you would still know that these markings are a symbols of fallen soldiers. These soldiers never really needed to die but the North and South could not work out their differences peacefully which caused a great war in U.S. history, The Civil War. One of the biggest battles fought during the Civil war took place in the small city of Gettysburg. The battle of Gettysburg was the biggest and bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Gettysburg is also known as the turning point in the war. Taking away the statues and most of the new development in the city we can see what Gettysburg looked liked to the soldiers that fought there. Stepping back through time, Gettysburg was a calm city never expecting a great battle to be fought there. Day 1: July 1,1863 Gettysburg was not even supposed to happen; it happened by mistake. An infantry of officer under General Richard Ewell s command led a few soldiers into Gettysburg to retrieve shoes for the war beaten Confederate soldiers. The Confederate advance guard ran headlong into General John Bulford s Union Cavalry. While both sides sent couriers pounding off for reinforcements, Bulford tried desperately to hold his ground (Ward, 216). By now, both sides were converging in Gettysburg. The Confederates were coming from the north and the Union was coming from the south. The Confederates were the closet and assemble faster. Union forces were slowly in gathering. The rebels pushed them back through the town until General Winfield Scott Hancock rallied the retreating troops into defensives positions on Culp s Hill and Cemetery Hill (Ward, 216). General Robert E. Lee, head of the Conferdate army, was unsure of where excatly the Union was. He had heard through the grape vine that there was some Union cavalry heading into Gettysburg but he was not sure (Shaara, 74). He had not yet heard anything from General Stuart. Lee had heard that the Union might be going into Gettysburg from what Longstreet s spy have said. Lee arrived in the middle of the afternoon and ordered General Richard Ewell to renew the attack on the high ground before nightfall. Ewell chose not to follow the order; his men needed a rest (Ward, 216). Day 2: July 2,1863 Fighting at night was not respectful for the two sides, but the armies still gathered through out the night. In the morning, 65,000 Confederates faced 85,000 Union troops. The Union lined Cemetery Hill on the right and Big and Little Round Tops at the left. Lee wanted the heights taken (Ward, 216). Ewell s troops were sent to capture Culp s Hill; while General James Longstreet went after the Round tops (Rhoads, 673). The Union forces assigned to hold off Longstreet was the 3rd Corps, under General Daniel Sickles, a turbulent ex-Tammany politician best know for having shot his wife before the war. Sickles disobey orders by shifting his troops from the lower positions on Cemetery Ridge onto the Peach Orchard leaving the Round top troops and the left flank open and undefended. Before General Meade could ordered him back, Longstreet started his attack around four o clock in the afternoon (Ward, 218). The 15th Alabama Confederate corps scrambled up Big Round Top to come in on top of the Union forces on Little Round top. From Big Round Top s summit, Colonel William C. Oates saw his chance to try to have guns brought up to the summit of Little Round top, where the Federal lines could be blown apart (Ward, 218). Meade not sure what was going on at the Round Tops, he sent General Gouverneur K. Warren, the Union s chief engineer, and a young lieutenant of engineers, Washington Roebling, to the top of Little Round top. Only a handful of signalmen held the hill. Longstreet s corps were moving down and around the Union s left. Sickles was pinned down in the Peach Orchard below. Warren sent out an order to keep Little Round Top at all Hazards. The Union brought in the 20th Maine corps to help hold the hill. IN charge of the 20th Maine was Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. The 350 men moved up the south slope using boulders as cover. They had only ten minutes to spare until the Confederates were upon them. To keep the Confederates from slipping behind the Union s left, Chamberlain ordered the company s B-wing to drop back, reforming right angles around the rest of the regiment, firing non-stop (Ward, 219). The fighting on Little Round Top went on for about an hour and a half. Neither side was really making any progress. Chamberlain knew that if he did not decide soon on to either retreat or charge, his men would all die because they were running out of ammunition. To all of Chamberlain s men surprise, he decided to charge right into the Confederate line. The men fixed their bayonets and charged into the lines. This move caught the Confederates off guard causing some soldiers to drop their weapons or run in complete terror. Those Confederates who decide to run ran right into Union sharp shooters hiding behind a stone wall (Shaara, 187). Far our in front of the Union lines Sickles and his men were in desperate need of help. The Confederates were blasting Peach Orchard, tearing branches from tree and bounding the Union troops. General Sickles, wounded by a Confederate shell, had to be taken off the battle and have his leg amputated (Ward, 224). Now reinforced, Si