GETTYSBURGThe Civil War Turning Point

Road to Gettysburg• After Antietam, General

McClellan failed to finish off a retreating General Lee

• Lincoln was frustrated & had him replaced

• Lincoln eventually replaced his replacement with General Joseph Hooker

• Hooker’s army fought at Chancellorsville where General “Stonewall” Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own men

Lincoln & McClellan shortly after the Battle of Antietam

Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson

General Joseph Hooker

Lee’s Northern Push• Despite the tragic loss of

“Stonewall” Jackson, Lee pressed into Pennsylvania• Lee heard there were shoes in

Gettysburg

• Lee had many ideas of what victories in the North would bring• Talks of peace• Eat Northern crops & allow

southern fields to regrow• Fuel Northern discontent with the

war• Lead to diplomatic recognition of

the Confederacy from Europe• Assistance from EuropeCenter: Jackson, Beauregard, and Lee

Gettysburg Campaign

Union

Confederacy

Battle of Gettysburg• Fighting lasted 3 days on the

hills & fields around Gettysburg, PA• July 1-3, 1863

• 90,000 Union troops were commanded by General George Meade

• 75,000 Confederate troops were commanded by General Robert E. Lee

• Union troops tried to hold their ground on Cemetery Ridge, south of the town

General Meade’s HQ @ Cemetery Hill in Gettysburg

Day One -Gettysburg

Day 2 - Gettysburg

Day 3 - Gettysburg

• Turning point of the battle

• Lee ordered General George Pickett to directly attack the Union line

• Pickett’s Charge• Approx. 13,000 rebel

troops charge the ridge• Thousands died & the

Confederates retreat

Confederate Retreat• Union expected a

counterattack that never came

• Lincoln was again angered that his generals did not finish off Lee’s army

• Union lost 23,000 men

• Confederate casualties equaled 28,000 • Lee leads his men back to

Virginia• 1/3 of Lee’s army was dead or

wounded

• Confederates never again cross the Union border• On the defensive for remainder

of the war

Historical Context.

• Battle was July 1-July 3, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

• Approximately:• 163,000 soldiers fought the battle• over 7,500 were killed• 27,000 were wounded• 11,100 were captured or missing

• The southern forces were defeated & did not return to fight in the north

• Total casualties of the War to this time 472,154• This battle alone had 51,000 casualties

The Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln• Leader of the Republican Party in 1860

• 16th President of the United States receiving 40% of the popular vote

• Southerners called him the “Black Republican” for fears that he would abolish slavery & end the ‘Southern way of life”• Southern states seceded in response to his

election

• Lincoln stated at the beginning of the conflict that his intention was to preserve the union, not end slavery

• The Emancipation Proclamation & the Gettysburg Address began the movement towards abolishing slavery• Redefined the purpose of war

Gettysburg Address

• November 1863• 4 months after the battle of

Gettysburg

• 15,000 people gathered to dedicate the Soldiers’ National Cemetery

• Keynote Speaker – Edwin Everett, the best orator of the period, spoke for 2 hours• Lincoln’s address 271 words &

lasted 2 minutes

Gettysburg Address

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The Gettysburg Address (1863) Abraham Lincoln

Main Points:• It is time we talk about the promise of equality.

• “…a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”

• We honor the soldiers sacrifice. • “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say

here, but it can never forget what they did here.”• “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task

remaining before us”

• The Union is worth fighting for. • “—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of

freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not parish from the earth.”

Monument on the Spot of Lincoln’s Address

Soldiers’ National CemeteryGettysburg, Pennsylvania