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 se
d their men (Ward, 232)." One Vermont regiment performed a dazzling drill field maneuver, company after company firing as they wheeled in line to enfilade the Confederates, first one side, and then the other. The fighting was furious as any seen during the war. All Confederates who breech the wall were killed or captured. The gap in the union line closed. Thirty-eight Confederate battle flags had been. Union officers tied them behind their horses and dragged them into the dust to taunt the fleeing southerners. Lee rode out among his men, now staggering back to Seminary Ridge, urging them to re-group. "There was nothing more he could say or they could do that day (Ward, 235)." Pickett had watched it all in horror: 6,500 men had fallen or been captured, half those who marched out of the woods. All fifteen regimental commanders had been hit; so had sixteen of seventeen field officers, three brigadier generals and eight colonels. Every single man in the University Greys, a Mississ! 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 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 wea! ippi company made up of entirely of students from the University of Mississippi, had been killed or wounded. When told to rally his divisions for a possible counterattack, Pickett answered, "Lee, I have no division now." "He never forgave Lee for what happened to his men (Ward, 236)." Conclusion "Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the war. Almost a third of those engaged- 51,000 men-were lost. The north suffered 23,000 casualties; the only suffered 28,000. The 2,400 inhabitants of Gettysburg were left with ten times as many dead and wounded to attend to. The Confederacy could not afford such sacrifices. All hope of invading the North ended. The next afternoon, Lee began the long limping retreat to Virginia through a summer down pour that washed all the blood from the grass and pelted the wounded Confederates riding in the wagon train that stretch for seventeen miles. Despite urgings from Washington, Meade was still too weary of Lee to attack his retreating army. Another op! federate infantry, still waiting in the woods for the signal to move forward. Two hundred and fifty guns and cannons were firing at once. But after an hour, the Federal guns fell silent; to conserve ammunition for the attack Meade was sure coming-and to lure the enemy out onto the open fields between the lines. It worked. The Confederates believed they had destroyed the Union batteries. "Should his men now go forward?" Pickett asked. Longstr
Some common words found in the essay are:
Round Top, George Pickett, Jefferson Davis, Conclusion Gettysburg, Scott Hancock, Angle Armistead, Peach Orchard, Pickett Longstreet, Answering Union, Richard Ewell, round top, little round, little round top, cemetery ridge, civil war, ward 216, union troops, union line, battle gettysburg, union forces, culp's hill, gap union line, winfield scott hancock, union line closed,
Approximate Word count = 2287
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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