Battle Of Gettysburg Analysis

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The occasion was the Civil War, the central act in this nation’s drama, and from July 1-3, 1863, Union and Confederate armies found themselves slugging it out in a small town in western Pennsylvania. Before the war, Gettysburg was a simple pastoral town; after three days of battle—the deadliest of the war—the town would be forever be associated with the horrific battle that was waged there—the Battle of Gettysburg. It was the bloodiest battle of the war (51,000 casualties) and it would deal the Confederacy (and its cause) its most fatal blow. Coming off a string of successes down South, a confident Robert E. Lee decided to bring the war up North for the second time (his first attempt at Antietam had resulted largely in a draw). Although he was winning battles with legendary maneuvering and bravery, each clash came at a great cost, as they consistently…show more content…
Shortly before what would be the final Confederate assault, the Union army quickly realized that it was out of ammo, and Chamberlain ordered what can only be described as a desperate suicide mission: a bayonet charge down the hill. Miraculously, it worked and the Union line held and Chamberlain received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery. I’ve taught English before, and were I to face a charging force of screaming Ribs, I would have ditched my bayonet, grabbed my Whitman, and booked it out of there. The Battle of Gettysburg may be most infamously known for the events of Day 3, when Lee (going against the advice of his generals once more), launched the bulk of his army on an enormous frontal assault on the Union center which he thought had been weakened by the previous day’s flank assaults. He was wrong. Perhaps Lee’s poor judgments were caused by the dysentery he was rumored to have had. Pickett’s Charge, as it would come to be called, was largely a death march and it resulted in devastating losses for the
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