Gettysburg Essay, Research Paper

The Battle of Gettysburg

Damon PisaniGrade 7

4/21/99 Mrs. Pignato

Table of Contents

1. Outline

2. Introduction

3. Text/The Body

4. Conclusion.

5. List of illustrations

6. Appendix

7. Bibliography

Outline

Generals

-North, Meade

-South, Lee

Charges

-Pickets Charge

Armies

-South, 65,000

-North,85,000

Strategies

-South tried to get to Washington to cut the rail lines and take over the capital

-North-To intercept the south to stop the invasion

Introduction

The Battle of Gettysburg was the largest battle of the civil war and, also the largest battle ever fought in the western hemisphere. Many people died during this fight. If you were in it you had a one out of three chance of either being killed, captured, or wounded.

The Battle of Gettysburg is considered by most historians the turning point of the Civil War. It lasted July first through the third, eighteen sixty three.

Leaders

The two generals of the armies were General George C. Meade, leader of the North army and General Robert E. Lee. Other important leaders were General Hancock, of the North. General John Buffered. For the south, General James Longstreet and Richard Ewell.

Start of the Battle

Things were going bad for the south because General Grant put a siege on Vicksburg, Mississippi. If Vicksburg surrendered the North would control the Mississippi and the South would be cut in half. Lee?s strategy was to invade the North to draw troops away from Vicksburg and to try to get to Washington and capture it.

General Meade knew that Lee was somewhere in the north but not exactly where. Lee knew that Meade was looking for his army but he didn?t where Meade was. On the morning of July first by chance. The North came to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from south and the South came in from the north. It started as a small battle and soon the North was outnumbered. Reinforcements came for both sides. The North had over 85,000 troops and the South had 65,000. The battle started outside of town. General Buford and his Calvary tried to hold of the South but they had to retreat into the town because there were so many Southerners. The first reinforcements to arrive were lead by General Renalds but he was shot in the head shortly after he arrived. This was a great loss to the North because he was a very popular and important general. By the end of the first day things got very bad for the North and they had to retreat all the way through the town. The North searched for a good place to defend themselves and found it. It was called Cemetary Hill. The South also found a good position at Seminary Ridge. The south won the first days battle.

Day Two