Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the American Civil War
- The Cambridge History of the American Civil War
- The Cambridge History of the American Civil War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume I
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Text
- 1 Introduction: The Cambridge History of the American Civil War
- Part I Major Battles and Campaigns
- 2 The Battles of Virginia, 1861
- 3 The Battles of Tennessee, 1862
- 4 The Battles of the Trans-Mississippi, 1861–1863
- 5 The Peninsula Campaign
- 6 The Shenandoah Valley Campaigns of 1862 and 1864
- 7 The Second Bull Run Campaign
- 8 The Antietam Campaign
- 9 The Western Theater, 1862–1863
- 10 The Battle of Fredericksburg
- 11 The Chancellorsville Campaign
- 12 The Gettysburg Campaign
- 13 The Vicksburg Campaign
- 14 The Battles of Tennessee, 1863
- 15 The Overland Campaign
- 16 The Georgia Campaign
- 17 The Carolinas Campaign
- 18 The Tennessee Campaign, 1864
- 19 The Petersburg and Appomattox Campaigns
- Part II Places
- Index
- References
12 - The Gettysburg Campaign
from Part I - Major Battles and Campaigns
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2019
- The Cambridge History of the American Civil War
- The Cambridge History of the American Civil War
- The Cambridge History of the American Civil War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume I
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Text
- 1 Introduction: The Cambridge History of the American Civil War
- Part I Major Battles and Campaigns
- 2 The Battles of Virginia, 1861
- 3 The Battles of Tennessee, 1862
- 4 The Battles of the Trans-Mississippi, 1861–1863
- 5 The Peninsula Campaign
- 6 The Shenandoah Valley Campaigns of 1862 and 1864
- 7 The Second Bull Run Campaign
- 8 The Antietam Campaign
- 9 The Western Theater, 1862–1863
- 10 The Battle of Fredericksburg
- 11 The Chancellorsville Campaign
- 12 The Gettysburg Campaign
- 13 The Vicksburg Campaign
- 14 The Battles of Tennessee, 1863
- 15 The Overland Campaign
- 16 The Georgia Campaign
- 17 The Carolinas Campaign
- 18 The Tennessee Campaign, 1864
- 19 The Petersburg and Appomattox Campaigns
- Part II Places
- Index
- References
Summary
The Battle of Gettysburg has inspired a more voluminous literature than any single event in American military history for at least three major reasons. First, after three days of fighting on July 1–3, 1863, General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and Major General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac lost more than 51,000 dead, wounded, captured, and missing, making Gettysburg the costliest military engagement in North American history. Second, President Abraham Lincoln endowed Gettysburg with special distinction when he visited in November 1863 to dedicate the soldiers’ cemetery and delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address. Finally, Gettysburg gave the Union its first significant victory over General Lee; the subsequent euphoria helped to fix in popular memory – if not in objective history – an enduring image of Gettysburg as the turning point of the Civil War.
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- The Cambridge History of the American Civil War , pp. 223 - 245Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019