The Battle of Gettysburg as the War Event - Research Paper Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: The Battle of Gettysburg Introduction Ruane observes that the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee had fought much successful warfare in areas like the Chancellorsville and Maryland as well as in Antietam battle (23). The success made him feel that his army was invincible despite that many soldiers died in all his warfares. He disregarded the deaths as long as he won the battle (Ruane 24). He had previously fought with the northern unions before 1864 without much victory. Following his great feat, he believed that he could at long last wage a much successful war with the northerners to end the civil wars. He was confident that his side would be victorious. This as Ruane puts it, “culminated into his crossing over to Gettysburg in the early days of July 1864 to invade the northern dominated union” (24). This research paper seeks to analyze the war events, as well as some of the events that shaped the outcome of the 1864, in the greatest civil war America has ever witnessed. The war involved two prominent generals: Robert Lee leading the confederate wing and general George Meade leading the union wing. Scholars believe that fate chose Gettysburg to be the center stage of the war since it was not by design. Ruane observe that the war started after the first regiment of Gen Lee reached the far south of Pennsylvania in the early month of July 1863 (68). Coincidentally, General Meade’s troops had also started streaming in the area and patrolling the area riding on horses. Ruane states that General Lee had instructed his corps commanders not to wage war before he had concentrated his entire battalion within Maryland and more specifically in Gettysburg (71). These instructions were not clearly followed by some of his key commanders and consequently, resulted in a premature war following the attacks and counter attacks from both the confederates and the union corps. The First Day According to Ruane the first war broke out on 1st of July 1863 (75). This followed the arrival of GeneralLee’s men amid the strong presence of the union soldiers unforeseen within the area. Ruane argues that the lack of information on GeneralLee’s side was caused by the disintegration of some of his men, especially the corps led by Stuart, who was the chief informant. The latter provoked war in a manner the general Lee had not anticipated. Ruane points out that the rift amongst GeneralLee’s men were so conspicuous that some of his commanders disobeyed the general’s directives (77). Some confederate soldiers went to town to gather shoes and other refreshments within the Gettysburg area, whereas, others started preparing on attacking their enemies the next morning. Thus, the first shot to mark the start the greatest civil war in America was fired at around 7 30 in the morning (Ruane 80). A monument was erected to mark the area where the first shot was taken. According to Ruane, the confederates were so aggressive that they started driving the unions-who were on their soil- backwards, retreating on the higher grounds of the cemetery ridges (80). General Meade saw this as the strategic location it was and started guarding it at all cost. General Lee is said to have asked Major Ewell to use his might according to Ruane, to dislodge the unions before they regrouped and formed a more formidable position, but upon hesitating, the union soldiers re-regrouped thrashing the confederates into a retreat (88). By nightfall, both groups had retreated to reorganize and refresh. The Second Day The second day was a bit vicious on General Lee’s side. This was because of his organization and taking advantage of the ground. General Meade had failed to capitalize on this factor. Warren states that they had sent James Long street corps to attack the unions from the left side with about 20000 soldiers (149). They were to take advantage of the two-raised ground which included the big and the little round top hills. With time, Warren argues that the regiment commander realized that the latter was a suicide mission and ruled against it because of exposure and vulnerability that would have followed before they reached their desired locales. They lacked the surprise advantage they had planned upon the union soldiers (153). To the unions, it was a window of opportunity to reorganize and take over the confederates' most coveted positions. Some of the most notable mistakes concerned with failure to follow direct orders on the second day as Warren points out included the third corps unions regiment failure to keep their assigned position on the lower cemetery ridges and opted to rather, strive for a much higher ground (169). Consequently, the outcome resulted in the death of their commanding major general Sickles and the unnecessary risk of exposure of his soldiers. In the war event on the second day, Warren argues that general lee had prioritized on capturing the little and the big round top hills from the unions, so as to gain ground advantage and easily thrash the union’s soldiers (171). What transpired is one of the bloodiest battle day ever, following what Warren states to be the union’s strong defense to protect and reclaim their ground by the end of the day, the unions were able to retain their cemetery and the Culp hills positions (174). Similarly, the unions were able to push the confederates to retreat from the Little Round Top. On that fateful sunny day, Warren observes, saw many bodies of both sides’ soldiers laying lifeless on the ground, the war events kept on going until nightfall. The Third Day This was the decisive day of the war. According to Warren, it was the day that General Meade organized his men to not only defend their territory but also viciously drive the confederates out of it (197). A vicious war activities and explosions characterized the day. Major Longstreet according to Warren tried to discourage General Lee from attacking, but, armed with 15000 soldiers under the command of major general George Pickett, he felt the attack and strategy to be used would yield a positive outcome (202). He additionally states that, the confederates had planned to attack from the center where they felt general Meade soldiers would be least expecting them; ironically, general meads had anticipated the latter to happen (203). Following the viciously fired cannons by the confederates and counter attack by the unions, Warren points out that the confederates assumed that the union’s soldiers had run out of ammunitions (207). They as a result decided to advance towards the union’s position at the cemetery ridges thus risking exposure. What followed was great massacre of the confederate soldiers that they started retreating in what General Lee considered a defeat. Warren adds that the confederates had no chance to carry their wounded men from the battlefield although they chose to flee with the one who could run on their own and retreated to Virginia where General Lee admitted bitterly before his men that the outcome of the war was his entire fault (210). Casualties The confederates were believed to have had about 75000 soldiers, whereas the union had roughly 85000 soldiers. The outcome of the war, according to Blanck and Chen, saw over 46000 to 51000 soldiers cutting across both sides either dead, injured or captured (2). Union casualties were about 23000; that is about 3000 soldiers killed, 4000 injured and 5000 either captured or were displaced following the war events (Blanck and Chen 3). On the other hand, the confederate suffered much loss as compared with the federals although their casualties were much difficult to estimate. Nevertheless, it is stated that roughly over 28000 confederate soldiers fell casualties during the Gettysburg war. The latter as per Blanck and Chen included over 4000 soldiers who were killed, over 12000 others who were wounded and almost 6000 soldiers who were missing or captured, bringing the total casualty list to an almost a third of the total confederate (4). There was only one civilian’s death caused by a stray bullet that killed a twenty years old girl by the name Ginnie Wade (Blanck and Chen 10) The Aftermath The fourth day according to Blanck and Chen saw most of general Meade soldiers worn out and their animals tired as well (16). The letter he wrote to his wife claiming to have gone for days without showering or change his clothes, eat proper food or sleep normally can support this. He and his soldiers decided to rest, a factor that Blanck and Chen adds to have had him greatly criticized by his superiors (18). To them, it was a chance to pursue general Lee and his men into fully surrender; this ended the war authoritatively. At some point, it is argued that General Lee extended a courtesy call to general meads to have a prisoners exchanged a plea that General Meade turned down. Blanck and Chen asserts that following the heavy down pour on the fourth day, general Lee and his troops were unable to cross the flooded Potomac river and delayed for some time (24). Some critics argue that had General Meade pursued his opponent seriously, they north would have enjoyed double victory following the success at Vicksburg. Immediately after the third day Blanck and Chen observes that the locals and the soldiers embarked on the duty of burying the dead that had been left lying in the open fields (31). The latter adds that amongst the dead were about three thousand mules and horses’ carcasses, whose fouls odor had made the air at Gettysburg too dense and inhabitable for both human and their animal (31-32). Theanimals’ carcasses were burnt and the human bodies buried in mass graves for both the confederates and the unions dead soldiers. Reaction to the War Outcome Upon the flee of general Lee and his soldiers,Welchstates that many criticism coming from the white house through Halleck, pushed general Meade into writing a resignation letter which was turned down following the success he had had at Gettysburg (35). Welch states that Halleck added to General Meade that the pressure was not meant to disregard his well-done work, but rather to push him into fully destroying General Lee and his troops to avert future rebellions from the south (35). On the other hand, upon fleeing, it apparently become clear that General Lee had met his match and could no longer appeal as the invincible general he once seemed to be. Welch adds that General Lee also wrote a letter of resignation to President Davis stating that he took full responsibility for the failure at Gettysburg although it was also turned down (40). Some scholars argue that it was because of his previous success that the latter was overlooked. Some southern writers claim that the Gettysburg defeat to the southerners was more of a setback than a defeat, following the confederate attempt to dislodge the unions from their strategic fighting positions. They further claim that the confederate fled upon realizing that the union soldiers were not attacking them but were just playing defense as they had the ground advantage. General Lee Defeat Welch points out that he confederate general had priory enjoyed streaks of successes in many battlefield a feat that saw his reputation elevated to an almost invincible general (38). He was renowned to have challenged mightier numbers of troops and successfully conquered them although much to the detriment of his soldiers. With his great fighting spirit that he had successfully infected upon his soldiers, General Lee as Welch asserts, led his men into Maryland Pennsville with the same belief that he would carry the day (39). Owing to his great confidence, he encountered some challenges that led to his setbacks. These were his belief that his soldiers were invincible and could not be conquered, his health issues sometimes denying him a chance to be in the field giving directives directly, his strong opponent in the army of general Meade and his soldiers, as well as the misguided freedom of his commanders who failed to act upon his immediate instructions (Pfanz 67). The impact of some of his top aides issuing some misleading instructions greatly compromised his soldiers. In the long run, it begs the question whether the general had really taken charge of his subordinates or was out of control. General Meade Victory Although new in his commanding post, Pfanz argues that General Meade was a formidable than his predecessors (68). He is characterized with great poise and acting with great precision and caution not to jeopardize the lives of his soldiers. This is clearer when after the confederates had fled, Pfanz observes he did not pursue them the following day minimizing further loss of his men who were already too exhausted (70). He had also anticipated that they would be forced to retaliate if further pushed and he did not want to risk the chances with his exhausted troopsthough he had the advantage of being within familiarterritory. Unlike his confederates general, Pfanz argues that General Meade had a lot of reliable support from most of his top subordinates who never failed him in terms of decision making or support (72). This shows that he won the war because of him being in charge of his union troops a feat that General Lee cannot claim. Just like general lee, Meade was faced by partisan pressure claiming that he had no will in completing the battle he had started thus streams of criticism. On the contrary, other war heroes congratulated him upon his victory and defended his victory in the prints media Conclusion The Gettysburg war being the greatest civil war in the Americas history had much to be remembered for to this very day. Following the breaking of General Lee’s successive successes, by an equally able general Meade, the great number of soldiers to have died with the short period of the war as well as the resulting event that helped shape the outcome of the war, much is up for learning from the 1864 civil war. One clear thing out of the entire scenario is that General Meade won the war following the great loyalty he enjoyed from his juniors as well as the exemplary commanding skills he displayed during the entire warfare. On the contrary, General Lee failed in his part to have his soldiers in order especially the four high-ranking generals who were under his command considering some had been newly elevated to their new status. Good organization as well as leadership yielded positive result for the federals troops a feat that the confederates had not anticipated following their previous conquests. Works Cited Blanck, Peter and Song Chen. "Never Forget What They Did Here": Civil War Pensions for Gettysburg Union Army Veterans and Disability in Nineteenth-Century America. Academic journal article from William and Mary Law Review, 3 (2003): 44. Print Pfanz Harry. Gettysburg-The First Day. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. Print Ruane, Michael. Civil War historian makes Gettysburg his focus and his home post local. The Washington Post Print, 2013. Print Warren, Robinson. Jeb Stuart and the Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg: University of Nebraska. Lincoln Publication, 2007. Print Welch, Richard. Battle of Gettysburg Finale, the American civil war magazine. Weider History Group Print, 1993. Print Read More