           - Day One -

Late in June of 1863, General 
Lee and the Army of the South 
invaded Pennsylvania.  Lee, 
realizing a defensive posture 
would never win the war, crossed 
the Potomac, and on June 23rd 
the invasion of the North had 
begun.

With the 'Eyes and Ears" of the 
Southern Army absent (Jeb Stuart 
and his 3 best cavalry brigades 
were raiding off to the east), 
Lee pressed north through the 
Cumberland Valley completely 
blind, not knowing the location 
or the disposition of the Union 
Army.  On June 30th, two Brigades
of Buford's cavalry rode through 
Gettysburg and clashed briefly 
with the brigade of General 
James Pettigrew.  The battle of 
Gettysburg had begun.

At 8 am, July 1st, Heth's 
division, followed closely by 
Pender's, encountered Buford's 
dismounted brigade along 
McPherson's Ridge and Carlisle 
Road.  For over 2 hours, this 
single brigade and 1 battery of 
Union artillery held back two 
divisions of Confederates.  At 
just before 10 am, Reynolds 1st 
Corp arrived and deployed.  An 
hour later, General Wadsworth's 
division relieved Buford's 
brigade along Seminary Ridge and 
counterattack into Heth's reb 
positions, wrecking two of his 
best brigades.  Shortly after, 
General Reynold was killed by 
Confederate sharpshooters.  
General Abner Doubleday took over
Reynold's command.

To the north of Gettysburg, 
General Ewell was pressing Union 
positions just outside of the 
town.  With the arrival of 
Early's division from York to 
the north and the constant 
southern artillery barrage from 
on top of Oak Hill, the Union 
lines broke and the Confederates 
flanked the Union's right line 
taking Gettysburg and with it 
many Union prisoners. Lee, 
wanting to capitalize on the 
withdrawing Yankees, ordered 
Ewell to take Cemetery Hill 'if 
practicable.'  Ewell stalled due 
to a false report of a division 
of Union troops moving behind 
him from the York Pike.  His 
failure to seize this opportunity
and take 'the high ground' cost 
the southerners dearly. 

At the closing of the day, he 
realized an attack wasn't coming 
and ordered a late afternoon 
attack on Culp's Hill, but the 
attack was just too little and 
came too late as the Union's 
Iron Brigade had already 
redeployed there.  That evening 
both armies massed around 
Gettysburg and the South's 
numeric superiority was 
radically dwindling. 


           - Day Two -

The two armies stretched out 
across the country side. The 
Union lines formed a 'fish hook' 
which stretched almost four 
miles long from the Round Tops 
to the South up along Cemetery 
Ridge, north to Culp's Hill just 
outside of Gettysburg.  The 
Confederates were positioned 
across a similar ridge, Seminary 
Ridge, that ran parallel to 
Cemetery Ridge about a mile 
apart. 

Lee's plan for the day called 
for Longstreet's division to 
move around the Unions left 
flank and attack north.  After 
Longstreet began his attack, 
General Anderson was to join 
the attack from the Confederate 
center.  Unfortunately for Lee, 
the Union line did not extend 
from Cemetery Hill along 
Cemetery Road as he thought 
and a Union Signal corps 
stationed on Little Round Top 
could see and report all of 
Longstreet's movements. 

The attack was to take place 
early, but Lee's orders were not 
received until after 11 a.m.   
Both Hood and McLaws had problems
forming for the attack - an 
attack Longstreet did not want 
to make, especially without 
Pickett and his men who had yet 
to arrive at the battle.  
Finally, at 3 p.m., Longstreet's 
artillery opened and the attack 
was underway.

At the onset of Longstreet's 
guns sounding, General Meade 
rode to review Sickles position 
and was displeased with Sickles 
new and weak position.  Although 
on higher ground, his position 
was exposed in two directions 
to Southern artillery.  It was 
too late to fall back so Meade 
called up Sykes division from 
reserve to support the left 
flank.

Hood's men smashed Sickles left 
flank and drove them across 
Devil's Den to the base of 
Little Round Top which was the 
key to the entire Union Army's 
position.  Little Round Top 
afforded a clear shot completely 
across the Union Line and a 
coordinated attack from its 
height would collapse the 
Federal line.  General G. K. 
Warren reached Little Round Top 
and found it empty except for 
the signal corps.  He quickly 
ordered 2 V Corps brigades and 
a battery of artillery to defend 
it.  These troops arrived just 
moments before Hoods men did and 
a furious hand to hand melee 
erupted.  In the end, the Union 
troops held.

Ewell's attack to the north 
near Gettysburg began late.  His 
artillery opened fire at the 
sound of Longstreet's guns, but 
was quickly silenced by Union 
batteries.  Johnson was able to 
fight to the base of Culp's Hill 
but couldn't press any farther.  
Early Brigades, fighting on the 
north side of Culp's Hill 
managed to reach the summit, but 
were beaten back and suffered 
greatly.  Lee's attempt to 
overrun the Union left and then 
the Union right both failed 
miserably.  

The cost in dead and wounded 
for Day 2 on both sides was 
staggering.


           - Day Three -

Lee and Longstreet argued 
vehemently over the battle plan 
on the final day at Gettysburg.  
Lee wanted to sweep the Union's 
rear with Stuart's cavalry while 
Longstreet would penetrate the 
Federal's center.  Longstreet 
protested and preferred to press 
hard again on the enemies left 
flank, uproot him and make him 
counterattack against a stronger 
rebel position, but Lee felt 
this would prolong the engagement
and his troops were low of 
supplies and living off the 
land.

Johnson, from Early's command, 
tried again to reach the summit 
of Culp's Hill on the morning of 
July 3rd, but was driven back to 
his original position and no 
further gain was made.

Longstreet grouped 159 cannon 
directly across from the Unions 
center on Cemetery Ridge and 
readied nearly 15,000 infantry 
under Pickett's command behind 
the tree line west of Seminary 
Ridge.  At 1 p.m. the Confederate
artillery began to fire on a 
concentrated area at the Union's 
center, the same location that 
Pickett's charge was to converge 
upon.  The artillery bombardment 
continued for almost an hour and 
ceased at about 2 p.m. with 
almost no ammunition left.  
Pickett began his one mile 
charge shortly there after, 
along the wide open fields south 
of Gettysburg.  Union cannons 
ripped gaps through Confederate 
lines, but the South still 
continued onward.

Stuart's cavalry, tired from 
almost a week of constant 
marching, was intercepted and 
driven back by General David M. 
Greg.  Without Stuart's attack 
on the Union rear, Pickett's 
charge was doomed to failure.  
At 'high tide' Pickett's men 
reached the Union line but were 
quickly flanked and almost 
entirely destroyed.

Meade, having only been the 
commander of the Army of the 
Potomac for a few days, remained 
too conservative and failed to 
charge forward with the V and VI 
reserve corps after Pickett's 
failed charge.  This would have 
certainly destroyed Lee's Army 
and would have ended the war.

After Lee's withdraw from the 
field, Meade again failed to 
chase down the Rebel army which 
was trapped against the high 
banks of the Potomac River due 
to heavy rains - a second 
opportunity to end the war was 
lost forever.