In the summer of 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched his second invasion of Northern territory. Like his last foray that ended at bloody Antietam, Lee sought to score politically meaningful victories, take the war out of the ravaged Virginia farmland, and gather supplies for his army. He was pursued first by Union Gen. Joseph Hooker, and then by Gen. George Meade, who replaced Hooker in late June. The opposing forces collided at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1. In severe fighting, the Confederates swept the Federals from the fields west and north of town, but were unable to secure the heights to the south. The following day, Lee attacked the Federals on the heights, but failed to dislodge the defenders. On July 3rd, Lee attacked
The battle took place in the tangled woods of what is now Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Park about 10 miles west of Fredericksburg, Virginia along Orange Plank Road and Orange Turnpike. The Federals held the land to the east and the confederates to the west. The land was nearly impassable, proving a nightmare for both moving men and logistics. The importance of the location, however, was significant. Railways and roads led to Washington and were logistically important. For two years, fighting for the land surrounding the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers led to stalemate. Twice previously, Lee had been able to withstand attack from the Federals; attacks led by Joseph Hooker and George Meade. Lee’s plan was, likely, to take Washington, which he believed would decidedly win
The Civil War, composed of the Union run by numerous generals replacing one another, and the Confederacy lead by Robert E. Lee, was and still is one of the most gruesome wars in American History, and the Battle of Gettysburg is considered by most as an incredible turning point of the war. This is due to how the Union brought down the Confederacy’s winning streak, and gave the Confederacy a huge blow to their manpower, supplies, and overall strength to win (Battle of Gettysburg, 1). Robert E. Lee, though a great general throughout the Civil War, was a failure during the Battle Gettysburg because he was not able to get his men to their jobs done in time. Another reason he was a failure was because of his plan to attack again on July 3rd which
The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the American Civil war. General Robert E. Lee was the commanding officer of the Confederate army. During the battle of Gettysburg Lee’s military strategy was to fight offensive. Lee’s goal during the battle was to seize the high ground and out last the union army. The Union army had outnumbered the Confederate soldiers. General Lee’s first hand man was General James Longstreet. Longstreet believes the new technology in warfare would make attacking the Union army bloody for the Confederate soldiers. Longstreet suggests to Lee that defensive warfare tactics such as using trenches and rocks for cover and concealment would be the Confederacy’s best fighting chance. Lee denies Longstreet’s ideas and continued with the plan to fight out in the open and attack the enemies head on. After three days of fighting the Confederate army lost the battle at Gettysburg. Lee’s tactical approaches that led to this lost included the lack of communication and the absence of and with General J.E.B Stuart, Lee’s continuation to pursue offensive attacks and Pickett’s charge.
After Chancellorsville, Gen. Lee was marching north, to attempt to bring decisive blow and win the war by invading the North. Already in Pennsylvania, and Meade advanced his new army North to meet Lee. On June 30th, Union General Hill and his corps of the army of the Potomac are west of Gettysburg, when Confederate Brigadier General Pettigrew is searching for supplies, especially shoes() when they see Brigadier General Buford of the army advanced. Neither General wanted to fight at
Robert E Lee was a general. The times back then were with no electronics, slavery, old house and really old guns. In the south there was slavery, cotton and they had to do everything hand made. In the North there was good houses, they had good cloths and had crops. Same in the South they had crops. The South was dry and had farms and in the North had greens, water and green fields. They did not have good medicines or good doctors because they never washed there hands or cleaned the medicine tools. There was a infections going around and tons of Union and Confederate died or got wounded. You are going to learn about Robert E Lee and the battles he served in.
The Battle of Gettysburg is considered a turning point. For the rest of the war Lee was on the strategic defensive, forced into the war of attrition he feared and eventually cornered in an unwinnable siege around Richmond. The Battle of Gettysburg was a decisive victory for the Union. Tactically it may have seemed about even. Both armies lost about the same number of men, and Lee kept his army on the field until the evening of the day after the battle, waiting for a counterattack by Meade which never came. But Meade's larger army could better afford the losses. All eight of Lee's Infantry Divisions lost about a third of their strength, while Meade's largest Army Corps was virtually untouched. Lee was almost out of Artillery ammunition, while Meade had enough for another battle. Also Meade had no need to throw himself into a dangerous counterattack; time was on his side as Union reinforcements moved to surround Lee, deep in enemy territory with no hope of
Because some people thought that he still supported the Union, many thought he would not make a very good general. However Jefferson Davis had faith in him, and Lee aggressively moved to Richmond and launched a series of attacks in what consisted of the Seven Days’ Battle. Although there were heavy Confederate casualties in this battle, the Northerners were unnerved by Lee’s strong attacks and fled. From this point on in the war he was looked at with deep respect and was called ‘Marse Robert’ by his men for the rest of the war. Southern morale was boosted and the Northerners found that the war was going to be a lot harder to win than they had expected. Lee then added to this sharp turn of events another victory in the Second Battle of Bull Run. Next, Lee invaded Maryland to replenish his supplies. However his plans were intercepted by spies from McClellan, whom Lee had defeated in the Seven Day’s Battle. McClellan could have won the war with an all-out surprise on lee, but he was too slow, and Lee’s men double-crossed him. The two armies clashed head-on leading to a huge bloody massacre resulting in a draw. Lee withdrew his men back to Virginia, while Abraham Lincoln used the opportunity to announce the Emancipation
On July 4, 1863 when most of the country was ready to celebrate the birth of their nation General Lee and his army were ready for a counter attack that never came. However, General Meade did send a small detachment of troops to pursue Lee’s army but it was not a large detail and it would not make great efforts to chase after the rebel army. After the fighting was all over the battle would be proclaimed a Union victory that struck deep into the heart of the Confederacy. The Confederate Army was already challenged due to its lack of supplies and personnel. "It's my fault," Lee was heard to say after the battle of Gettysburg. He blamed himself for the loss, and he was not entirely mistaken; his decision on the third day of battle to pitch a massive frontal assault on the center of the Union line, known as Pickett's
In 1859 Lee, accepted a position at a cavalry outpost in Texas. In October of that year, Lee was summoned to put a revolt led by John Brown at Harper's Ferry. Lee's attack took just a single hour to end the uproar. His quick and easy victory at Harper's Ferry brought him much attention from displaying the leadership and the strategic mind he possessed. This made him a good candidate to lead the Union. Lee's character showed when he turned down an offer from Abraham Lincoln to command the Union forces. He said no because he was committed to his home, Virginia. Lee resigned from the military and returned home. Lee also was not a big fan of focusing the war on the slavery issue. When Virginia seceded from the nation, Lee did along with it. Lee took control of the Army of Northern Virginia where he drove back the Union Army in the Seven Days Battle. Later that year, he gave the Confederacy yet another victory at Second Manassas. Lee and his men did face defeat and loses referring back to the battle of Antietam. There they tried to cross the Potomac, barley escaping from one of the bloodiest battles in the war. Nearly 14,000 of his men were captured, wounded or killed. Lee's forces had another crushing defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg. This battle almost completely destroyed his army. Ulysses S. Grant had gained the upper hand when he won over the majority of Richmond. A reluctant Lee surrendered to Grant at in
General Robert E. Lee is greatly outnumbered, causing the confederates to be significantly weakened and forced out of their captured enrichments (pg.302). Longstreet was given 15,000 men to attack the Union's center (pg.309), then the confederates attacked. General Meade was the first to ever outguess Lee, having already anticipated Lee's move the night before, enabling him to be ready for attack. The battle was a strenuous seven hours, coming to a halt at 10:00pm.
On April 7th, the confederate army launched a surprise attack on union forces under the control of General Ulysses S. Grant in Tennessee. Although the confederate forces had the Union surprised, the Union pushed them back and won the battle. Although the Union won the battle, both sides faced heavy losses. Grant feared defeat because he was surrounded by confederate artillery, so he retreated. The union formed a battle line at a sunken road named the Hornets Nest. There, the Union held off the confederate attacks and pushed them back until the confederate gave up. This was one of the many battles that crushed the moral of the confederate soldiers. Soon maybe the confederate will decide that this war is not worth fighting.
On June 3rd of 1863 Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. This would be his second campaign into the north. If he could get Maryland he would have the upper hand on Baltimore, the District of Columbia, and Philadelphia. Lee headed into the campaign with 72000 men. Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac had over 100000 men. Lee eventually pushed his way up through Virginia to meet the Union army at Gettysburg. The commanding officers of the Union army were Major General George G. Meade, Major General John F. Reynolds, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, Major General Daniel E. Sickles, Major General George Sykes, Major General John Sedgwick, Major General Oliver O. Howard, Major General Henry W. Slocum,
Next, Gettysburg Day 2 came. After, the first day of battle at Gettysburg General Robert E. Lee ordered an attack on Union troops just South of town. The Union was positioned all along a fishhook. Starting at Culp’s Hill, going around Cemetery Hill and going down Cemetery Ridge South of Gettysburg with 90,000 troops. The Confederates surrounded the fishhook with 70,000 troops. Robert E. Lee planned to attack the Union Army from the left and right flanks of the fishhook (“Robert” History.com).
The South outnumbered the North and the North retreated thought Gettysburg. Lee told his men to still attack to finish off the Union troops aka the North. But his men did not so that gave the Union time to dig and get their defence ready.
An interesting turn of events would soon favor the Federal Army as General J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry were north and east of Gettysburg causing a lot of fear in the North but consequently were not performing adequate reconnaissance, the result was that General Lee did not know where General Meade and the Army of the Potomac were or what their strength was (Freeman, 147). When Confederate General Henry Heth moved into