Thirty five miles southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at a crossroads town named Gettysburg, one of the most important engagements of the Civil War took place.  The battle was fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863.  General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania  and was met by the Union’s Army of the  Potomac, under the command of General George Meade.  On July 3, General Lee ordered an attack by fewer than 15,000 troops on the enemy’s center at Cemetery Ridge.  The assault known as “Pickett’s Charge,”  was successful in piercing the Union lines but eventually failed, and with thousands of confederate casualties, Lee was forced to withdraw his army toward Virginia on July 4, 1863.  The confidence to go on the offensive and invade the North for a second time came after the May 1863 victory scored by General Lee over the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville. During this time Vicksburg was under siege and Lee was hoping to bring the conflict out of Virginia and  divert northern troops from Vicksburg.  As a result of the defeat at Chancellorsville, President Lincoln had lost confidence in the Army of the Potomac’s commander, Joseph Hooker, and on June 28th, Lincoln named Major General George Gordon Meade as his successor.  Meade jumped into action and ordered the pursuit of Lee’s army of 75,000.  Upon hearing that Meade’s Army was on its way, Lee planned to   assemble his army in Gettysburg. 

Read the article in its entirety in the July  2015 Bevil newsletter, which accompanies the cover.