American Minute with Bill Federer
Battle of Gettysburg - Turning Point in Civil War
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Washington, D.C.,
was in a panic!
72,000
Confederate troops
were just sixty miles away near
Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania.
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What led up to this Battle?
Two months before, at the
Battle of Chancellorsville,
Confederate General
Stonewall Jackson
was mistakenly shot by his own men on May 2, 1863, and died shortly thereafter.
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Though
Confederates
won
the
Battle of Chancellorsville,
the
loss of Jackson
was devastating, as most historians speculate that had
Jackson
been at
Gettysburg
two month later, the
South
may have won.
Robert E. Lee
was now under a time deadline.
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Mounting casualties of the war were causing
Lincoln's
popularity to fall, so if
Lee
could get a quick victory at
Gettysburg,
he could pressure
Lincoln
to a truce.
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But this window of opportunity was fast closing, as
Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
was about to capture
Vicksburg
on the Mississippi, which would
divide the Confederacy
and free up thousands of
Union troops
to fight
Lee
in the east.
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On the Union side,
Lincoln
replaced Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker with
Maj. Gen. George Meade
to command the 94,000 men of the
Union Army of the Potomac.
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The Battle of Gettysburg
began July 1, 1863.
After two days of intense combat, with ammunition running low,
General Robert E. Lee
ordered a direct attack.
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Confederate General James Longstreet
disagreed with
Lee's plan
resulting in his
delayed advance
till after all the
Confederate artillery
had been spent, leaving no cover fire.
Historians speculate that if
General Longstreet
had made a timely attack, the
Confederates
may have won the day.
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As it happened, 12,500
Confederate soldiers
marched across a mile of open field
without artillery cover
to make
"Pickett's Charge"
directly into the
Union position
at Cemetery Ridge.
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An hour of murderous fire and bloody
hand-to-hand combat
ensued, followed by the
Confederates
being pushed back.
The
Battle of Gettysburg
ended JULY 3, 1863, with over
50,000 casualties.
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The next day,
Vicksburg
surrendered to
General Grant,
giving the
Union Army
control of the
Mississippi River.
When news reached
London,
all hopes of Europe recognizing the
Confederacy
were
lost.
For the next two years, the
South
was on the
defensive.
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On July 5, 1863,
President Lincoln
and his son, Tad, visited
General Daniel E. Sickles,
who had his leg blown off at
Gettysburg.
General James F. Rusling
recorded that when
General Sickles
asked
Lincoln
if he was anxious before the Battle,
Lincoln
answered:
"No, I was not; some of my Cabinet and many others in Washington were, but I had no fears ..."
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Lincoln
continued:
"In the pinch of your campaign up there, when everybody seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could tell what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my room one day,
and I locked the door, and
got down on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed
to Him mightily for victory at
Gettysburg.
I told Him that this was His war, and our cause His cause, but we couldn't stand another
Fredericksburg
or
Chancellorsville.
And I then and there made a solemn vow to
Almighty God,
that if He would stand by our boys at
Gettysburg,
I would stand by
Him
..."
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Lincoln
added:
"And He did stand by you boys, and I will stand by Him.
And after that (I don't know how it was, and I can't explain it), soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that
God Almighty
had taken the whole business into his own hands and that things would go all right at
Gettysburg."
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Twelve days after the
Battle of Gettysburg,
July 15, 1863,
Lincoln
proclaimed a
Day of Prayer:
"It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the
Almighty Father
and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows ...
I invite the people of the United States to ... render the homage due to the
Divine Majesty
for the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf and invoke the influence of
His Holy Spirit
to subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion."
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In his
Gettysburg Address,
November 19, 1863,
Abraham Lincoln
ended:
"We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that
this nation, under God,
shall have
a new birth of freedom
--
and that government
of the people,
by the people,
for the people,
shall not perish from the earth."
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Years later at the
Gettysburg Battlefield,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
stated May 30, 1934:
"On these hills of
Gettysburg
two brave armies of Americans once met in contest ...
Since those days, two subsequent wars, both with foreign Nations, have measurably ... softened the ancient passions.
It has been left to us of this generation to see the healing made permanent."
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Roosevelt
stated, September 17, 1937:
"I came into the world 17 years after the close of the
war between the States
... Today ... there are still many among us who can remember it ...
It serves us little to discuss again the rights and the wrongs of the long 4-years' war ... We can but wish that the war had never been. We can and we do revere the memory of the brave men who fought on both sides ...
But we know today that it was best ... for the generations of Americans who have come after them, that the conflict did not end in a division of our land into two nations.
I like to think that it was the
will of God
that we remain
one people."
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At the
Confederate Memorial
in Arlington Cemetery,
President Coolidge
said, May 25, 1924:
"It was
Lincoln
who pointed out that both sides prayed to the same
God.
When that is the case, it is only a matter of time when each will seek a common end.
We can now see clearly what that end is. It is the maintenance of
our American ideals,
beneath a common flag,
under the
blessings of Almighty God."
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In his 3rd Inaugural Address,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
said, January 20, 1941:
"The
spirit of America
... is the product of centuries ... born in the multitudes of those who came from many lands ...
The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history ...
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... Its vitality was written into our own
Mayflower Compact,
into the
Declaration of Independence,
into the
Constitution of the United States,
into the
Gettysburg Address
...
If the
spirit of America
were killed, even though the Nation's body ... lived on, the America we know would have perished."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
[email protected]
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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