The Summer of '63 - Gettysburg and Vicksburg

In the pivotal summer of 1863 the Battle of Gettysburg ends the threat of a southern invasion while the |
 Siege ofVicksburg  marks the final major military action  of the American Civil War.

Civil War Battles and Highlights 

The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1–3, 1863, PENNSYLVANIA

Context: In the summer of 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched his second invasion of the Northern states. Lee sought to capitalize on recent Confederate victories and defeat the Union army on Northern soil, which he hoped would force the Lincoln administration to negotiate for peace. 

Conflict:  In July of 1863, over 165,000 Union and Confederate forces met  in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (population 2,400) for largest battle in the Western Hemisphere. On July 3, 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,” managed to pierce the Union lines but eventually failed at the cost of thousands of rebel casualties. Lee was forced to withdraw his battered army toward Virginia on July 4.

Casualties  51,112 [Confederate 28,063 (3,900 killed 18,735 wounded 5,425 missing & captured )Union 23,049 (3,155 killed 14,529 wounded 5,365 missing & captured]

Consequences: Gettysburg was a serious defeat for the Confederacy. The myth of General Lee's invincibility was broke and the victory was a needed.  Morale boost for the Union

Henry Thomas Harrison

With Confederate troops being stretched thin along a wide swath of land in south central Pennsylvania, so alarmed was Longstreet by the news that he sent Harrison to relay it to General Robert E. Lee, who then made the decision to concentrate his troops at Gettysburg. The move prevented the Union from being able to take on smaller groups of the enemy, but it also resulted in the epic three-day Battle of Gettysburg, where over 50,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or missing in action. 

After Gettysburg, Harrison operated mostly in the North, gathering intelligence while living in New York with his newly wed wife, Laura Broders. Yet none of his future intelligence ever matched the importance of his discovery in the days before the Battle of Gettysburg.  After the war, Harrison moved his wife and daughter to Mexico, but left them in 1866 to go search for gold in Montana, disappearing for 25 years while his wife presumed him dead and remarried. 

Harvest of Death, colorized

77th New York Regiment Muster Roll;  

Vandalization of 77th NY Monument

The Battle of Vicksburg, May 18, 1863 – Jul 4, 1863 MISSISSIPPI

From the spring of 1863 until July 1863, during the American Civil War (1861-65), Union forces waged a campaign to take the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which lay on the east bank of the Mississippi River, halfway between Memphis to the north and New Orleans to the south. The capture of Vicksburg divided the Confederacy and proved the military genius of Union General Ulysses S. Grant.  After a long siege, Vicksburg surrenders to Grant. All of Mississippi River is now in Union control!   Vicksburg Animated Map; Facts about Vicksburg

Four Score and Seven Years Ago

November 19, 1863 - 10 sentences and 272 words that redefined the American Identity