The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War.
The Union army had been on the offensive for two years, and they were winning battles, but they were still losing ground. They needed to hold a line somewhere, and that place was Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The Civil War started in April 1861 when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The Confederacy wanted to secede from the Union, and they felt justified in doing so because of slavery. The North wanted to keep the Union intact, and they felt justified in doing so because of states rights. The South also wanted to go back to being independent states under their own governments instead of being run by Washington DC bureaucrats who lived far away from them in Washington DC.
In June 1863 General Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia crossed into Maryland looking for supplies. General George G Meade’s Army of the Potomac chased after him until they met at Gettysburg on July 1st 1863 where they fought three days straight before Lee retreated back into Virginia after suffering heavy losses and running low on supplies himself!
The battle lasted three days (July 1-3) with heavy losses on both sides, but especially among the Confederate forces (more than 50 percent). Lee’s army retreated back into Virginia after suffering nearly 25,000 casualties (killed or wounded), while Meade lost over 23,000 men during the engagement.
