Qualla: Battle of Gettysburg

Battle of Gettysburg: Introduction

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY 3.0. On the morning of July 1, 1863, a Confederate infantry brigade marching toward Gettysburg in search of shoes collided with Union cavalry on Chambersburg Pike. Neither army had planned to fight here. Within hours, 170,000 men were converging on a small Pennsylvania crossroads town of 2,400 people, and the collision that would become the bloodiest battle in American history was underway. By the time it ended three days later, roughly 50,000 men lay dead, wounded, or missing across fields and hillsides that today look much as they did then — which is both a tribute to preservation and a quiet kind of haunting.

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Image: CC BY 3.0

Battle of Gettysburg: The Accidental Battle

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY 3.0. Robert E. Lee had brought the Army of Northern Virginia north for the second time, flush with confidence from his victory at Chancellorsville two months earlier. His plan was to fight a decisive battle on Union soil — threatening Harrisburg, Philadelphia, perhaps even Washington ...

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Image: CC BY 3.0

Battle of Gettysburg: The Second Day: Little Round Top

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Public domain. July 2 brought some of the war's most ferocious fighting. Lee ordered James Longstreet to attack the Union left flank, and the resulting assault swept through a peach orchard, a wheat field, and a tangle of boulders called Devil's Den before nearly capturing the undefended summit...

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Image: Timothy H. O'Sullivan | Public domain

Battle of Gettysburg: Pickett's Charge

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos, Public domain. On the afternoon of July 3, after a two-hour artillery bombardment that overshot most of its targets, roughly 12,500 Confederate soldiers stepped from the tree line on Seminary Ridge and walked three-quarters of a mile across open ground toward the center of the Union line on Cem...

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Image: U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos | Public domain

Battle of Gettysburg: The Town That Became a Hospital

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Attributed to Charles J. Tyson / Attributed to Isaac G. Tyson, Public domain. The battle left the town of Gettysburg with 22,000 wounded soldiers — Union and Confederate — in an area whose entire population was 2,400. Every church, barn, and public building became a hospital. The July heat accelerated decomposition among the roughly 8,000 dead, and the ste...

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Image: Attributed to Charles J. Tyson / Attributed to Isaac G. Tyson | Public domain

Battle of Gettysburg: 272 Words

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Hlj, Public domain. Four and a half months later, Abraham Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg for the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery. The main speaker, Edward Everett, delivered a two-hour oration that was well received and is now forgotten. Lincoln spoke for about two minutes. His 272 wor...

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Image: en:User:Hlj | Public domain