Qualla: Gettysburg: Three Days That Turned the Civil War

Gettysburg: Three Days That Turned the Civil War: Introduction

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. For three days in July 1863, the fields around the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg became the killing ground where the American Civil War turned. General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia met General George Meade's Union Army of the Potomac in a battle neither commander had planned. When the smoke cleared, nearly 50,000 men lay dead, wounded, or missing. Lee's invasion of the North was broken. The Confederacy would never again mount an offensive campaign. Four months later, Abraham Lincoln would dedicate a cemetery here with 272 words that defined what the dead had died for.

Read more: Gettysburg on Qualla

Image: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Gettysburg: Three Days That Turned the Civil War: The Collision

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Appsifter LLC, CC BY-SA 4.0. The armies met by accident. Confederate forces under A.P. Hill were marching toward Gettysburg, possibly to seize a supply of shoes, when they encountered Union cavalry on the morning of July 1, 1863. Both sides called for reinforcements. By afternoon, the fighting had escalated ...

Read more: Gettysburg on Qualla

Image: Appsifter LLC | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gettysburg: Three Days That Turned the Civil War: The Second Day

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sallicio, CC BY-SA 3.0. July 2 brought some of the war's most desperate fighting. Confederate General James Longstreet attacked the Union left at places that would become legendary - the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, Little Round Top. The Union line bent but didn't break, saved at Little R...

Read more: Gettysburg on Qualla

Image: Sallicio | CC BY-SA 3.0

Gettysburg: Three Days That Turned the Civil War: Pickett's Charge

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0. On July 3, Lee ordered a massive assault on the Union center at Cemetery Ridge. After a two-hour artillery bombardment, 12,500 Confederate soldiers emerged from the trees on Seminary Ridge and began marching across three-quarters of a mile of open ground toward Union cannon and r...

Read more: Gettysburg on Qualla

Image: Acroterion | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gettysburg: Three Days That Turned the Civil War: The Address

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edward Everett, Public domain. Four months later, on November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg to dedicate the new Soldiers' National Cemetery. The main speaker, Edward Everett, orated for two hours. Lincoln spoke for two minutes, delivering 272 words that redefined what America meant. 'Four s...

Read more: Gettysburg on Qualla

Image: Edward Everett | Public domain

Gettysburg: Three Days That Turned the Civil War: Gettysburg Today

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian W. Schaller, FAL. The battlefield is now Gettysburg National Military Park, its landscape preserved to look much as it did in 1863. Over a million visitors annually walk the fields, climb Little Round Top, stand at the Angle where Pickett's Charge crested and broke. Over 1,300 monuments mark posit...

Read more: Gettysburg on Qualla

Image: Brian W. Schaller | FAL