2023-07-19 07:01:54
On November 19, 1863, notables gathered in the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to dedicate a military cemetery, including US President Abraham Lincoln. Every schoolchild in the USA still learns his speech, which is only 271 words, because it summarizes their values in just a few sentences. Its most famous is: “That these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall experience a rebirth of liberty – and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people, may not perish from the face of the earth. “
The timeless impact of Lincoln’s speech is explained not least by the place where it was delivered. Four and a half months earlier, from July 1 to 3, 1863, the biggest battle of the American Civil War (1861-1865) had raged near Gettysburg. With nearly 50,000 casualties, including 7,685 dead, it was the bloodiest encounter ever on the American continent and is considered the turning point of the war. From then on, the Southerners became defensive on all fronts, which eventually led to their surrender in April 1865.
Source: Infographic WORLD
Gettysburg thus became an almost mythical name that is not only anchored in American folklore by Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”. The defeated Confederates also carved their own picture of the bloody three days, which partly shapes the mentality to this day. What actually happened in Gettysburg in early July 1863 was somewhat overlooked.
The new study by the Konstanz economists is therefore all the more commendable Stephan E. Maurer “The Battle of Gettysburg. 1st-3rd July 1863”, which has now been published in the series “Military Historical Investigations” (Peter Lang, 294 p., 56.95 euros). Maurer relies entirely on the revision of the sources and reconstructs the movements of individual regiments himself in order to grasp what is happening behind the myths. In doing so, he gains new perspectives in numerous places.
The Gettysburg campaign arose from the South’s desperate attempt to escape from a strategic dilemma. While his armies were able to keep Union troops at bay in the east Appalachian theater of war between the two capitals of Washington and Richmond, the Northerners to the west had managed to encircle the important stronghold of Vicksburg on the Mississippi. Her fall would cut the Confederacy in two.
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Therefore, as President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis favored a reinforcement of the troops on the Mississippi by units of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, who had triumphantly defeated the Northern State Patomac Army at Chancellorsville in May. While Davis pursued a strategy of attrition that would make the Union war-weary, Lee saw the superior potential of the Union, which was home to 21 million people (vs. 9 million in the South, including 4 million slaves) and had superior industrial production. Therefore, the general advocated an invasion of the north to engage the Army of the Potomac in a decisive battle.
Lee eventually won the Richmond government over to his plan, arguing that the Southern railroad system would be too late for his troops to get to Mississippi. In early June, the Army of Northern Virginia, with 76,000 troops and 272 guns, moved from Virginia.
How many slaves lived in the USA in 1860?
Slavery was not the cause of the Civil War between the US North and South (1861-1865), but it became its symbol. The ratio of whites to slaves in the south already shows this.
The memory of beating their opponents time and time once more filled the gray soldiers with confidence, which was elevated to hubris from the certainty that they had an unbeatable leader in Robert E. Lee. The general had organized his force into three major corps under the command of James Longstreet, Ambrose Hill and Richard Ewell.
But even the march didn’t go as planned. The Northern cavalry spotted the gray columns and proved an equal opponent to Lee’s victorious cavalry general, JEB Stuart. With Lee’s approval, he launched a raid into the Union’s rear to make up for the defeat, but this dramatically reduced the Army’s reconnaissance capabilities.
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Joseph Hooker, the loser of Chancellorsville, ordered his Army of the Potomac to follow the enemy. Though he had 120,000 men and 387 guns at his disposal, he considered himself inferior and failed to attack Lee’s separated columns as requested by Lincoln. His invasion of the Union States of Maryland and Pennsylvania brought regarding significant changes.
The Confederates, who had hitherto been fighting on home soil, found themselves surrounded by a hostile populace, made little friendlier by the en masse requisitioning of their property for worthless CS dollars. On the other hand, the awareness of defending the homeland boosted the morale of the northerners. And Lincoln replaced procrastinator Hooker with veteran tactician George Meade.
Gettysburg seen from the west. Cemetery Ridge in the background
Quelle: Heritage Images via Getty Images
Three days later, on June 30, two of Lee’s corps had already passed Gettysburg when Northern cavalry rode into the city and saw the Confederate advance. Due to a lack of reconnaissance by his cavalry, however, Lee had no idea that the enemy was near and allowed a division to make a limited advance on the city the following day, where a well-stocked camp with shoes, which were rare in the south, beckoned.
Although outnumbered, the Union horsemen managed to repel the attack with their breech-loaded carbines. The Confederate commander then threw more troops into the fray, which in turn were stopped by Union infantry. Without the two supreme commanders having planned it, the great battle unfolded.
Stephan Maurer describes the crucial phases in meticulous detail. That was Ewell’s negative response on day one to Lee’s order to advance “if practicable” to hills extending south of Gettysburg. This is how the disorganized Union troops were able to gather at Cemetery Ridge following being driven out of the city by overwhelming enemy forces. Maurer’s analysis raises doubts as to whether the weary Southerners would really have been able to launch a successful attack, especially since Lee had given Ewell a free hand with his formulation.
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The same applies to the result of the fights on the second day. This time, Lee wanted to roll up the Union lines from the right wing. Longstreet was in command there. In order to spare his people the storming of the entrenched Union soldiers on the hill, he devised an evasive maneuver that would have put him in the rear of the enemy. But Lee persisted, and a dismayed Longstreet took his time getting his men into position.
It was not until 4:30 p.m. that the Confederate attack began through the wheat field, peach orchard, and finally onto Little Rond Top. His successful defense made Lawrence Chamberlain, a civilian college professor, a hero of the North. In fact, according to Maurer, other US troops were ready in this section, which would probably have rectified the situation. Also, the logistics of the South would hardly have been in a position to carry out the evasive maneuvers Longstreet was contemplating in the foreseeable future.
Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) on his horse Traveler
Quelle: picture-alliance / newscom / Picture History
Not only coordination problems and insufficient reconnaissance – Stuart only returned to the army in the evening – prevented a breakthrough through the Union lines on July 2, but also the Union soldiers. Their commanders acted with unusual prudence and steadfastness, which was reflected in the morale of their people. One survivor recalled that they threw themselves into the melee “with the courage and vindictiveness of desperation”. “Cudgels, knives, rocks, fists – everything that might reasonably be expected to inflict pain or death on someone was now resorted to.” Another saw “shrapnel and grapeshot slicing through formations” and “heads, Arms and legs flew regarding amidst the dust and smoke”.
With his wings taking heavy casualties, on July 3 Lee ordered George Pickett’s division and one and a half other divisions to break through the Union center. At 2 p.m., following two hours of artillery preparation, around 13,000 men advanced in a wide line across an open field. Feigning heavy casualties, the Union artillery chief had previously ceased fire, leaving him with enough shells to counterattack.
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In the most famous infantry attack in US military history, 200 Confederates reached a stone wall behind which the Union’s first line was entrenched. “On the other side of the wall the enemy lay in heaps,” recalled a Union artilleryman. There was regarding half an acre here that you mightn’t walk on without stepping over dead bodies.” Half of the attackers fell or were captured, the rest fled. When Lee asked Pickett to form his men to counter a counterattack, he wept, “I don’t have a division anymore.”
“Pickett’s Charge” has etched itself deeply into Southern folklore. If his attack had been successful, the interpretation goes, the South might have won the war. Instead, Lee had to be thankful that Meade allowed him an orderly retreat to Virginia. Unlike Lincoln, who blamed him for the missed opportunity, the Union general knew how to correctly assess his options following the heavy losses, says Maurer.
“Picketts Charge”: On the third day of the battle, 200 Southerners advanced to the Union lines – and were mowed down
Quelle: Getty Images
Contemporaries, especially in the Confederacy, saw things differently. The great idea of the “Lost Cause” soon solidified among them, of the great cause of the chivalrous South, which only relied on the dull superiority of the North in terms of people and material for its deserved victory and thus for its “God-given institution”, the slavery, had been brought.
From this point of view, the real winner of Gettysburg was the brilliant Lee, who was only robbed of his deserved triumph by the mistakes of cowards like Ewell, dream dancers like Stuart or procrastinators like Longstreet. That’s why Pickett was stylized as the tragic hero of the battle because his people came from Virginia. The press in its capital, Richmond, which is also the seat of the CS government, praised them as heroes, while the other troops, who had also bled to death, fell by the wayside.
Abraham Lincoln (centre) during his visit to Gettysburg in November 1863
Quelle: Getty Images
However, Maurer’s conclusion that Gettysburg was “in many respects not the decisive battle of the war” requires qualification. The Confederacy was able to continue fighting until April 1865, and it seemed as if war-weariness was gaining the upper hand in the Union. But following Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863, the chances of a southern military victory were essentially gone.
His only hope was that Lincoln would lose the 1864 presidential election to an opponent willing to make peace. The triumph of the Union in the west, which culminated in the conquest of Atlanta in September 1864, was to remove the basis for this political option as well. It was Lincoln who set a rhetorical monument to the “rebirth of freedom” in Gettysburg.
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