THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

Robert Edward Lee was an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865.

George Meade (1815-1872) was a U.S. Army general and civil engineer who served as commander of the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War (1861-65). Meade entered the Civil War as a brigadier general and first served during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862.

BATTLE SUMMARY

• The largest military conflict in North American history begins this day when Union and Confederate forces meet at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle lasted three days and resulted in a retreat to Virginia by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

ITS SIGNIFICANTS

• The Battle of Gettysburg was a Union victory that stopped Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North.
• More than 50,000 men died in the battle making it the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

BATTLE STATS

• The Union Army had 82,289 soldiers in the battle.
• 23,049 casualties on the Union side.
• 75,000 Confederate in soldiers in the war.
• 28,063 Confederate casualties.

THE END