July 1st-3rd, 1863, Gettsyburg, Pennsylvania

Perhaps the seminal event in American History ended today in a wheat field in the sleepy seminary town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1863.
General Robert E. Lee knew that a major victory was needed soon, in order to force the Federal Government to sue for peace.
His previous attempt to invade the North at Antietam/Sharpsburg Maryland ended in a tactical draw, but a strategic defeat for the South.
It was only a matter of time before Abraham Lincoln found a competent General to lead the Army of the Potomac, and their numerical and industrial superiority crushed Lee's army and ended the rebellion.
I will not rehash all of the details involved in this great battle here.
More than any other historical event, Gettysburg is known to even the most disinterested and casual American student, and it is still studied in every war college and military school in the World.
During my only visit to the National Park some six years ago, several Senior officers from our own War College were guiding a group of foreign officers around the park.
We saw National insignia from recognizable NATO allies, and also some from nations that surprised me, such as Egypt.

Many scholars will say that the battle, and the war was in fact lost when General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was killed by an errant shot from one of his own men right after his most magnificent victory near Chancellorsville VA at the battle of the Wilderness in May of that year.
While scouting ahead with his staff to locate the exact postion of the Federal's as was his habit, a young Confederate 'Picket' let loose a minie ball from his rifle, hitting Jackson in the left shoulder. The wound itself was not that serious, but it cost Old Jack his arm, and then his life due to pneumonia.
General Lee is reputed to have said "he has lost his left arm, but I have lost my good right arm"

I agree that had he been on the scene on July 1st, he would have seized and held the high ground at Little Round Top that his successor failed to recognize as significant.
As it occurred, a young college professor from Maine with no prior military experience by the name of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain did indeed grab that ground, and heroically held it until the rest of the Corps came up to support him. At one point, out of ammunition he ordered a bayonet charge downhill, which was considered suicidal by the standards of the day.
It so startled the Confederates that they broke and ran.

The second factor that doomed the Southern invasion and insured they would lose the war was the absence of General J.E.B. Stuart, the dashing but impetuous commander of the Confederate Calvary.
Some are now saying that the gallant but suicidal charge on July 3rd of General George Pickett and his Virginia troops was meant to commence simulaneously with an attack by Stuarts entire Calvary Corps from the rear, catching the Federal "Fish hook" defense in a classic pincers movement.
The normally reliable Stuart was supposed to have served as Lee's eyes and ears, identifying the position and strength of the enemy army. Then, according to recent viewpoint he was to swing behind and attack from the North just as Pickett launched his charge.
As it was on July 3rd he was fighting for his life with a larger Federal Calvary Corps, and provided no intelligence to his commander at all.
J.E.B. had become quite enamored in seeing his name in the Northern papers, his exploits by that time already legendary.

This new theory is interesting, but I don't know that I lend much credence to it.
I think Lee felt he had no choice but to commence his attack, as a fighting withdrawal posed too high of a risk as deep into Pennsylvania as they were
After all, his boys had never let him down now, had they?

Most southern historians and others who should have known better blamed the defeat on General James Longstreet, who in fact advised against the attack.
Old Pete was far ahead of his time, and was instead a proponent of defensive warfare and attrition.
But no one would place the blame on the commanding general, even when Lee himself took the responsibility for the decision solely on himself and offered to resign because of the defeat.

That evening it started raining, and the Confederates started their sad retreat.
Lincoln was so furious at General George Meade, the commander of the Army of the Potomac for failing to pursue and then destroy Lee's Army that he soon after sacked him.
While the North was winning at Gettysburg, General Grant was ending the siege of Vicksburg MS, a great victory that doomed the Western Confederacy, and split the fledgling nation in half. Grant was soon to be given the command of the entire Federal Army in the field.

Had Meade chased Lee as he should have, the war would have been over by the end of 1863, instead of dragging on into the summer of 1865, costing thousands more lives and injured men, and insuring the total destruction of the South.

Perhaps President Lincoln would not have been murdered, and reconstruction as he intended would have circumvented the many decades of suppression and Jim Crowe racism that our nation endured, and in some cases still endures.

If Stonewall had been at Gettysburg, and Stuart had forgone glory hunting and done his job instead?
Vicksburg would have still fallen, and the Confederacy would have still been split, outnumbered and almost totally berift of modern manufacturing.
And they still would have had no viable Navy with which to break the blockade.
I do not think the British would have interceded with their Navy on behalf of the South, although they probably would have recognized the Confederacy as a legitimate Government.

Perhaps Lee would have swung around to attack Washington from the north, as historians have argued for generations.
But to what purpose? The city was the most fortified on earth, and Lee would have been attacking a superior force with no supply or reinforcement hope.
He would have placed his victorious army in the postion to be annihilated.

Most likely he would have mopped up what was left of Meade's army and beat a hasty retreat back into Virginia. And then he would have waited for diplomatic recognition and the public outcry from the Northern press which was certain to follow.

"The Lost Cause" was indeed just that, doomed to failure from it's outset.

Slavery was an abomination that had to end, and firebrands in the deep south would never agree to any gradual abolition and ending of it.
Virginia and North Carolina most likely were willing, but when Lincoln called out the troops the issue was decided.
Northern abolitionists were also not willing to negotiate, and Northern Industrialists knew there were millions to be made from the military if war commenced.

So there you have it. The most bloody war American's have ever fought, and that against one another.

Visit the battlefield to see first hand what occured there. The self guided tour should serve nicely, especially if you either tune in the radio for commentary, or buy one of the tapes.
While standing on the road across from the Bloody Angle where Pickett's Corps formed before his charge I could see what he saw over 135 years before.
The field behind him would have hidden his men while they formed up from the Yankee's view across the field in their defensive works.
But I could also see their height advantage, and the idiocy of a full frontal attack across that open field of a mile's length. The snake fence that stretched across the middle is still represented, Pickett's troops had to stop and tear it down while under heavy canister and small arms fire before continuing.
While I stood there pondering, two people on magnificent white horses galloped across the field, reminiscent of the Southern Cavaliers of days gone by.

There are more resources available that I can list here.
My absolute favorite historical fiction of all and the one others fall short of is "The Killer Angels" by Michael Sharra. There is a movie of the same name.
Bruce Catton is considered to be the pre-eminent Cival War Historian, and Carl Sandburg's work is notable.
More recently Shelby Foote, and two professors from Virginia Tech's history department, James Robinson (seen on screen during Ken Burn's excellent documentary of late), and James Davis, who is married to my late Uncle Pat's widow Sandi are considered to be the top experts in that era.

The National Park Service site is www.nps.gov/gett/