The High Water Mark

Yesterday, Will and I went and visited the battle of Gettysburg. It was a very interesting and strategically important battle due to the fact that Lee committed so much of his forces to a daring attack, which was called Pickett’s charge. Some people believe that if this attack had succeeded, and Lee’s army had broken through the line, then it could have been a completely different war. That is why people call this spot the high water mark of the Confederacy. And, while that may be the namesake for my story, that is not all that happened at Gettysburg that day.


The view the Iron Brigade saw as the Confederates advanced toward them. (The barn on the right was present during this battle)

On the first day, a single Union cavalry brigade arrived in Gettysburg, scouting out for the Confederate forces that had been following the Union army on the other side of a mountain range. Soon enough, on the day after they had deployed, Confederate forces began to stream in from Chambersburg. After some intense fighting, the unions reinforcements, the iron brigade, finally arrived. The iron brigade were some of the Unions crack troops. They were allowed to wear their own special hats as opposed to the regular ones that the regular Union foot troops would wear.

On Little Round Top, looking toward the Confederate assault on the second day on the left flank of the Union army.

On the second day, both full armies arrived and set up. The Union had their forces set up in a fishhook, with their right flank, facing north, being the tip and their left flank, facing south, would be tied to the line. The Confederacy, meanwhile, made a line that matched theirs, but instead of having the valuable hill cover that the Union had gotten, they had occupied Gettysburg as the center of their fishhook. That day, Lee ordered General Ewell to begin to attack the Union right, while General Longstreet attacked the Union left, battling them on the round tops.

The stone wall Confederate troops stormed over, led by General Armistead, and held briefly at the apex of Pickett's charge.

After these attacks had failed, General Lee decided to attack the Union center, after the Union army had reinforced both of their flanks. He sent in general Pickett, with 12,000 men on a mile-wide attack to the Union center. The Union defenders were only 7,000 strong, but they had the advantage of being able to fire their guns more than once, because the Confederates were on the charge, so they couldn’t after some intense fighting, the confederates finally broke through, but within minutes, they were pushed back out of the union line. This was a devastating blow to Lee’s army.

The Custer memorial, at the East Cavalry Field, a rarely visited but significant cavalry battle on the final day at Gettysburg.

The overall outcome of the battle was the end of Lee’s second campaign. Many believe that the battle of Gettysburg was one of the many deciding factors of the civil war. This is so because Lee’s massive army of northern Virginia had gotten considerably mauled during the battle of Gettysburg. Today was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed learning more about this battle and finally getting to see the battle for myself. I had heard so much about it, but I couldn’t have imagined just how awesome the real experience of being there was. Thanks so much Will!