The Battle Of Gettysburg Essay Research Paper — страница 4

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Tops and peach orchard had died, and fighting began around where the national cemetery is today. Artillery fire began around the peach orchard. It was the signal Lee’s army was waiting for. Every man under Lee’s command jumped into action and was ready to fight. 140 cannons fired to begin the most fierce fighting yet. When the Confederate line was established, every musket went off. The loudest noise you ever heard. The bombardment had begun. Yet this was a massive bombardment, it was not what Lee had expected. The Confederate guns shot too high and the Federal infantry suffered little. The cannons stopped after and hour due to lack of ammunition. The great smoke in the valley was lifted and the sight of men appeared again (The Civil War:Catton 222-231, 239-242, 247).

Hancock’s line was ready when he saw the Confederates attacking from the west. Then there it was. Lee’s 15,000 men in perfect double and triple ranks running for a mile from the Round Tops to Culp’s Hill, with Picketts division as the head. All guns were silent to watch this grandeur of war. Brigadier General Lewis Aristead was leading Pickett’s charge. Their designation was a “little clump of trees” on Cemetery Ridge. When the rebels got within range, the Federal muskets went off. The right end of the assaulting rebels was crushed to pieces before they were even close enough to fire. The same happened to the northern end of Frenzel, 10 the line (Foote 74-83). Then the Union Artillery got into the action filled with canister. Men fell in hundreds. Longstreet remarked

to a British observer that the charge would fail. When finally in range around the clump of trees, the Confederates began their fire. The fighting raged furiously. Confederates jumped the stone wall and were fighting hand-to-hand. At this moment it looked as though the Union line had been broken. Longstreet had sent a brigade to reinforce Pickett, but due to the heavy cloud of smoke they could not see their objective and drifted off right and fell in the hands of some spirited Vermonters (Frassanito 187-190, 196, 199-203, 210). For a brief time the Confederates had the advantage, but could not hold it. More Federal Regiments came to the aid. General Hancock rode up to the action and was shot off his horse. General Gibbon was also severely shot but this had no relevance because

this had turned into an infantrymen fight. Armistead was leading his men to victory, or so he thought, when he was fatally shot and killed (Gettysburg:Catton 67-69, 72-80, 83). Lee watched the charge fail from his post. He watched as his men slowly but shurly backed away from the fighting and head back. The Federals were in no need to pursue them. Meade rode forward to the battle and saw that he had one rejoiced and said “Thank God” (Gettysburg:Catton 93). That night, Lee ordered a wagon trail to carry the wounded back to Virginia. Later Lee and his army would follow. The battle was over. The invasion of he Frenzel,11 north had failed, once and for all (Foote 245,249, 253, 255, 261-267). General John Pemberton had surrendered 30,000 men at Vicksburg to U.S. Grant and the

Mississippi was in the hands of the Union. The Confederacy had been cut in half. Gettysburg could have given the Confederates their independence and British recognition. But instead it took 28,000 men, many more wounded and their spirit to fight from them. Gettysburg was a failure (Ward 225-230, 233-239, 244, 246-251). Months later President Lincoln was invited to open a cemetery for the soldiers who were killed in the battle. The president’s speech was to follow an oration by Edward Everett. Everett spoke for two hours before Lincoln took the stand. Lincoln’s words were precise and to the point, and is one of the most remembered speeches in American history, known as “The Gettysburg Address.” Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a

new nation, conceived in liberty and dedication to the proposition that all me are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation- or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated- can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting place of those who have given their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a large sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hollow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our power to add or to detract. Frenzel,12 The world will very little note nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what