Why Is Gettysburg A Turning Point

After two years, the Union forces were failing. General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate army were less than 80 miles northwest of the American capital, and they were making progress every day. If they reached Washington D.C., the American people would force President Abraham Lincoln to sign a peace treaty. Already, many northerners fled from the path of Lee’s army, but many waited in nervous anticipation. On July 1, 1863, the armies, with about 75,000 soldiers each, started to fight. The Union prepared to sign an armistice, but after this battle, continued their campaign in the war. Why was the battle of Gettysburg a turning point? This famous battle that led to an even more famous speech was a critical point in the war because of the amount of losses, momentum, and the geography of the rest of the battles. The extreme losses the Confederate army went through made a huge impact on the whole war. An estimated 30-34 percent of the Confederate army were casualties while the Union army’s casualties registered at about 27 percent (Doc B). While those numbers are not extremely different, the Union had about six million men of military age, but the Confederacy only had about 1,200,000 men of military age (Doc B). The South could never recover from these devastating losses they suffered at Gettysburg. In a letter written to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee wrote, “General Barksdale is killed. Generals Garnett and Armistead are missing… Generals Fender and Trimble are wounded in the leg, General Hood in the arm, and General Heth slightly in the head. General Kemper, it is feared, is mortally wounded (Doc C).” The Confederate army lost many generals, and therefore leadership, during this battle. Without leadership or military brain power, the Confederate army could not fight as well as the better trained North. However, the losses had the greater effect of the south losing morale. Without morale, momentum for the south quickly slowed. …show more content…
General Robert E. Lee wrote to Jefferson Davis after Gettysburg, “I therefore, in all sincerity, request Your Excellency to take measures to supply my place {replace me}. I do this with the more earnestness because no one is more aware than myself of my inability for the duties of my position (Doc C).” With Lee’s morale dropping so quickly after the battle, so did most of his army’s. However, the north had opposite effects. In President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, he said, “... that from these honored dead we take increased devotion… that these dead shall not have died in vain (Doc D).” With the north pumped up and ready to demolish the south, the Union army pushed back the Confederate army. However, before the battle of Gettysburg, the north was preparing to sign an armistice to end the bloodshed. With such a great victory, the Union forces felt renewed spirits and were ready to fight. Along with that, the south could not bring itself to recover from the embarrassment of Pickett's Charge and the demoralizing defeat overall. This led to the placement of battles to switch back once more. At the beginning of the war, General Lee played a defensive game. However, he tried twice to invade the north to throw the other army off of its feet. However, after 1863, when the battle of Gettysburg was fought, all the