How Gettysburg Changed The Tide Of The Civil War
The American Civil War was one of the biggest and most costly wars in American history. In this war the North and the South were divided by issues such as the powers of government, who the current president was, and slavery. The battle of Gettysburg was one of the biggest battles of the Civil War and was the climax of the war. The battle of Gettysburg was the single most significant battle of the Civil War and was the turning point for the Northern soldiers as they held the Southerners back.
The American Civil War was sparked by the rural south wanting more powerful state governments than the national government, a confederacy. The more industrialized north wanted just the opposite with a central national government that had power over the states, a federal system. So it was the Confederates versus the Federals and the Confederates wanted to secede from the Union and just have two separate countries without any fighting. Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederates at the time and Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States. The Federals in the north did not like this and refused to acknowledge the Confederate States of America as its own country and continued to occupy it for some time. The Confederates in North Carolina told Lincoln to vacate the army base at Fort Sumter but Lincoln did not. On April 13, 1861, the Confederate army started to bombard the fort with heavy fire. Roughly thirty-six hours later the Union soldiers surrendered and were put on a boat bound for New York. This was the first official battle of the Civil War and it proved that neither side was willing to back down.
Once the war got underway, the Confederates seemed to be unbeatable against the Union army. The leader of the Confederate army was General Robert E. Lee. Under Lee was another very famous and victorious General, General Thomas J. Jackson, or better known as Stonewall Jackson. He got the nickname Stonewall because he was like a solid stone wall...
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