The Battle Of Gettysburg
BOOM! POW! CRASH! The sounds of gunfire and the boom of cannons rang loud across the land for three days. The air was cloudy and had the scent of gunpowder. Those were the sounds and images from those three fateful days at Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg is arguably the Army of the Potomac's (AOP) only great victory on the battlefield. When analyzing Gettysburg, therefore, it has become commonplace to ask why Lee and his army failed to win a great victory. Fewer people look to the other side of the equation and ask why Meade and the AOP won. What circumstances changed to enable the AOP to transform a long string of defeats into a great victory? The odds were certainly against them in many ways. The AOP had become accustomed to losing--a dangerous thing for any military unit where life and death depends, to a large degree, on the confidence of its officers and troops. Fresh from two devastating defeats within the past six months, the AOP was chasing a seemingly invincible fighting machine, a machine with the confidence, and the leadership, to continue its winning ways. To heighten the odds against the blue underdogs, they were given a new commander, Major General George Meade, only four days before they were to fight what would become the battle of their lives. So why did the Yanks win at Gettysburg? The men in blue fought like demons along their line, but these Billy Yanks had fought admirably before--Gaines Mill and Fair Oaks being only two examples--only to be ultimately defeated. While it was the 90,000 front-line men who held their own, ultimately giving better than they got, in the final analysis something else must help explain this rather unusual occurrence--a spectacular, indisputable Federal victory in the East. The answer is found in the performance of the AOP's officers. The Union was victorious in the Battle of Gettysburg due to great leadership and command from its generals during the fight.
Everyone from lowly Lieutenants to Major...
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