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Show Gettysburg, July, 1863 The momentous battle of Gettysburg erupted before the eyes of a war-torn nation on the first three days of July in 1863. The result was that, more than any other single battle, bat-tle, it doomed the South's bid for independence. THAT WAS true because this was one of two periods during the Civil War that the South's great military leader. General Robert E. Lee, felt strong enough to risk invasion of the North. And of the two efforts (the other was in 1862 and ended in the dawn battle of Antietam) this was the greatest. Lee and the South had no design on the North. But it was clear that, unless the war became be-came distasteful enough, the North would never agree to independence in-dependence for the South. THUS 1863 was really the last, long-shot chance for independence inde-pendence achieved by arms for the South. Lee at first meant to attack Philadelphia after cros sing the Susquehanna at Har-risburg Har-risburg but when he learned the Army of the Potomac was nearby, he changed his plan and decided to fight an earlier battle though he didn't plan to fight at Gtitysburg. The desperate struggle began be-gan by accident on July 1. Its climax came when Union troops decisively repulsed a Confederate attack led by General Pickett's brigade, on July 3, an attack which probably prob-ably never shoudl have been made. |