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Show columns, move dsteadily across open fields which were swept by such a storm of shrapnel and riflle fire as had never before been seen, and though they fell like grain before the reapers, reap-ers, some of them reaching the Union lines, only to be speedily overcome. That ended the mighty battle, and there was nothing left for Lee to do but get back into Virginia. Gettysburg cost the Union army the lives of a number of generals, and the loss of nearly 24,000 men. On the Confederate side five generals were killed and nearly 30,000 men killed or wounded. HIGH IE OF IB BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG WAS TURNING POINT OF GREAT CIVIL CONFLICT. . BOTH SIDES FOUGHT BRAVELY Three Days of Fighting That Resulted In Total Losses of Over 50,000 and Put Confederate Forces on the Defensive. Bravely fought by two great armies of Americans, bravely won by the Federals Fed-erals and bravely lost by the Confederates Confed-erates the battle of Gettysburg proved to be the turning point of the Civil war. Before that the victories of the south were frequent and Its armies were aggressive. After the bloody battle of July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, the forces of the Confederacy were generally gen-erally on the defensive. Lee's invasion inva-sion of the north, undertaken in the hope that it would bring foreign aid to the southern cause, was brought to a sudden and disastrous end. General Lee's army at Gettysburg numbered approximately 84,000, while the Federal forces, under command of Gen. George G. Meade, aggregated about 80,000 officers and men. Lee's corps commanders were Generals Longstreet, Ewell and A. P, Hill. Commanders Com-manders of the Union corps were Generals Gen-erals John F Revnolria W fi Han. .Rgtp" iipiiiiiii n m - " - - """tut jatrwy " - - - 4.'-1bt ! , ' w " ' J' ! w . '?. . ' j Xijfe i i cock, D. E. Sickles, Sykes, Sedgwick, O. O. Howard and Slocum. ' Reynolds, sent ahead to feel out the enemy, arrived at Gettysburg the evening eve-ning of June 31, and in the fighting which began early the next day, was killed. Gen. Abner Doubled, who succeeded him, was forced back to Seminary Ridge, after hard fighting, and then had to abandon that position, posi-tion, so that the first day of the battle bat-tle was m reality a Confederate victory. vic-tory. That night Meade ordered the entire Union army to Gettysburg, and by next morning the two armies were confronting each other along a ten-mile ten-mile line of battle. Lee ordered Longstreet to turn the left flank of the Federal army by taking tak-ing Little Round Top, but Sickles de-feuded de-feuded that position so stubbornly that Ixmgstreet's "movement was checked, Peach Orchard, Cemetery Hill, Gulp's Hill and The Devil's Den were the scenes of desperate fighting, and Little Round Top was saved to th Federals by the arrival of a brig-ado brig-ado under General Weed. His men dragged the guns of a battery to the summit by hand. The third day opened with a wonderful won-derful artillery duel, the greatest of the entire war, and then came Pickett's Pick-ett's charge, which has gone into history his-tory as one of the most heroic assaults as-saults of all time. The men of Pickett's division formed in brigade J This picture shows a view from Lit;le Round Top, looking over the wheat field where the second day's battle fiercely surged. |