Gettysburg: Animated Battle Map

[Music] June 1863 200,000 are dead and the Civil War is barely half over now general robert e lee aims to move the war from virginia and win a major battle in the north he hopes to stoke the fire of a growing peace movement a 75,000 man Army of Northern Virginia moves swiftly into south-central Pennsylvania Union General George Gordon Meade and is 95 thousand strong army of the potomac moves toward lee li concentrates his army where 10 roads converge Gettysburg Lee's move north will spark the largest battle in American history it will last for 3 days the battle starts west of Gettysburg Union General John Buford's cavalry men shoot at lead elements of Confederate General and reheats division before falling back as Heath advances [Applause] Beauford holds near Gettysburg until General John Reynolds first Corps arrives infantry against infantry fighting intensifies on both sides of the Chambersburg pike as the highest-ranking Union officer on the field Major General John Reynolds escalates the battle as he desperately tries to support Buford while ordering a Wisconsin regiment forward he is shot in the back of the neck and killed just as the battle begins to escalate [Music] Confederate General Robert Rhodes division arrives on Oak Hill though his division is twice the size of his opponent Rhodes and missile attacks are poorly coordinated and repulsed then General Jubal Early's division arrives from the Northeast despite Union reinforcements roads and early managed to break their right flank the Yankees are fighting a losing battle on the left to after a savage firefight in Hurst woods they fall back to seminary rich canons and small arms blast the attacking rebels reinforced by Dorsey Pender's division the numbers come to bear and the Union line collapses some escaped via an unfinished railroad bed others are trapped in Gettysburg streets the defeated Yankees Reform on Cemetery Hill where general Howard has left a brigade and an array of cannons the Confederates probe but do not attack it was one of the bloodiest days of the war but the worst was yet to come by the afternoon the Confederates have wrapped around the Union position which now resembles a giant fishhook but the Federals occupy the high ground in general Meade's interior lines will allow him to easily reinforce threatened sectors in the afternoon Union general Dan sickles moves his third Corps to the peach orchard and the Emmitsburg Road where he thought he could better use his artillery but this creates a lengthy bulge in the Union line in sickles lacks the men to defend it general Meade is forced to send his entire fifth Corps in parts of others to reinforce sickles opening gaps in his Center and on his right the General Lee orders Longstreet to make the main attack upon the Union left General Hill is to threaten the center and general Ewell is to assault the Union right [Applause] Longstreet's divisions under John Bell hood and Lafayette McLaws line up on seminary Ridge along with Richard Anderson's division of Hill's Corps ready to make the assault it is one of the hottest days of the year advancing under a hail of fire hoods brigades commingle and split apart some slamming the third Corps troops at Devil's Den while others assault Little Round Top were just arrived bit Corps soldiers await them both sides send in reinforcements control of Devil's Den changes hands three times and Alabama and Texas soldiers charge Little Round Top again and again but fall back at last a bayonet charge by main troops sends the exhausted attackers back for good the union's extreme left flank is secure [Music] Meade scrambles reinforcements from the 2nd and 5th court to support sickles his McLaws Confederate division in his the fray the action shifts toward the peach orchard which falls quickly the fight for the wheat field nearby is less decisive changing hands six times in some of the battles bloodiest combat hood and McLaws men push on towards Cemetery Ridge joined by part of Anderson's division their troops that vacated to reinforce sickles and left a half mile gap near the Union Center the Union Army can be cut in two but reinforcements via interior lines save the day the exhausted rebels are pushed back other Confederates renew efforts to capture Little Round Top entering what comes to be called the valley of death day two are thrown back the fighting finally ceases on the south end of the battlefield [Music] in what general longstreet termed the best three hours fighting ever done by any troops on any battlefield more than fourteen thousand men became casualties of war and the battle is far from over at dusk general you'll newest on the Union right - of Jubal Early's brigades sweep towards Cemetery Hill obscured by the gathering darkness the union line is only held by battle-weary 11th Corps soldiers Louisiana's in those Carolinians overwhelm them [Applause] Lucian's of East Cemetery Hill or captured means army we lose the battle if Cemetery Hill Falls but Union reinforcements surge onto the hill before Confederates can exploit their gains Early's men are thrown back as general edward johnson's division moves to attack copse hill [Music] [Applause] most of the breastworks on Coast Hill are empty their brigades sent to reinforce sickles only 1300 Union soldiers under General George Sears green remained to face Johnson's attacking 4,500 Greene's men hold firm against numerous nighttime assaults but some of Johnson's men gain a foothold in the abandoned trenches on the lower Hill by 10:00 p.m. the day's fighting comes to a halt the past two days have borne 37,000 casualties by now Gettysburg is the bloodiest battle of the war and another day of horrible combat is yet to come [Music] General Lee sees an opportunity hoping to take copse Hill in a morning assault he adds three brigades to bolster his left but general Meade has ordered the return of the five brigades that left Culp's Hill to aide sickles bolstered by a stream of reinforcements Lee is badly outnumbered [Applause] for seven hours the battle rages initial Union attacks are stymied including an ill-fated move near Spangler spring but by 11 a.m. the union numbers way too heavily and the Confederates are forced out of their captured entrenchments li now orders a massive assault upon the Union Center General George Pickett leads the only fresh division in Lee's army and he forms the core of the attack under Longstreet's command Meade is ready having anticipated such a move the night before he is the first Union Army commander to decisively outguess robert e lee [Music] at 1:00 p.m. Lee bombards the union defense's open to soften them up Meade responds and together they create the largest artillery barrage in the Western Hemisphere ultimately Lee's bombardment fails nevertheless pickets attack commences at 3 p.m. twelve thousand men emerge from seminary rich they must cross one mile of open ground Union artillery opens at long range and tears gaps and veteran live meat orders more than 20,000 reinforcements to converge upon the center Ohio New York and Vermont troops positioned themselves upon the flank of the Confederate advance the Confederates are moving into a great defensive of Maggie's the southerners in her right leg and fewer than half across the Emmitsburg Road but was second in third line troops coming up some managed to breach the Union position a ferocious melee ensues as tens of thousands of Union reinforcements arrive Confederate attackers Wendell Lee's men don't stand a chance [Applause] [Music] those who cross the stone wall are either killed or captured Lee's great moment of opportunity has become his greatest defeat by far scarcely half of the men who made the attack returned to seminary Ridge as events unfold in the Senate cavalry men are active on the flanks in hopes of threatening the Union rear Confederate General Jeb Stuart's horsemen try to swing around the Union Army they are stopped east of Gettysburg by Union cavalrymen under General David M Gregg General George Custer leads a charge of Michiganders that highlights the repulse [Applause] the south of Gettysburg Union cavalry hit the Confederate flank and rear with no success charge and counter-charge produced no real result for either side [Applause] the Battle of Gettysburg is over Lee has lost but remains on the field he hopes to repulse a counter-attack on July 4th to even the odds need does not take the bait that night Lee pulls back through the mountains to the Potomac River his lumbering wagon train of wounded is miles long Meade plans to attack but Lee's river position is too strong the Army of Northern Virginia beaten as it had never been beaten before moves back into Virginia and the war will go on another 21 months in the battles awake Gettysburg is a place of horror wounded soldiers outnumber citizens by more than twelve to one every home church and farm becomes a hospital most of the dead are buried near where they felt some are tossed into rocky chasms others lay exposed to the elements local citizens thought that Union soldiers should be buried in some organized fashion on the battlefield they had won thus the first National Cemetery on a battlefield was born 3512 Union soldiers are moved from their battlefield graves to the new soldiers National Cemetery as the work progresses organizers hold a dedication ceremony on November 19th 1863 15,000 people attend [Music] Edward Everett is the main speaker President Abraham Lincoln delivers a few appropriate remarks the Gettysburg Address in two minutes Lincoln covers the history of the Republic the raging war the need to continue the fight and lays out a vision for the future it stands among the greatest speeches in American history [Music] his words have increased purpose to the loss of life in evidence a sacrifice that would be necessary in ever greater numbers in hundreds of hallowed places yet unnamed with the hope that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth [Music]

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 284,291

Rating: 4.8989377 out of 5

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, Battle of Gettysburg, Civil War Trust Preservation, American Battlefield Trust Preservation, Gettysburg Preservation, Gettysburg explained, Three days at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee Gettysburg, Why do the South lose at Gettysburg, What happened at Gettysburg, Gettysburg troop movements, George Meade Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg

Id: DUXpCfcJ7Ng

Length: 16min 51sec (1011 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 27 2019

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