The Civil War was fought between The United States Of America and the Confederate States of America. The Confederates had been the Southern half of the United States. They seceded from the Union because of several different issues. The United States was now going to combat the rebels on the grounds of "Saving the Union". The Battle of Gettysburg was part of Lee's campaign to conquer the North. Some look at this encounter as the turning point of the Civil War. .
Purpose .
This report was written to explain the events of The Battle of Gettysburg During The Civil War. .
The Cause of The War .
In 1860 South Carolina seceded from The Union. Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas followed it. After that came Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas in 1861. .
The Confederates decided to try to overtake all federal property within the south. One of these was a small fort in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina called Fort Sumter. On April 12,1861, the Confederates bombed Fort Sumter. This was the beginning of The Civil War. Both sides thought it would only last about ninety days. Unfortunately they were both very wrong. Nobody had estimated the destruction of property or the loss of human life that was to follow. This ninety-day rebellion soon turned into a four-year war that would end up costing over 610,000 American lives. It is a little known fact that more Americans were killed in The Civil War than in both World Wars combined. The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in this The Civil War. .
Early Happenings of The War .
During the initial battles, the South had been defeating the North in almost every single battle. The first decisive Union victory was at the Battle of Antietam Creek in September 1862. President Lincoln used this as a backup when he freed all the slaves in the South with the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The South thought of this as a joke, and did not submit to it.