Gettysburg Gone Wild

July 1- July 3, 1863

I, Marissa P., think the Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. It took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle went on for three long and depressing days, July 1 –July 3, 1863. Robert E. Lee was the Confederate general. He commanded about 75,000 troops. The South wasn’t looking for a fight when they entered Gettysburg. We went into Gettysburg looking for shoes. On day one of the battle we followed the Union troops across a stream. We encountered what looked like hundreds of thousands of Union troops. We pushed the Union into Gettysburg. At the end of the first day we got reinforcements. Day two wasn’t much better than day one. As it turns out we wanted to take control of Little Top and Round Top, but we failed to secure those areas, so the North had control of them. The North wanted to hold that ground and we wanted it. At the end of the second day the Union retreated. The North thought they knew where we would strike next. Robert E. Lee has always been an aggressive man and the South like it, but on day three we didn’t. We did exactly what they had expected us to do. Robert E. Lee gave the order to charge at the center of the Union up steep hills. We didn’t know that the North got reinforcements overnight. All of the soldiers hearts were racing. We had fear on our faces. We began to run as fast as we could.  We all were already tired, but halfway up the hill we were exhausted.  Most died just because they stopped in the middle of the hill. We tripped over dead bodies as we ran. I am glad I wasn’t killed.  The only survivors of the charge hurried back to the Confederate line. Robert E. Lee was disappointed in himself that he had given the order. The charge is now called the Pickett’s Charge because George Pickett was one of the Confederate generals. There were 28,063 Confederate casualties. 18,735 of our troops were injured. 3,903 Southern soldiers died during the battle. 5,425 Southern troops went missing sometime during the battle. I think Gettysburg will always be the bloodiest battle in American History.        

                                                            By,

                                                                                                 Marissa P.