The War Continues

On July 4th, 1863, the same day that Lee's army began their long retreat back to Virginia, the besieged city of Vicksburg fell as John Pemberton surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant. With those two victories for the Union came the first real sense that perhaps the South's bid for independence might be doomed. However, it would take two more years of hard, bitter fighting before the war ended.

With Meade's failure to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia before the Potomac, Lincoln went in search of a new general. With his capture of Vicksburg, Grant became a hero to the Union and soon people were clamoring for Lincoln to bring this man north, believing that perhaps he was the man who could decisively defeat Lee. Grant was named general-in-chief of the Union armies on March 12, 1864. Although Meade was still the commander of the Army of the Potomac, Grant took charge of the Virginia Campaign.

Over the spring and early summer of 1864, Grant and Lee battled across Virginia. As the fourth full year of war began, the Army of the Potomac had 120,000 men; the Army of Northern Virginia just 60,000. Losses on both sides were terribly high at the battles of the Wilderness (25,000 men), Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor (80, 000 men). Union losses in these battles were actually higher than the Confederates, but they represented a smaller percentage of the army's strength. As well, the Union army had a better chance of replacing the men lost with reinforcements, while the Confederates could not.

With each repulse, Grant refused to retreat, instead simply redeployed, trying to get around Lee's flank. After the battle of Cold Harbor, Grant once again put his army on the move. His objective was the rail junction at Petersburg, below Richmond. With Lee believing that Grant meant to capture Richmond, thus deploying his troops there, and Grant's initial assaults on Petersburg bungled by Major General William "Baldy" Smith, the battle for Petersburg wore down into a siege.

Sherman's Total War

Further south, Grant's former subordinate,William Tecumseh Sherman, was making good on his promise to "make Georgia howl" as he led his army from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Savannah, Georgia. Battled every inch of the way by the Confederate Army of Tennessee commanded by Joseph Johnston and, later, John Bell Hood, Sherman carved a path of destruction across Georgia that included the capture of Atlanta on August 1st, 1864. Sherman encouraged his troops to live off the land and destroy whatever they couldn't use, believing it best to wage total war in hopes that these tactics would force the South one step closer to surrendering.

A Christmas Present for the President

On December 22nd, 1864, Sherman's army completed their March to the Sea as they captured Savannah. Sherman telegraphed Lincoln that evening with the message: I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition; also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."

Sherman's capture of Atlanta and the fall of Mobile Bay (captured by Admiral David Farragut in early August) helped re-elect Lincoln. On November 8th, 1864, Lincoln received 2,216,067 popular votes (212 electoral), while his opponent, former Union General George B. McClellan, received 1,808,725 votes (21 electoral).

As 1864 became 1865, Sherman's troops invaded South Carolina. The state had been the first to succeed and Sherman believed that it should be punished the worst. On February 16, 1865, Sherman reached Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. The city surrendered the next day and shortly after fires ravaged the city. Confederate officers blamed Sherman for the fires while the General believed the Confederates themselves set fire to cotton bales to keep them from falling into Federal hands.

In Virginia, Union cavalry general Philip Sheridan had laid waste to the rich Shenandoah Valley, long a source of supply for the Confederates. Meanwhile, Lee still remained trapped in Petersburg. It was the Confederate general's hope that perhaps his army could break the siege and travel south to link up with Johnston's command. From there, the two armies combined could destroy Grant's army first and then Sherman's.

However,that was not to be. During the nine-month siege, Grant had been continually lengthening his lines, hoping to stretch Lee's own forces beyond the breaking point. Then, on March 31st, Sheridan and 12,000 cavalrymen approached the important junction of Five Forks, a key to both Lee's supply line and his troops' possible escape from Petersburg. Lee dispatched George Pickett and as many as 19,000 Confederates to hold Five Forks. Reinforced by an infantry corps, Sheridan flanked Pickett and scattered the Confederate forces.

On April 2nd, the Union breakthrough at Petersburg occurred and Lee began to evacuate. That evening, he sent a message to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, advising him to evacuate Richmond. As the Confederacy scuttled several of its ironclads in the harbor, fires spread to engulf large sections of the city. Richmond fell to Union troops under General Godfrey Weitzel the next day.

The Army of Northern Virginia continued its fighting, as Lee tried to head south in order to combine his troops with those of Joe Johnston's. Finally, on April 9th, near Appomattox Court House, he was cut off by forces under Philip Sheridan and George Custer. With less than 30,000 men, half of which were unarmed, Lee knew what he must do. "There is nothing left for me to do but go and see General Grant,"Lee said."and I would rather die a thousand deaths."

And so, Lee met with Grant that afternoon in a house in Appomattox Court House, where he asked for and received surrender terms. Grant, who had made a reputation in 1862 for only accepting "Unconditional Surrender", allowed for very generous terms. The men of the Army of Northern Virginia were allowed to return to their homes, unmolested and undisturbed as long as parole was observed and they did not take up arms against the Union. Officers were allowed to keep their sidearm and cavalrymen and artillerymen were allowed to keep the horses they owned.

Despite Lee's surrender, the war raged on, although the outcome was simply a formality. Sherman and Johnston still battled until Johnston surrendered his army in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 18th. On May 4th, Lieutenant General Richard Taylor surrendered his command, the Department of East Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to Union General E.R.S. Canby at Citronelle, Alabama.

Jefferson Davis' government fled throughout the South, with cabinet members resigning and returning to their homes. Finally, on May 10th, Davis and his wife were captured by Federal troops in Irwinsville, Georgia.

Three days after Davis's capture, Confederate troops under Edmund Kirby Smith defeated Federals in a small skirmish at Palmito Ranch, near Brownsville, Texas. This Confederate victory was the final "battle" of the American Civil War. Smith surrendered all troops west of the Mississippi to Canby on May 26th.

The Civil War was finally over.

Burying the Dead

After the battle of Gettysburg, thousands of those killed during the battle still lay in the fields surrounding the town. With Lee's retreat and Meade's pursuit, the armies left their dead behind unburied. And so it was left to local citizens to bury those men who had fallen in the three days of fighting that had ravaged the area surrounding their town.

As Pennsylvania's Governor Andrew G. Curtin visited the battlefield in the weeks following the battle, he was horrified to see the condition of the fields, littered with half-buried or unburied soldiers. A local attorney named David Wills had a plan where the government would purchase a piece of land on which to build a cemetery for the Union dead. Wills' plan called for Pennsylvania to seek help from the 17 other Union state whose sons had died at Gettysburg to cover the cost of reburial and care of the cemetery.

Wills' purchased 17 acres on Cemetery Hill at a cost of $2 475.87 and commissioned landscape artist William Saunders to design this new cemetery and the construction of the cemetery itself began soon itself. Work on the reburial of the soldiers and construction of the cemetery went slowly. Only 100 dead could be buried per day, as per a contract signed with a local man, F.W. Biesecker, and a hard winter prevented the cemetery from being completed until March 18, 1864.

The Gettysburg Address

Despite the fact that only about a third of the cemetery was completed at that time, Wills planned that the dedication ceremony would go ahead on November 19th, 1863. Expected to be a small event involving mostly citizens of Gettysburg and the surrounding area, Wills named famed orator Edward Everett to be the keynote speaker of the event. Almost as an afterthought, an invitation was sent to President Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln was rarely able to attend such events, but a letter from a Boston businessman named Forbes urged him that the Union needed to be reminded just exactly what this war was being fought for. Lincoln decided that the ceremony in Gettysburg just might be the place for such a reminder.

Having written two drafts of his speech before he left Washington, Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg by train on November 18th. After greeting the public, he retired to Wills' home and made a few revisions to his speech.

The next day, Lincoln spoke before 15,000 people at the ceremony. Everett had talked for two hours in an eloquent speech. Lincoln spoke for merely two minutes, so briefly that most people did not realize that the speech was over when he sat down, leading to an uncomfortable delay before the audience applauded.

Response to the speech was mixed. The Democratic press viciously attacked the speech, while the Republican newspapers either praised it or ignored it, believing it better left alone. And yet, to this day, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is still remembered.

Gettysburg National Park

In 1864, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania formed the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association. The Association quickly went to work, purchasing the land on Culp's Hill, Cemetery Hill and Little Round Top.

In 1878, a monument erected on Little Round Top marked the spot where Col. Strong Vincent had been killed. The next year, the survivors of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry affixed a marker to a boulder near Spangler's Spring, where they had fought. In the years to come, more and more units and eventually states, both North and South, would erect monuments to the men who had fought there.

By 1895, the Association owned 600 acres of the battlefield, containing 300 monuments and 17 miles of roads. With the help of General Daniel Sickles, now a U.S. Congressman, the Association transferred its holdings to the U.S. War Department which helped to form Gettysburg National Park. The War Department did much to improve on the work that had already been done to the Gettysburg Park with the help of veterans of both armies that ensured the historical accuracy of the monuments and displays.

In 1933, the National Park Service, a bureau of the Department of the Interior was formed, and care of the Gettysburg National Park became their responsibility. Today, there are over 14 000 monuments and markers situated on the 5000 acres that make up Gettysburg National Park. According to the National Park Services, 1,716,238 people visited the Park in 1999.

Present Day Gettysburg

The village of Gettysburg now boasts a population of 7,000 and attracts millions of visitors each year. Adams County, in which Gettysburg is located, stated that tourism brought in over $117 million in 1996, although it is still second to agriculture as the top industry in the county.

A trip through Gettysburg will dispel any notions one might have that it is still the same, quiet town it was in June, 1863. The town boasts over two dozen museums including the Soldier's National Museum, the National Civil War Wax Museum and the Lincoln Train Museum. As well, there are over 30 hotels, inns and motels in Gettysburg and the surrounding area and the streets are dotted by small gift shops.

Pennsylvania College remains, although it has been renamed Gettysburg College. The school, situated on 200 acres, is attended by 2300 students from 40 different states and 25 foreign countries.

Not all of the attractions in Gettysburg are Civil War-oriented, however. In 1950, President (and former General) Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, bought a 230-acre country estate on the outskirts of Gettysburg. In September, 1959, at the height of the Cold War, Eisenhower invited Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev to the farm as a friendlier option than Camp David.

In 1967, Eisenhower deeded the farm to the United States to be administrated by the National Park Service as the Eisenhower National Historical Site. The Park now covers 690 acres and attracts over 70,000 visitors a year.

For More Information

For more information on the Battle of Gettysburg, check out these sites:

The Battle of Gettysburg Resource Center-gives an order of battle, information on the Gettysburg Address and interesting Civil War trivia

Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation- learn about this organization committed to restoring the Gettysburg Battlefield to its 1863 appearance.

Gettysburg's Official Website offers a brief history of the battle, focusing on the town of Gettysburg itself, including tourist information, attractions, community events, etc.