The High Tide of the Confederacy

The History of the Climactic Final Day of the Battle of Gettysburg

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Scott Clem

Without question, the most famous battle of the war took place outside of the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which happened to be a transportation hub that served as the center of a wheel with several roads leading out to other Pennsylvanian towns. From July 1 to 3, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia tried everything in its power to decisively defeat George Meade’s Union Army of the Potomac, unleashing ferocious assaults that inflicted nearly 50,000 casualties in all.

Day one of the battle would have been one of the 25 biggest battles of the Civil War itself, and it ended with a tactical Confederate victory, but over the next two days, Lee would try and fail to dislodge the Union army with attacks on both of its flanks during the second day and a massive attack against the center on the third and final day.

Given that the Army of Northern Virginia would never muster another invasion of the North after Gettysburg and that the Confederates had mixed success the first two days of the battle, the third day is often remembered as the “high tide” or “high-water mark” of the Confederacy, symbolizing its last real chance to win the war. As a result, the most famous attack of the Civil War was also one of its most fateful and fatal: Pickett’s Charge, the climactic assault on the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, which has become the American version of the Charge of the Light Brigade and one of the most famous events of the entire Civil War.

©2016 Charles River Editors (P)2018 Charles River Editors