The Battle of Gettysburg

After a major victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia, Robert E. Lee launched a second invasion of the North—and again failed. Marching 75,000 men through Maryland into Pennsylvania, Lee hoped to reach Harrisburg. But General George Meade, now in command of the Army of the Potomac, met him at Gettysburg with 88,000 men on July 1, 1863. Meade’s forces occupied the high ground. For three days, the two armies battled, with terrible losses. General George Pickett led the final Southern assault, against the center of the Union line. When it failed, Lee recognized defeat, retreated, and abandoned his hope of taking the war into Northern territory.