The Gettysburg Turning Point

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Many people consider July 4, 1863 to be the turning point of the Civil War. The confederates lost two battles that day, the battle of Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) and the Fall of Vicksburg (Mississippi). These two major events caused two other confederate armies, one in Tennessee and one in Arkansas, to lose battles as well. Both of these losses were greatly influenced by the campaign of Vicksburg. If these two battles had been wins for the Confederates instead of losses, the war could have had a completely different result. The Civil War decided what kind of country America would be; would it be a slave nation or a free nation? This war occurred due to differences in the free and slave states wanting to prohibit slavery in territories …show more content…

Lincoln himself said that if Meade had fought on that final day in Gettysburg and destroyed Lee’s army, that the war could have been over then. The surrender of Vicksburg, in addition to victory at Gettysburg, greatly heartened the North and made July 3, 1863, the turning point of the American Civil War (Vicksburg Campaign). The campaigns of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, in spite of their importance, showed that the war would not be over soon, even though the North won both battles. In the minds of many historians, when one hears the name John Clifford Pemberton, they should think failure, defeat and ruin, his career was defined by what happened in Vicksburg (Smith). Gettysburg is considered to be the turning point because it ended the South’s attempt to invade the North, and turned the Army of Northern Virginia into a purely defensive group. A Union victory at Vicksburg gave them control of the Mississippi River, blocked Texas from the rest of the South and ended any worries the Union had of the Confederates attacking the …show more content…

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Lincoln, Abraham “The Gettysburg Address.” 19 Nov. 1863.
Masur, Louis P. "1863." The Civil War: A Concise History. Oxford [U.K.: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
"Miller Center." American President: American President. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
Reid, B. H. "1863: Military Turning Points, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Tullahoma." OAH Magazine of History 27.2: 23-27. Print.
Smith, Robbie. "John Pemberton - Civil War Trust." 1 Jan. 2004. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.
"Vicksburg." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
"Vicksburg Campaign (American Civil War) -- Encyclopedia ..." 20 July 2014. Web. 1 Nov.

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