Gettysburg Turning Point

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The battle of gettysburg is considered one of the most bloodiest battles of all time along with the battle of atlanta. These are two important battles during the civil war with Gettysburg being widely considered the turning point of the civil war. The battle of bull run is also important because it was the first battle of the civil war. It also demonstrated that the union was not able to defeat the confederate states as easily as they had initially planned. These two battles were significant to the civil war as the battle of bun run proved that it was not going to be an easy battle against the south and the result of the battle of Gettysburg stopped general from advancing further into the north.
As the tension between the south and the north …show more content…

The union knew of the confederate army movements and decided that they should follow the confederate army. The reason for this was the order of general Mcdowell who ordered the union army to attack the confederate army; this battle was called the battle of bull run.
Before the battle actually happened the confederate army decided that the Manassas gap line was important for the confederates to troops to move to Manassas and back to the valley if needed. General Lee who decided to follow the state he was born in, Lee became the general in charge of the confederate army. General cocke pointed out to Lee that the Manassas gap was very important. So the confederate army started fortifying at Manassas on may 15 as they needed to gain control of the Manassas gap line. General beauregard had spies to learn important things that the Union was doing so that the confederacy can be prepared. Beauregard had an ex-clerk who had volunteered to go back to the city and retrieve important information about the Union army and their movements. When the spy came back to General Beauregard, he came back with a message saying that that General McDowell of the Union army had been ordered to march towards Manassas that night. On july 17 the Union army marched to Fairfax Court House, but as the Union army got closer the confederate decided to retreat. The confederates retreated as they did not want …show more content…

The next day at 1 a.m, the telegram arrived and general Johnston. On the other side, McDowell started to move, he was told that Johnston will not be able to get to Beauregard because Patterson would prevent that from happening. General Tyler decided to attack even though his instructions were not to attack. He took a squadron and two light companies with him to attack. While this was happening two officer became worried about the turn of events that were taking place as they watched over. The two officers were Major J.G Barnard and Captain J.B Fry, these officer sent a messenger to Tyler to remind of what McDowell’s advice. McDowell had advised Tyler not to engage against the confederate army.

After Tyler got the message, he decided to turn to around and not engage, but something went wrong. While they were withdrawing, Tyler tried to withdraw in a orderly fashion some of the soldiers were confused and they panicked, the confused men ran for a mile until they were able to be set on the right track. Afterwards the two sides exchanged gunfire, it had begun at noon and it ended around 4 p.m. July 19th both sides were having problems thinking of what to do next. On the 21st of july, this was the day where it the actual battle begun and ended

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