Gettysburg

Gettysburg, PA

No, I don’t think that Lee was a genius. Look what he did at Gettysburg.

-John Brecht of South Carolina

Introduction

Following the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863, important decisions still had to be made. These collective decisions led to an obscure town in Pennsylvania. When speaking before the Confederate Congress, General Lee was adamant that in his insistence upon a Northern invasion. President Davis agreed with him. Vice President Stephens was the only dissenting vote towards an invasion. In his diary he would write, “Vicksburg has been abandoned.” With his government’s approval, Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia, 75,000 strong in an invasion of the North.