In this book, author and battlefield guide Joe Mieczkowski examines the Generals killed at The Battle of Gettysburg. No other Civil War battle claimed as many general officers. Of 120 generals present at Gettysburg, nine were killed or mortally wounded during the battle. Two more would die soon thereafter. The devasting loss of life among the general officers contributed to the outcome of the battle. Both North and South attempted to cope with the death of their leaders and the resulting instability. Following the battle neither army was ever the same again. The South, in particular, never recovered. We can only guess at how the war might have changed had so many not been killed.
The Gettysburg Campaign
In the wake of Confederate victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia (May 1-4, 1863), Lee decided to attempt a second invasion of the North. This would take pressure off Virginia's farms during the growing season, especially in the "breadbasket of the Confederacy," the Shenandoah Valley. Additionally, any victories won on Northern soil would put political pressure on Abraham Lincoln's administration to negotiate a settlement to the war, or might lead to the South's long hoped-for military alliance with England and France. The campaign began under a shadow on both sides. Union generals Hiram Berry and Amiel Whipple and Confederate general Elisha Paxton were killed at Chancellorsville. Lee's aggressive corps commander, Lieutenant General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, had been mortally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville. The Army of Northern Virginia reorganized from two corps to three, with Lt. Gen. Richard "Dick" Ewell replacing Jackson in the Second Corps and Lt. Gen. Ambrose Powell (A. P.) Hill commanding the newly formed Third Corps. Lieutenant General James Longstreet--Lee's "Old War Horse"--retained command of the First Corps. The Army of Northern Virginia was about to invade enemy territory with two of its three corps commanders newly appointed to their positions. On the Union side, the Army of the Potomac was still under the command of General Joe Hooker, who had lost the Chancellorsville battle. As reports arrived that the Confederates had crossed the Potomac and were on Northern soil, Hooker dispersed his army widely, trying to simultaneously protect the approaches to Washington, Philadelphia and Baltimore. He'd lost Lincoln's confidence, and the president made the difficult choice to replace an army commander in the face of an enemy invasion. On June 28, Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade--who had only been promoted to corps command less than six months earlier--was placed in charge of the Union's largest army. The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (July 1-July 3, 1863), was the largest battle of the American Civil War, involving around 90,000 men in the Union's Army of the Potomac under Major General George Gordon Meade and approximately 75,000 in the Confederacy's Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert Edward Lee. Casualties at Gettysburg totaled 23,000 for the Union. Confederate casualties were 28,000, more than a third of Lee's army. Largely irreplaceable losses, especially among general officers, to the South's largest army, combined with the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, marked what is widely regarded as a turning point in the Civil War, although the conflict would continue for nearly two more years and witness several more major battles, including Chickamauga, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Nashville, etc. This book provides a useful reference to the events of Gettysburg and the devastating loss of leadership on both sides.
