What was the war's bloodiest day? Was it Gettysburg? No. It occurred in September, 1862, at Antietam Creek in Maryland, when 22,700 soldiers died. "[General] Lee "hoped to win decisively...but the Union army prevailed."
Meantime, the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1 through July 3, 1863, was the bloodiest battle of the war. It was the "most famous and most important Civil War Battle... [General Lee] believed his own [rebel] army was invincible..." Potter asserts. But in fact the Confederates suffered an estimated 28,000 casualties (out of 75,000 men in battle) and the Union lost 23,000 out of 88,000 - albeit, the Union won the battle. Doing the math one comes up with around 51,000 deaths on that blood-drenched, corpse-cluttered battlefield.
On July 1 and July 2, 1863, the Confederate army had gotten the best of the fighting, but Friday, July 3, 1863, would be another day, and would end quite differently.
In the book, Pickett's Charge - the Last Attack at Gettysburg, by Earl J. Hess, readers are given an insider look at how the final and decisive battles took place. In Chapter 1, "The Last Attack at Gettysburg," Lt. Frank a. Haskell wakes up after four hours' sleep and hears the "popping of skirmish fire," letting everyone alive know that "another day of bloodshed was needed to decide a winner and perhaps to settle the fate of the nation."
Brig. Gen. John Gibbon was the man who woke Haskell up, and they rode off to see where the skirmishes were taking place; the "ravages of the
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now