A Turning Point in the Civil War

The Battle of Vicksburg, The Battle of Gettysburg, and the Gettysburg Address

By: Michael Harper, Jacob Beiser and Alex Pietraszek

Vicksburg

•The Confederacy’s last fort on the Mississippi River

•If the Union took Vicksburg, they would split the Confederacy in half

• The Confederacy launched the attack on Gettysburg, in part to draw the Union away from Vicksburg

•The Union won the battle with an army over two times the size of the Confederate army

The Importance of Vicksburgs Location

• Vicksburg is in Mississippi midway down the Mississippi river• Vicksburg was the last Confederate fort on the Mississippi river• It was built on a 200 foot bluff over the river and well fortified• Vicksburg held the two parts of the Confederacy together• It blocked the lower Mississippi river so the Union could not

access trade routes from the Midwest down to the sea• When the Union won the battle of Vicksburg they split the

Confederacy in half and reopened the Mississippi trade route

The Battle of Gettysburg• Gettysburg was the Confederacy's last chance

to win the war• General Lee commanded the attacking

Confederate army and General Meade led the defending Union army

•After Gettysburg the Confederacy never again threatened the North and they lost all hope of foreign alliances

•Gettysburg was the biggest battle of the war and a crushing defeat for the Confederacy

Battle Tactics Map of Gettysburg

Importance of Gettysburg Battle Tactics

•Lee had 72,000 troops to Meade’s 94,000 troops, but came close to winning the battle early in the fighting

•Lee attempted to win the battle before the full Union army assembled, but to no avail due to lack of commitment from his generals

•Lee lost the battle after a last failed charge at the Union center

•Meade beat Lee with a strong defence of his center, but didn’t pursue

Generals Meade and Lee - Reputations and Aftermath

• Robert E. Lee (Confederate) and George G. Meade (Union) were the commanding Generals at the Battle of Gettysburg.

• Early in the war General Lee was first criticized for lack of aggression.• General Lee’s reputation improved dramatically after the Peninsula

Campaign. He was thought to be invincible.•After Gettysburg, General Lee’s reputation was tarnished; he was still

thought to be brilliant, but not invincible•Lee remained in command•Meade’s reputation increased after winning the battle of Gettysburg, but he

was chided for not finishing Lee and winning the war• Meade was put under Grant’s command

The Gettysburg Address Analysis

Sentence analysis of what the Gettysburg Address was trying to Convey

One of the only pictures of Lincoln when he was Speaking

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

• “Four score and seven years ago” is referring to 1776 (Declaration of Independence)

• Referring in the second paragraph opening line to the Declaration of Independence, interpreting its meaning to refer to: “all men” including black slaves.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

• Lincoln is telling his audience that the values their

country was founded on were being violated.

• Lincoln extends the meaning of the actual war by

questioning whether any nation can survive

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that, that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

• Lincoln recognizing the dead that have fought for the war.

• He tries to be very compelling by comparing life vs. death of a nation and people.

• Repetition of Consonants: Battlefield; final; field; for; fitting.

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.

• Another very persuasive use of repetition in speech.

• Says the same thing using different words three times

• Notice the rhythm these words have while speaking

The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

• Made up of respect for the soldiers

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

• He is talking about the larger sense; the world not just the United States

Part 1

It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which

they who fought there have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to

be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these

honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave

the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these

dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a

new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for

the people shall not perish from the earth.

Part 2

• Full of inspirational words such as: “dedicated” , “Nobly” , “Great” , “Honored” , “devotion” “God” and others.

• Tells them what to dedicate themselves to now.

• Lincoln wanted to renew the commitment to winning the war by turning it into a noble cause

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Kraus, Michael. The United States to 1865. Toronto: U of Michigan, 1959. Print.

McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. New York: Oxford university, 1988. Print.

Aaron R., ed. Civil War Battles and Leaders. London: DK, 2004. Print.

Nardo, Don. Bull Run to Gettysburg. Mankato: Compass points, 2011. Print.

Zimmer, John. "The Gettysburg Address: An Analysis | Manner of Speaking." Manner of Speaking. John

Zimmer, 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.

"The Words that Remade America." The Words That Remade America. N.p., 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 30 Apr.

2014.