What if I told you the bloodiest battle in American
history? I mean, the definitive turning point
of the Civil War didn't actually start with some,
you know. brilliant strategic masterstroke. Right,
it's wild. It basically started because a group
of Confederate soldiers were supposedly wandering
into this small Pennsylvania town looking for
a pair of shoes. Exactly, a pair of shoes. Welcome
to today's Deep Dive, everyone. We are looking
at a massive stack of historical documentation
today, all detailing the Battle of Gettysburg.
And it is a lot of material to get through. It
really is. But my mission for you today isn't
to just recite a, you know, a timeline of troop
movements. We're assuming you already know the
major players of the Civil War. So instead, we
are going to unpack the actual mechanisms of
this battle. We want to figure out how this incredible
series of absolute accidents, psychological blind
spots, and just these incredibly bold gambles
all collided to completely change the map of
the United States. Yeah, and to really grasp
how chaotic this collision was, we kind of have
to look at the board before someone bumped the
table, so to speak. Oh, I like that. Yeah, like
if you look at this antique oval shaped 1863
topographical map behind me, you can actually
visualize the incredible stakes here. Yeah, the
scale is just huge. Right. It's the summer of
1863. And Confederate General Robert E. Lee is
invading the North with an army of over 70 ,000
men. Which is massive. Huge. And he isn't just
marching blindly, right? He has these massive
multi -tiered objectives. He desperately needs
to relieve the pressure on the Confederate garrison
at Vicksburg out West. Right, because they're
currently being starved out. Exactly. And on
top of that, he wants to threaten major northern
cities. Places like Philadelphia, Baltimore.
Washington. Just to create a panic? Yes. Ultimately,
he is hoping that a terrifying northern invasion
will strengthen this growing peace movement in
the north, you know, and force them to the negotiating
table. So it's a really grand strategic plan.
Very grand. But the execution of it falls apart
almost immediately. The sources note that Lynn
had explicitly given orders to avoid a general
engagement until his entire army was concentrated
together. Right. No big fights yet. Exactly.
Yet on July 1st, they stumble into this massive
fight. Which brings us back to that shoe rumor.
Ah, yes, the legendary shoe rumor. I mean, it
is heavily contested by modern historians, but
the story goes that Confederate troops under
A .P. Hill were marching toward Gettysburg. Looking
for footwear? Right. Whether they were genuinely
looking for a supply of shoes or conducting a
reconnaissance in force, which simply means sending
a substantial body of troops forward to prod
the enemy and force them to reveal their positions,
they basically run smack into Union cavalry.
And wait, let's pause on why they had to blindly
prod the enemy in the first place. Oh, this is
crucial. Because the sources mention General
J. E. B. Stuart, who was Lee's cavalry commander.
And cavalry, I mean, they were the eyes and ears
of a 19th century army. Yep, the absolute only
way you knew what was ahead of you. But Stuart
had taken his three best brigades and basically
went joyriding around the Union army. He was
completely out of communication. Yeah. So Lee
is essentially marching his army through hostile
territory, wearing a blindfold. Which is terrifying.
That intelligence blackout is really the foundational
error of the entire battle. Lee has absolutely
no idea that the Union cavalry in Gettysburg
is commanded by Brigadier General John Buford.
And Buford is sharp. Very sharp. Buford looks
at the terrain. specifically these ridges west
of town, and immediately recognizes their tactical
importance. He sees the high ground. Exactly.
He knows that if the Confederates seize that
high ground, the Union Army will just be slaughtered
trying to take it back later. So Buford sets
up this desperate delaying action. I am continually
blown away by how fast this localized skirmish
just escalates into a complete bloodbath involving
tens of thousands of men. It escalates so quickly.
Because the Union rushes an infantry to support
Buford and the leadership cost is immediate,
the Union loses General John F. Reynolds. Yeah,
he's shot and killed super early in the fighting.
And our sources note he was considered by many
to be the absolute best general in the Union
army. He really was. And the sudden death of
Reynolds. creates this massive command vacuum
on the field for the Union. And the rank -and
-file soldiers pay just an unimaginable toll.
Yeah, the numbers are awful. Just look at the
26th North Carolina Regiment. They entered the
fight as the largest regiment in the Confederate
Army. They had 839 men. Okay. By the end of that
first day, they had around 212 men left standing.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. And by the end of the three
-day battle, they had about 152 men left. That
is insane. It is the highest casualty percentage
of any regiment, North or South, for a single
battle in the entire war. The sheer volume of
fire is just staggering, but despite that fierce
Union resistance, the Confederate forces, particularly
the divisions under Robert E. Rhodes and Jubal
Early, they actually manage to outflank the Union
positions. They do. The Union army is broken
and they get pushed back through the actual streets
of Gettysburg, retreating to the high ground
south of the town. Specifically Cemetery Hill.
Right. And here is where I really want to challenge
you on this, because this feels to me like the
ultimate pivot point of the war. OK, let's hear
it. General Lee sees the Union retreating, right?
He sends orders to his subordinate, General Richard
S. Ewell, telling him to take Cemetery Hill if
practicable. Yes, the famous if practical order.
Exactly. Ewell looks at the hill, decides it
isn't practical, and stops his men. So is this
the exact moment the South loses the battle?
Well, I mean, historians have debated that single
decision for over a century and a half. I bet.
To understand why Ewell froze, you really have
to look at the psychology of command. Ewell was
newly promoted. He had previously served directly
under Stonewall Jackson. Okay, and Jackson was
a completely different type of leader. Completely
different. Jackson was notorious for issuing
incredibly specific, rigid, peremptory orders.
You did exactly what Jackson told you to do.
No more, no less. You did not improvise. So Ewell
is basically programmed to be a strict executor
of formulas. But Lee doesn't lead that way. I
mean, in an era before radios, Lee's philosophy
was to give general objectives and just trust
his local commanders to assess the chaos on the
ground and take initiative. Right. So when Lee
says, take it if practicable, he means, I trust
your judgment, but push hard to get this done.
But Ewell, with his background under Jackson,
he hears, take it only if it's perfectly safe
and guaranteed. Which a frontal assault on a
fortified hill literally never is. Never. Yule
just lacked that aggressive instinct that Lee
assumed he would exercise. And because Yule hesitated
and decided against the attack, the Union army
was handed a massive gift. Time. Time, exactly.
They were given the entire night to dig in, consolidate
their forces, and build defenses on those hills.
And that causality, Yule's hesitation giving
the Union time to dig in, sets the stage perfectly
for day two. Because when the sun comes up on
July 2nd, the Union has established one of the
most famous defensive formations in military
history. The fishhook. Yes. If you are listening
to this, I want you to picture a giant fishhook
lying on the ground. Right. So the eye of the
hook is anchored at Culp's Hill to the southeast.
It curves tightly around Cemetery Hill, and then
the long straight shank of the hook runs south
down Cemetery Ridge, ending near a rocky wooded
elevation called Little Round Top. And I'm looking
at this topographical map and Meade's setup almost
looks unfair. He possesses something called interior
lines. Yes, interior lines are huge here. If
you think of a circle, the Union Army is defending
the inside. So Union General George G. Meade
can just walk his troops straight across the
center of the circle to plug any holes. Exactly.
Whereas Lee's Confederate Army is stretched out
along a massive five mile exterior arc wrapping
around the outside. Right. So if Lee wants to
move troops from his left to his right, they
have to march for miles around the perimeter.
The mathematics of interior lines dictate the
entire pace of the second day. I mean, Meade
can reinforce his weak points in a fraction of
the time it takes Lee to launch a coordinated
attack. It is a textbook defensive posture. But
even with this perfect mathematically superior
setup, the Union nearly hands the battle away
on a silver platter. Oh, General Sickles. Yes.
Enter Union General Daniel Sickles. He's commanding
the third corps on the southern end of the ridge.
And he completely disobeys his orders. He really
does. He doesn't like his position on the ridge.
He looks at some slightly higher ground, about
three quarters of a mile out in front of him,
near a peach orchard. And he decides to just
march his entire corps out there, completely
disconnecting from the rest of the Union army.
Yeah, and by moving his men forward, Sickles
creates a massive salient in the Union line.
Let's make sure everyone understands why a salient
is a death sentence. Think of a straight castle
wall, right? If you stand behind it, the enemy
can only shoot at you from the front. But if
you march your troops out into the field ahead
of the wall, forming a wedge that points directly
at the enemy... You've created a salient. Right,
like stepping down into the moat almost. Exactly.
It's like marching down into the moat. Now the
enemy can shoot at your front, your left flank,
and your right flank simultaneously. You are
completely boxed in by fire. And the geometry
of Sickle's new position meant his troops were
isolated and exposed on three sides. So when
Confederate General James Longstreet finally
launched his massive attack on the Union left
flank later that afternoon, His men slammed directly
into Sickles' exposed core. And the fighting
there was just horrific. It produced some of
the most legendary brutal landmarks of the war.
The Peach Orchard, the Wheat Field, and Devil's
Den. Sickles III core was virtually eradicated
as a fighting unit. Wow. And Sickles himself
had his leg completely shattered by a cannonball.
Oh, man. And because Sickles essentially opened
a massive hole in the defensive line, Meade has
to scramble. And this is where those interior
lines save the Union. Yep, the shortcut across
the circle. Meade desperately pulls 20 ,000 reinforcements
from the right side of his fishhook, rushing
them across the center to plague the bleeding
hole Sickles created on the left. And this cascading
series of crises leads directly to the most dramatic
moment of day two. A little round -top. Yes.
Because Sickles moved his corps forward, he abandoned
the original defensive line on the ridge. That
meant Little Round Top, which is the very end
of the Union line, the tip of the Fishook's shank,
was left completely undefended. Just sitting
there empty. Right. And Confederate troops recognized
this glaring vulnerability and began surging
up the hill. If they capture Little Round Top,
they can place artillery there and fire straight
down the length of the entire Union line. Just
effectively rolling up the whole army. Exactly.
But Meade realizes this just in time and rushes
troops to the hell. And this is where Colonel
Joshua L. Chamberlain and the 20th Maine step
into history. Such a famous moment. They are
rushed to the slopes of Little Round Top mere
minutes before the Confederate assault arrives.
And they are told they're the extreme left flank
of the entire Union army. If they break, the
battle is over. The psychological toll on those
men is just difficult to fathom. I mean, they
fight off wave after wave of intense Confederate
assault. Close quarters combat. Brutal and relentless.
And eventually, Chamberlain's men realize they
are completely out of ammunition. They have literally
nothing left to shoot. So instead of retreating
or surrendering, Chamberlain orders a desperate,
improvised maneuver. The bayonets. Yes. He orders
his exhausted men to fix bayonets and charge
straight down the Rocky Hill into the advancing
Confederates. It is the ultimate expression of
shock combat. It really is. The sheer audacity
of it completely shatters the Confederate assault,
forcing a mass surrender. So the Union flanks
bend to the breaking point, but they hold. The
Confederate assaults on both the Union left at
Little Round Top and later that evening on the
Union right at Culp's Hill, they inflict massive
damage but ultimately fail to break Meade's army.
And that causality, the fact that both the left
and right sides held strong dictates the entire
strategy for day three because General Lee makes
it fatal logical deduction. Right. He knows Meade
shifted tens of thousands of troops to reinforce
the wings on day two. So Lee concludes that Meade
must have hollowed out his center to do it. Lee's
logic dictates that the center of the Union line
on Cemetery Ridge must be the weakest point.
So he decides to launch a massive, concentrated
frontal assault directly at that center, aiming
for a small clump of trees. But this is where
the sources get really interesting regarding
Lee's mindset. Yeah, the internal pushback. Exactly.
His most trusted commander, General Longstreet,
vehemently opposes this plan. Longstreet looks
at the open ground and does the brutal math.
He tells Lee it would take 30 ,000 men to successfully
take that ridge. And Lee only has, what, about
12 ,000 to 15 ,000 available for the assault?
Right. And they have to walk nearly a mile across
an open field while taking artillery fire. So
I have to ask, why does Lee order what amounts
to a suicidal charge? The sources mention he
was suffering from health issues. Does a medical
condition explain this tactical blindness? The
medical context is incredibly crucial here. The
historical record indicates Lee had been diagnosed
with pericarditis earlier that spring. Okay,
what exactly is that? For you listening, pericarditis
is an inflammation of the sac surrounding the
heart. Yeah, it physically restricts the heart's
ability to pump effectively. The result is restricted
blood flow, shortness of breath, and this profound
debilitating fatigue. That sounds awful. It is.
And some modern cardiologists reviewing his symptoms
argue he had recently suffered a mild heart attack.
While commanding an army. Right. And when your
brain is starved of oxygen and you're operating
under that level of immense physical exhaustion,
your cognitive flexibility, like your ability
to process risk and adapt to new information,
It just plummets. So you pair that physical exhaustion
with his recent, against all odds, victory at
Chancellorsville, right? And you have a commander
who genuinely believes his men are invincible
and physically cannot process the mathematical
reality Longstreet is showing him. Exactly. He
just can't see it. So the attack goes forward.
And to prep for the infantry charge, Lee orders
the largest artillery bombardment of the entire
war. Which was massive. We are talking about
150 to 170 Confederate cannons firing simultaneously
at the Union Center. That's insane. The sheer
acoustic shockwave caused the ground to shake,
and the noise was reportedly heard as far away
as Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh? That's miles and miles
away. Yeah. The goal was to obliterate the Union
artillery and demoralize the infantry before
the Confederate troops even started walking.
But the Union artillery commander, General Henry
Hunt, plays a brilliant psychological trick.
Oh, this is so smart. It is. He realizes the
Confederate shells are largely overshooting the
infantry line. So Hunt orders his cannons to
slowly stop returning fire. Baking them out.
Exactly. He tricks the Confederates into believing
they have successfully knocked out the Union
guns, all while secretly conserving his ammunition
for the infantry charge he knows is coming. Wow.
Consequently, when those 12 ,000 Confederate
soldiers step out of the tree line to begin Pickett's
Charge, they believe the Union guns are silenced.
But they aren't. Not at all. Instead, as they
march across that three -quarters of a mile of
open field, they march into a meticulously planned
slaughter. The mechanisms of this destruction
are just terrifying. They take solid cannon shot
from the front, then flanking fire from cannons
placed on little round top, and then concentrated
musket fire. Just crossfire. Yeah. Only a small
fraction of the Confederates actually make it
to the low stone wall protecting the Union line.
General Louis Armistead actually manages to breach
the wall at a spot called the Angle. leading
a few hundred men into the Union Center. Right,
and Armistead breaches the wall and yells for
his men to turn the captured Union cannons on
the retreating troops. But he immediately realizes
the cannons are dead weight. Why? because the
Union Artillery men had already fired their very
last canister shots. Oh, man. Let's explain canister
shot for you listening, because it is horrific.
It essentially turns a massive cannon into a
giant, lethal shotgun. Pretty much, yeah. They
pack a tin cylinder full of iron balls or scrap
metal. When the canning fires, the tin shreds
and a massive cone of shrapnel obliterates anything
in its path. And the Union Artillery had used
it all to systematically dismantle the incoming
Confederate lines at point blank range. It's
just... devastating. It is. Armistead is mortally
wounded at that spot, which is now forever known
as the high watermark of the Confederacy. The
high watermark. Yeah, it was the deepest penetration
into Union lines and the closest the South ever
came to winning the battle. From that moment
on, the charge collapses. The survivors stream
back across the field. Pickett's division alone
suffers a staggering 60 percent casualty rate.
60 percent. That's, I mean. The charge fails,
the battle is over, and the sun comes up on July
4th, and the aftermath is almost impossible for
a modern person to comprehend. The sources detail
a battlefield covered in 46 ,000 to 51 ,000 casualties.
Over 8 ,000 men were killed outright, just left
baking in the July heat. I mean, imagine being
a resident of Gettysburg. The town had a civilian
population of just 2 ,400 people. and suddenly
they're overwhelmed. Practically overnight every
single church, barn and home is converted into
a triage center. The townspeople suddenly tasked
with caring for 14 ,000 wounded Union troops
and 8 ,000 Confederate prisoners. And the sources
highlight some incredible human stories amidst
all those statistics. There was actually only
one documented civilian casualty during the entire
three -day battle. Which is a miracle, really.
It really is. It was a 20 -year -old woman named
Ginny Wade who was instantly killed by a stray
bullet passing through her kitchen door while
she was literally just kneading dough. Wow. And
then you have John L. Burns, a 69 -year -old
veteran of the War of 1812. Oh, this guy is something
else. He literally just grabbed his musket, walked
out of his house on the first day, volunteered
to fight alongside the Union troops, got wounded
three times, and miraculously survived. That's
incredible. But you know, the environmental impact
on the town was equally staggering. Oh, bad.
Beyond the human dead, there were over 3 ,000
horse carcasses scattered across the fields.
The town's fuel had to drag them into these massive
pile cells of town and burn them. Oh, God. Yeah,
the stench of burning flesh and decaying bodies
hung over the valley for weeks, making the residents
violently ill. As the town struggles to breathe,
General Lee is forced to begin a miserable, torturous
retreat back to Virginia in torrential rain on
July 4th. And here is where the scope of the
war widens, right? Because on that exact same
day, 920 miles away, the Confederate stronghold
of Vicksburg finally surrenders to Ulysses S.
Grant. The simultaneous loss at Gettysburg and
Vicksburg is the absolute death knell for the
Confederacy. Because of the Mississippi River.
Exactly. By taking Vicksburg, the Union completely
severs the Confederacy's control of the Mississippi
River, cutting their supply lines in half, and
the psychological and political fallout in Europe
is immediate. Oh right, because they were watching.
Very closely. Nations like Britain and France,
who have been considering recognizing the Confederacy,
they look at the dual defeats on July 4th and
completely abandon any lingering ideas of intervening
on behalf of the South. But even with this monumental
dual victory, President Lincoln is absolutely
furious in Washington. He's livid. Why? I mean,
they won. because Lincoln sees the board clearly.
Lee's army is battered, exhausted, and trapped.
The torrential rains have swollen the Potomac
River, and the Confederate pontoon bridges have
been destroyed. They physically cannot cross
back into Virginia. But General Meade hesitates.
He does. I mean, his own army is exhausted and
has taken over 23 ,000 casualties. Meade calls
a council of war and decides not to pursue Lee
aggressively enough. He gives Lee just enough
time to build a makeshift bridge and slip his
trapped army across the river to safety. And
Lincoln is just beside himself. He's pacing the
White House, famously complaining that Meade
held the war in the hollow of their hand and
they would not close it. Which introduces a massive
historical debate that continues today. Yeah.
Was Gettysburg truly a decisive victory? Right.
I mean, the Union repelled the invasion and forever
broke the myth of Robert E. Lee's invincibility.
But because Meade let the army escape, the war
dragged on for two more agonizing, blood -soaked
years. When you look at the incredible scale
of the tragedy. the failures of command, the
brilliant tactical gambles, and the sheer resilience
of the soldiers. It's no wonder Gettysburg transformed
from a bloody Pennsylvania farm town into the
ultimate national symbol. It really became sacred
ground. And that transformation was cemented
just a few months later when Abraham Lincoln
arrived to dedicate the new National Cemetery.
In a speech that was barely 271 words long, the
Gettysburg Address fundamentally redefined the
entire purpose of the Civil War. It wasn't just
about preserving a fractured union anymore. It
was about ensuring a new birth of freedom. And
that transformation of purpose brings up a lingering
question I really want you to consider after
we wrap up today. Oh, I love these. Let's hear
it. Well, we often look back at history and view
the outcomes as inevitable, right? Like it was
always going to happen this way. but consider
the overwhelming role of chance. The accidents.
Exactly. If J .E .B. Stewart hadn't taken his
cavalry on a joyride, leaving Lee blind, if Yule
had found the aggressiveness to take Cemetery
Hill on day one, if Sickles' rogue march had
actually successfully collapsed the Union left,
how fundamentally different would the map of
the United States look today? It's wild to think
about. Furthermore, what if General Meade had
ignored his exhaustion and aggressively destroyed
Lee's trapped army in the rain on July 4th? Would
the deadliest conflict in American history have
ended two full years earlier, saving hundreds
of thousands of lives? It all comes back to that
bumped chessboard. We study history looking for
grand, inevitable designs. But sometimes the
fate of an entire nation really comes down to
a delayed message, a misunderstood order, an
inflamed heart, or even just a sudden rainstorm.
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive. Remember,
history is never just a static list of dates
and facts. It is a chaotic collection of human
choices, physical limitations, and incredibly
high stakes. Next time you think a small detail
doesn't matter, just remember the geometry of
a fishhook, the silence of empty cannons, and
a missing pair of shoes. See you next time.