What was the Battle of Gettysburg turning point?

Question

I need general, brief information based on the turning point dealing with Battle of Gettysburg.

Answer 1

I have to say that Gettysburg was lost when general Ewell (Stonewall's replacement) failed to secure little and big round top at the end of the first day. in spite of that tactical blunder, the south had a chance, i believe, had it not been for the brilliant defense staged at little round top by the 20th Maine and then-colonel Chamberlain.

Answer 2

I think the turning point came before the battle even started. Lee did not have his best commander (he had been killed accidentally) and he lacked vital Intel.

Lee was going in blind and significantly weaker.

Lee was a brilliant tactician, but Lee like most strategists needs as much info and as many reliable men as possible to make sure his attack goes off properly. Lee lacked both and Although he could have possibly won the battle the odds played against his strengths.

If you want a specific part of the Battle where the tides shifted then I would agree with the first posting. Chamberlain holding the flank preventing the south from breaking the line was the point where Lee lost. Once it was established the Flanks would not break his only real choice was the center.

Answer 3

Well, there were so many points that could have changed the outcome of the battle....
To me, Chamberlin's holding of the end of the Little Round Top end of the line with the 20th Maine was the turning point...the Reb's had been winning up 'til then over all. When they held the line, it was from that point on unlikely for the Confederates to break the line.
Most people would consider Pickets charge to be the turning point, not just of the battle, but of the war.

Answer 4

During the battle, Picket's charge cost the South many casulties. General Lee ordered the charge. Confederate troops were charging up a hill and Union troops just mowed them down with heavy artillery. In that short charge, the South lost thousands upon thousands of men in a matter of minutes! About half of the Confederate soldiers who went to Gettysburg died there. The south suffered about 12,000 casulties in all. Heavy casulties is the main reason the Confederates were forced to turn back.

Answer 5

Three days of horrid slaughter but stoneK is likely correct: On July 1, the first day, the die were already cast. Not only was the determination made that Lee was in Pennsylvania but the fighting at Herr Ridge and McPherson Woods, northwest of Gettysburg would forever slam th door on Lee returning without a battle, it would deprive Him of the crucial high ground of Cemetery Ridge that he spent many thousands to gain and neutralized Ewell from taking Culp's Hill , just north of the determining ground and soured an entire Confederate division form flanking Meads, major emplacements, along Cemetery Ridge.

It was no accident that General John Buford would be the first to encounter Lee's entire Army of Northern Virginia( 3 divisions). He had just returned from scouting for Lee's position/positions deep into Virginia and was party to the humiliation of Jeb Stuart at Brandy Station.( The primary reason Stuart was absent from Gettysburg).

Lee's advance corp, Ewell, with Gen. Henry Heth in advance, having captured three Union implacements, with an entire division, planned on a walk into Gettysburg, to take the inventory of a shoe factory. The battle of Gettysburg and the turning point of the War had yet to be concieved by either side.

Although never dramatised on T.V. and General Buford, dying of typhoid, just 6 months later, clearly understood the value of the high ground of Cemetary Ridge: He knew that Lee would not proceed northward with a single division and that it was soley up to him and only 2 regiments of "dismounted " cavalry would impede the the whole of Ewell's division achieving any strategic position, (including Little Round Top), that day or any other, during the three day battle. Having thrown everything at Buford, through the first day. Ewell/Heth were only able to dislodge the intrepid Buford to the Pipe Creek. From this point, it is a well established fact that Ewell expressed to Lee that his division was "now spent" and would never flank Mead's lines from the North.

After "day 1", at which point Bufford he was reinforced by Howard's infantry, 1/2 of whom began to dig emplacements upon Cemetary Ridge and Howard then advising the newly appointed and tenative Meade, that this would be the deciding ground that Lee would be repulsed from and driven back to Virginia.

Although Chamberlin's efforts, at Little Round Top, did detere a flanking movement , from the southeast: Ultimately, the time given to placement of Union lines, by the fighting at Herr Ridge and McPherson Woods, by Buford and Howard gave the Union Army the advantage of having an rapid and "open deployment " of an entire division, anywhere along the line, to thwart or delay a Southern flanking effort.

Location!, Location !, Locatoion !, The wool was dyed, on day one.

Answer 6

Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and 200 Maine farmer and fishermen of the 20th Maine holding the top of Little Round Top hill on the far left of the Union army; firing off all their ammunition and then fixing bayonets and charging downhill to rout the Reb's trying to turn and collapse the Union army flank on the second day

Answer 7

Stone K and John I have a good handle on the question. However Chamberlain I have to disagree with his fellow soldiers claimed then and until he died that Chamberlain was the first PR artist, his fight had little to do with the battle. Many Confederate soldiers until after did not realize they had lost the battle. I don't believe the battle was all that important instead the war turned at Vicksburg and Franklin.

God Bless You and Our Southerner People.

Answer 8

Pickett's Charge. There were 10,000 casualties in 50 minutes and Lee retreated.

Answer 9

probably when everybody started dying was pretty significant