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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm editor Kndas Kinger, joined by staff writer Jane Okay,

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Speaker 1: the candids, Hey, Jenney, sound a little bit sniffly over there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I kind of a cool I think I got it

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Speaker 1: from Josh Clark. What a bully. Well, today we're actually

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Speaker 1: going to take up a topic that a lot of

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Speaker 1: our listeners have emailed us about. We get a lot

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Speaker 1: of requests for podcasts about the Civil War, and uh,

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Speaker 1: we're certainly no Ken Burns, and we're certainly not ambitious

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Speaker 1: enough to try to tackle the entire Civil War in

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Speaker 1: a single podcast. So we thought we might approach this

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Speaker 1: and segments, and so today we're starting with what is

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Speaker 1: I think pretty indisputably one of the most famous battles

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Speaker 1: of the Civil War, and that's Gettysburg. Yeah, we have

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Speaker 1: a great article on the site that goes into really

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Speaker 1: good detail about what happened during the battle. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: go over and um, if you have the chance to

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Speaker 1: be near your computer and look at the great visuals,

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Speaker 1: so they'll help you a lot on when we talk

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Speaker 1: about different parts of the battle. Formations and lines and

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Speaker 1: numbers of men and strategies especially. So what's interesting about

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Speaker 1: the Battle of Gettysburg is that it occurred not early on,

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Speaker 1: but maybe toward the middle of the Civil War. It

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Speaker 1: ranged from July one to third, eighteen sixty three. And

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Speaker 1: even though there were still two more years of war

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Speaker 1: after Gettysburg, this was considered a major turning point because

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Speaker 1: until now the South had been waging some major victories.

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Speaker 1: And if you look at the motivation of the Confederates

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Speaker 1: and the Union, you can see that the Confederates had

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Speaker 1: a lot on a lot on the line. You know.

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Speaker 1: For one, slavery was the South institution, and they were

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Speaker 1: fighting to preserve it. And furthermore, a lot of the

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Speaker 1: fighting had been taking place on southern soil, and so

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Speaker 1: these men were fighting to protect their land, their homes,

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Speaker 1: their families. They had a lot at stake. Meanwhile, many

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Speaker 1: men from the North, while a lot had abolitionist causes

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Speaker 1: at heart, weren't as committed to fighting in the war.

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Speaker 1: They'd been tapped for service by Lincoln, they were obligated

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Speaker 1: to fight, but it was a war that they weren't

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Speaker 1: as wholeheartedly invested in. Yeah, you can see that they

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Speaker 1: weren't as excited about it as like, you know, the

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Speaker 1: thrill of the South that the South had. But that's

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Speaker 1: a good point. But also um the idea that much

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Speaker 1: of the North people, you know, civilians, hadn't seen much

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Speaker 1: action in their own in their own land or own state,

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Speaker 1: and this is a real change from that. Um This

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Speaker 1: battle took place in Pennsylvania. Lee, the Confederate general, obviously

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Speaker 1: was trying to um invade the North. Ultimately, he wanted

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Speaker 1: to take over Washington by forging into the north in

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Speaker 1: in in this campaign, he was trying to also get

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Speaker 1: European support and just recognition because they were struggling to

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Speaker 1: get recognition. They were secretly trading with the British at

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Speaker 1: this time when the South was but obviously the European

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Speaker 1: powers didn't want to officially take a claim because you know,

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Speaker 1: this was this was an internal conflict with the United States.

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Speaker 1: They didn't want to take a side quite yet. Also,

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Speaker 1: we talked in a podcast earlier about the Emancipation Proclamation

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Speaker 1: and when that was finally um instituted. That's finally when

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Speaker 1: the European powers wanted to step away from support for

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Speaker 1: the South and say like they don't want to support

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Speaker 1: slavery necessarily, so a lot of is at stake at

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Speaker 1: this point trying to get European support. To give you

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Speaker 1: some context, Gettysburg a small town in Pennsylvania. It only

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Speaker 1: had a population of about two thousand, four hundred at

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Speaker 1: the time, but it was also really important because about

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Speaker 1: ten roads intersected in the middle of this town, and

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Speaker 1: it was it was a major stop for like traders

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Speaker 1: and um, just like people um going from like Harrisburg

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Speaker 1: and Pennsylvania to the capital of Washington. And it was

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Speaker 1: a it was a bustling place and that way, and

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Speaker 1: that's kind of what brought the two forces, the South

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Speaker 1: and the North together at that point because while Lee

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Speaker 1: was was in enemy territory in the North, he was

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Speaker 1: having trouble um clothing and and just supporting feeding his troops. UM.

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Speaker 1: He didn't have the supply lines that he had back

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Speaker 1: in the South, and so they were actually some troops

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Speaker 1: were suffering from uh, they needed more shoes. One Southern

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Speaker 1: general major or sorry, Major General A. P. Hill actually

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Speaker 1: heard that there were shoes in Gettysburg that he could

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Speaker 1: take for his men, and that's why he started hitting

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Speaker 1: that one precisely So what you're alluding to, Jane, is

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Speaker 1: the fact that Gettysburg was an unplanned battle. When planned

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Speaker 1: to arrive in Gettysburg simultaneously, Yeah, no one really knew

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Speaker 1: which what where the other one was. The North and

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Speaker 1: South didn't know exactly where they were situated at this point,

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Speaker 1: so they sort of stumbled upon each other at Gettysburg.

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Speaker 1: And I think that this battle at Gettysburg was sort

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Speaker 1: of symptomatic of the happenstance circumstances of the Civil War

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Speaker 1: and the beginning. People thought that the war would be

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Speaker 1: over after a few major decisive battles, and that certainly

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Speaker 1: was not the case. It turned into a war of

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Speaker 1: attrition in which each side was trying to wear the

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Speaker 1: other down, and these massive death tolls were being incurred,

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Speaker 1: and as we'll see, Gettysburg was no exception to that.

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Speaker 1: So here we have a couple of Confederate troops rolling

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Speaker 1: into Gettysburg looking for shoes, and coincidentally, there are Union

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Speaker 1: troops already there. And so we'll see that the South,

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Speaker 1: who had been so victorious so far, their men had

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Speaker 1: a lot of valor and and guts and and courage

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Speaker 1: and maybe a little bit too much arrogant, you know

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Speaker 1: they were. There were men from West Point and the

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Speaker 1: Virginia Military Institute. We'll see that. Uh, this sort of

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Speaker 1: cockiness paved the way for a defeat. Yeah, and especially

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Speaker 1: they were coming off of a win at the Battle

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Speaker 1: of Chancellors will Um. The South had a lot of

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Speaker 1: confidence after that, even though they actually we shouldn't note

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Speaker 1: that at that battle, Stonewall Jackson, the great um Southern leader,

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Speaker 1: was killed exit you by friendly fire. He was a

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Speaker 1: major liability, and like you mentioned, if it was to

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Speaker 1: become a war of attrician that sort of put the

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Speaker 1: Confederates at a disadvantage because they had um less men

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Speaker 1: in general. And that was certainly the case that at

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Speaker 1: Gettysburg they were outmanned by the North. One major point

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Speaker 1: of uh, we should mention about Gettysburg is that Lee

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Speaker 1: actually came um into conflict of um butting heads with

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Speaker 1: his subordinate long Street. So we have Robert E. Lee

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Speaker 1: and James long Street. And Lee is very much a

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Speaker 1: fan of aggressive war tactics, whereas James Longstreet prefers defensive tactics.

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Speaker 1: And even though offensive tactics had won the Confederate state

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Speaker 1: Chancellors fell, it had also cost them nearly twelve thousand men,

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Speaker 1: and like Jane was saying, if this was a game

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Speaker 1: of numbers, the South simply couldn't afford to take another

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Speaker 1: huge loss like that. And so there are plenty of

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Speaker 1: historians and theorists out there who like to say that

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Speaker 1: this conflict in ideology between long Street and Lee is

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Speaker 1: but ultimately caused the South Gettysburg right, because some people

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Speaker 1: say long Street was sort of um reluctant and slow

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Speaker 1: to to listen to Lee, and so he didn't act

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Speaker 1: as quickly as he should have. And if you see

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Speaker 1: that portrayed in the movie Gettysburg, you see that long

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Speaker 1: Street is made not to be a more contemplative heroic figure.

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Speaker 1: But there are other historians who would argue that it

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Speaker 1: bordered in subordination because he would sometimes refuse to carry

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Speaker 1: out these orders, or he would carry them out so

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Speaker 1: slowly that they were rendered and effective, sort of play

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Speaker 1: the devil's advocate for Lee. At least he knew at

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Speaker 1: this point that made the Union general at this point

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Speaker 1: that Meade had never really won a major battle, and

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Speaker 1: uh that also the North had to replace a lot

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Speaker 1: of their seasoned soldiers at that time with inexperienced men.

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Speaker 1: So Lee just sort of felt like also, um, like

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Speaker 1: we mentioned before, coming off the confidence of the winn

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Speaker 1: at Chancellorsville and and all these things going with him,

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Speaker 1: he just he had the confidence that he thought he

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Speaker 1: could just take the offensive and it would work out.

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Speaker 1: He did. And let's not forget that the major initiative

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Speaker 1: here was that he was on his way to Washington.

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Speaker 1: He was going to take Washington. He was going to

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Speaker 1: get Europe's recognition of the South, and it was going

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Speaker 1: to be a major coup. And so you can see

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Speaker 1: how this sort of enthusiasm wound up costing him way

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Speaker 1: too many lives. So we know that the battle lasted

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Speaker 1: for three days. So before we delve into the instances

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Speaker 1: that occurred on each particular day of the battle, here

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Speaker 1: are the highlights. Day one is officially July Onest, eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty three, and this is when the troops from both

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Speaker 1: sides roll into town. They've already encountered, you know, they've

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Speaker 1: done their reconnaissances. They know that either side is there,

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Speaker 1: so they know that they're going to be waging a battle.

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Speaker 1: And in Gettysburg, Uh, the Confederates actually pushed the Union

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Speaker 1: troops out of the town and to the hill outside

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Speaker 1: of town. And this turned out to be a really

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Speaker 1: bad move because in war you want the vantage point

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Speaker 1: of a hill because you have the elevation from which

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Speaker 1: to fight and also to scrape out what's going on

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Speaker 1: on the other side. You can see the enemy more easily. Exactly.

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Speaker 1: So by day two, which is July two, Lee has

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Speaker 1: a very uh ill fated maneuver that he tries where

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Speaker 1: he attacks the Union from the left side, hoping that

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Speaker 1: the right side of the flank will dash over there

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Speaker 1: and help save the guys, and then he's going to

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Speaker 1: have someone else attack them to the right, and then

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Speaker 1: the left will have to rush to the right to

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Speaker 1: rescue and essentially both sides would crumble. But this attack failed.

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Speaker 1: So on day three, July three, he tries a different tactic,

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Speaker 1: and that is attacking from the center, which also fails.

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Speaker 1: So to go back the day before conflict actually started,

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Speaker 1: you have this Union major general John Buford, who would

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Speaker 1: arrived in Gettysburg and he had two brigades of cavalry

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Speaker 1: with him, and um he spotted Confederates actually from the

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Speaker 1: top of a Lutheran seminary there Beauford then sent word

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Speaker 1: to Major General John Reynolds, who was about six miles

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Speaker 1: away at this point, who himself sent reinforce sent for

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Speaker 1: reinforcements from Union General George meade Um, who was six

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Speaker 1: miles miles farther from him at Tawnytown, Maryland. So on

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Speaker 1: dawn on July one, this is when Beauford officially begins

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Speaker 1: fighting with the Confederate Major General Henry hath And he

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Speaker 1: had actually been sent to Gettysburg to procure these infamous shoes.

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Speaker 1: And by eight thirty the Union is already struggling that day.

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Speaker 1: By noon, they were completely pushed out of town and

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Speaker 1: shoved off towards the hills. Right in these hills we

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Speaker 1: who mention in the south of town, and the Confederates

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Speaker 1: actually tried to push further like they want, They wanted

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Speaker 1: to get in the north past these good vantage point

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Speaker 1: of the hills, but they're held back by the Iron Brigade,

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Speaker 1: which consisted of about eight hundred men. But in the

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Speaker 1: Iron Brigade actually lost or at least through casualties that day,

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Speaker 1: but they were still able to withhold and keep their

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Speaker 1: ground on these hills. And what's important, while they were

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Speaker 1: doing that and holding the Confederates back. There were Union

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Speaker 1: troops mobilizing by Cemetery Hill and culps Hell, and the

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Speaker 1: Confederates didn't know how many men were being prepared to fight.

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Speaker 1: So by afternoon you have um Confederate Heath attacking the

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Speaker 1: southern end of the Union flank and Major General Robert E.

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Speaker 1: Rhodes attacking the northern end. By the end, some people

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Speaker 1: argue that the Confederate Lieutenant General Yule was actually um

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Speaker 1: he didn't push hard enough because he was ordered by

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Speaker 1: Lee to push the north past the hills, but um,

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Speaker 1: he actually instead he tried, he tried, but he failed

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Speaker 1: at first, and he wanted to wait until long Street

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Speaker 1: arrived that night. Historians argue that he didn't try hard enough,

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Speaker 1: and this was a major mistake that probably ultimately cost

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Speaker 1: the battle. And I think at this point here long

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Speaker 1: Street actually wanted to maneuver the troops around so they

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Speaker 1: could get towards Washington. Right when he finally arrived that night,

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Speaker 1: had lost nine thousand. Yeah, it's interesting. He mentioned what

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Speaker 1: day two, which was July two, the rest of the

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Speaker 1: UH sort of positioned themselves in the shape of Fishhook

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Speaker 1: At this point, curving around Culps Hill, UH, snaking around

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Speaker 1: Little Round Top and Round Top, which were Hills and Um,

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Speaker 1: the Confederates were sort of in a long, thin concave line.

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Speaker 1: Long Street and you'll were on the flanks either side,

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Speaker 1: and Hill was in the center. Lee actually ordered you

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Speaker 1: all to attack the Union right around Cemetery and Culps

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Speaker 1: both of these attacks were delayed at this point for

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Speaker 1: various reasons. And Long Street and um the counterpart, we're

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Speaker 1: not able to attack to late afternoon that day. So

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Speaker 1: at this point, the Union commander Daniel Stickles actually takes

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Speaker 1: then towards Wheat Field and Devil's Den and Long Street

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Speaker 1: wasn't really expecting him that, right, And that's why these

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Speaker 1: are such notorious battles because they were so bloody and

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Speaker 1: at this promise little round Top, because this is where

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Speaker 1: can see what the other side just doing. So Colonel

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Speaker 1: Chamberlain actually wanted to defend his Union troops placed on

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Speaker 1: top of little round Top so that the Confederates couldn't

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Speaker 1: get to it, and he studies ground for two hours

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Speaker 1: with the Confederates just firing away at them, and he

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Speaker 1: eventually lost a third of his men before he commanded

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Speaker 1: a very famous bayonet charge to take out the Confederates

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Speaker 1: and it sort of saved the Union flank at that point.

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Speaker 1: It was very successful. Um So, actually, by the end

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Speaker 1: of the day to both sides lost about nine thousand men.

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Speaker 1: It was about people, but certainly bloody. So that brings

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Speaker 1: us to day three July. Three before dawn, actually the

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Speaker 1: Union actually took back round that they had lost the

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Speaker 1: day before around Colps Hill, and um this immediately foiled

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Speaker 1: these hopes of attacking the right flank of the Union right,

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Speaker 1: so he's thinking that he's going to attack the center,

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Speaker 1: and long Street again a very common theme is disagreeing

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Speaker 1: is going to work, and in fact it did not.

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Speaker 1: So a major point of contention between long Street and

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Speaker 1: Lee was that in order to get to the men

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Speaker 1: on cops Hell, they're going to have to march through

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Speaker 1: about three quarters of a mile of an open field,

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Speaker 1: and so the Confederates down below, we're just a wide

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Speaker 1: open expanses, you know, perfectly positioned to be shot at

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Speaker 1: from the Union troops who had the position on an

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Speaker 1: elevated plane. Yeah, so you don't understand why long Street

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Speaker 1: objected to this plan, but Lee argued that the Union

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Speaker 1: was weakened. He thought that Union didn't have much left

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Speaker 1: in them. And guests, Yeah, and guests who comes along

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Speaker 1: at this point he's been missing out on all the action.

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Speaker 1: The Confederate Major General George Pickett. Yeah, he really jumped

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Speaker 1: on the chance because he had he had missed, like

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Speaker 1: you said, he had missed a lot of the action

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Speaker 1: before him. He wanted to prove himself at this point.

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Speaker 1: And we shouldn't have mentioned that Pickett wasn't the only

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Speaker 1: like he had his um his brigade, but he wasn't

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Speaker 1: the only one who had been there. But he has

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Speaker 1: been led the charge, and so that's why it's referred

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Speaker 1: to as the Pickets Charge, which was comprised of fifteen

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Speaker 1: thousand men, like Jane said, five thousand of whom were

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Speaker 1: actually pickets men, and ten thousand who technically belonged to

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Speaker 1: Long Street. So again long Street really opposes this idea

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Speaker 1: of the Confederate soldiers rushing towards cemetery Ridge, but Pickt insists,

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Speaker 1: and so he leads the charge. And what's really tricky

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Speaker 1: at this point is that the Union soldiers have been

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Speaker 1: firing from their elevated point, and then um, they decided

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Speaker 1: that they're going to pull the wool over the Confederate's eyes.

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Speaker 1: So they stopped firing entirely to trick the Confederates into

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Speaker 1: thinking that they've run out of ammunition. And so this

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Speaker 1: gives the Confederates an even falser sense of confidence as

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Speaker 1: they continue to push forward. So those who are walking

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Speaker 1: into a trip that exactly Yeah in Long Street ordered

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Speaker 1: to pickets charge. Ultimately around three pm didn't end up

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Speaker 1: very well. Fifteen thousand men Confederate men went up against

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Speaker 1: about ten thousand Union infantrymen. But of course, even though

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Speaker 1: the Confederate had more men at this point, at this

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Speaker 1: little skirmish, the Union, as we mentioned, has the upper

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Speaker 1: hand by the ground, the higher ground, and so it

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Speaker 1: ultimately failed for the Confederates. Uh they lost about half

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Speaker 1: of their men in the attack, and all thirteen colonels

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Speaker 1: actually one Confederate brigade. Brigade led by UH Brigadier General

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Speaker 1: Lewis Armistead, actually made it to the top of the ridge.

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Speaker 1: He was actually shot down soon after reaching the top.

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Speaker 1: But it was about this point where we um know

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Speaker 1: as the the high water mark of the Confederacy, and

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Speaker 1: this sort of it doesn't necessarily recognize the farthest north

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Speaker 1: that the Confederates literally got, but because obviously they're fighting

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Speaker 1: towards the south at this point just in terms of

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Speaker 1: the terrain of Gettysburg, but it does. It's very symbolic

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Speaker 1: and that that's the sort of, um the best chance

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Speaker 1: they had for the northern invasion. Like we said, they

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Speaker 1: got to that point, but they weren't able to hold it,

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Speaker 1: and that was sort of the last ditch effort for

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Speaker 1: the Confederates at that point. So it became pretty apparent

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Speaker 1: now that the battle was over and that the Confederates

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Speaker 1: had lost, and those who could slunk back to their troops.

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Speaker 1: Some just died in the middle of this field and

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Speaker 1: they were treated. All the troops that were still able

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Speaker 1: to be mobilized, we treated, and some numbers for you

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Speaker 1: just to put this in perspective, out of eighty eight

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Speaker 1: thousand Union troops twenty three thousand were wounded or killed,

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Speaker 1: and that was twenty six point one percent of the

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Speaker 1: Union's forces. By contrast, seventy five thousand Confederate troops twenty

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Speaker 1: eight thousand wounded or killed, for a total percentage of

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Speaker 1: thirty seven point three of Confederate men. So Southern obviously

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Speaker 1: took the harder hit, exactly, and in a war of attrition,

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Speaker 1: you really can't afford to lose numbers like that. So

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Speaker 1: the Confederates went back to Virginia and they didn't venture

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Speaker 1: back into the North again, and Washington was essentially saved,

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Speaker 1: and Lincoln was very upset with General Meade for not

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Speaker 1: essentially finishing off the Confederate troops. Yeahly was actually expecting

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Speaker 1: an attack after when he was retreating, and that never came,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of people criticized Mead for not taking

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Speaker 1: that opportunity to sort of, you know, you know, to

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Speaker 1: put it, not very nicely, but to kick him when

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Speaker 1: they're down, like this was a perfect opportunity to sort

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Speaker 1: of just clinch it. And we're not quite sure why.

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Speaker 1: Historians speculate that the troops were so physically exhausted by

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Speaker 1: this point and so many men were down, that Meat

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Speaker 1: couldn't gather enough men to kick him when he was down,

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Speaker 1: that it would have been ideal. And Lincoln was actually

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Speaker 1: so infuriated that he fired Meade. And so Meat actually

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Speaker 1: gave the Confederates a chance to scrape themselves up, dust

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Speaker 1: themselves off, and regroup. Yeah, and the North or the

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Speaker 1: South actually, um, we're able to win a couple more

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Speaker 1: battles before the end of the war. I mean, you

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Speaker 1: probably know this wasn't the end of the war. The

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Speaker 1: war would go on for another two years, even though

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Speaker 1: this was a major turning point. Obviously. One thing you

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Speaker 1: might be asking is, like, one of the most famous

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Speaker 1: Union generals at this point was Ulysses S. Grant, And

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Speaker 1: so why wasn't he here? Why I haven't we mentioned

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Speaker 1: his name? And that's because he was fighting another battle

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Speaker 1: at this point, a very important battle UM named Vicksburg.

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Speaker 1: And this was very long as well, lasted for months,

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Speaker 1: and uh, finally it ended on the day after Gettysburg

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Speaker 1: ended July fourth, eighteen sixty three, after a forty seven

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Speaker 1: day siege on that town. It was a Union victory.

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Speaker 1: Grant came out ahead, and this was very important because

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Speaker 1: it reclaimed the Mississippi River for the North, and this

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Speaker 1: was a vital trade route. And also in addition to that,

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Speaker 1: it split the South in two, which made um connections

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Speaker 1: and reinforcements difficult between the South. At that point. Grant

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Speaker 1: was actually one of the reasons, probably the reason the

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Speaker 1: North won the war because of his strategy of just

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Speaker 1: using the numbers against the South. He was willing to

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Speaker 1: throw the numbers and play the numbers against the South,

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Speaker 1: and even if it meant more casualties, ultimately resulted in victory.

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Speaker 1: So hopefully in a future podcast more on Grant later

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Speaker 1: and we can delve more deeply into Vicksburg, and just

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Speaker 1: to wrap up the Battle of Gettysburg, in this place

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Speaker 1: where no one expected to fight, you may be wondering, well,

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Speaker 1: how many civilians were killed in the blood bath? And

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Speaker 1: the answer is one, and I hesitate to say just one,

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Speaker 1: already made the mistake of saying earlier only eight thousand.

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Speaker 1: Any death in wars obviously a tragedy. And a young

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Speaker 1: woman about twenty years old, her name was Jenny Wade.

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Speaker 1: She was at her sister's house baking bread and she

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Speaker 1: was hit by two rogue bullets while she was inside.

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Speaker 1: So how about that very unfortunate coincidence getting caught in

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Speaker 1: the crossfire there? And I actually blogged about the unknown

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Speaker 1: soldier of Gettysburg, maybe just one of many unknown soldiers

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Speaker 1: of Gettysburg a couple of weeks ago on the Stuff

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Speaker 1: you Missed in History Class blog And if you missed that,

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Speaker 1: the entry pertained to a five part series in the

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Speaker 1: New York Times by Errol Morris, who was writing about

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Speaker 1: an amber type that had been found in a dead

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Speaker 1: soldier's hand, and he had no identification on him, just

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Speaker 1: this old timey picture of three children. And so the

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Speaker 1: story of tracing down his identity and the idea of

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Speaker 1: just being able to put a name in a in

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Speaker 1: a life to one dead soldier in a field of

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Speaker 1: thousands of dead soldiers was a really touching story. So, um,

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Speaker 1: we actually blog about many more topics than just the

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Speaker 1: Civil War on our blog, everything from uh talking like

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Speaker 1: Shakespeare Day to the latest news and the Great Wall

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Speaker 1: of China excavation. So it's writ and we also address

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Speaker 1: some of your questions directly on Monday's note we do,

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Speaker 1: and every Friday we do a little recap of our podcast,

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Speaker 1: So we certainly hope that you will visit the blogs

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Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com and also if you

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Speaker 1: think of any topics you'd like to hear about or

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Speaker 1: have any comments or feedback for Jane, and may be

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Speaker 1: sure to email us at History Podcast at how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. For more on this and thousands of

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Speaker 1: other topics. Isn't how stuff works dot com m