They Met at Gettysburg: The Battle That Changed the Course of the Civil War

A string of Confederate victories at Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville led to the June 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania by General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. As Lee was aiming toward Harrisburg, the state capital, General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac drove hard to catch up with him. Although neither general had planned to fight at the small crossroads town of Gettysburg, a skirmish broke out on July 1 when advance elements of the Confederate army co...