On June 3, 1863, a month after his dramatic victory
at Chancellorsville, Confederate General Robert E.
Lee began marching his Army of Northern Virginia northwestward
from its camps around Fredericksburg, Virginia. Once
through the gaps of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the
Southerners trudged northward into Maryland and Pennsylvania.
They were followed by the Union Army of the Potomac
under General Joseph Hooker, but Lee, part of whose
cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart was absent on a brash
raid around the Federal forces, had no way of knowing
his adversary's whereabouts.
 The
two armies touched by chance at Gettysburg on June
30. The main battle opened on July 1 with Confederates
attacking Union troops on McPherson Ridge west of
town. Though outnumbered, the Federal forces (now
under General George G. Meade) held their position
until afternoon, when they were overpowered and driven
back to Cemetery Hill south of town. The Northerners
labored long into the night over their defenses while
the bulk of Meade's army arrived and took up positions.
On July 2 the battlelines were drawn up in two sweeping
arcs. The main portions of both armies were nearly
1 mile apart on parallel ridges: Union forces on Cemetery
Ridge, Confederate forces on Seminary Ridge to the
west. Lee ordered an attack against both Union flanks.
James Longstreet's thrust on the Federal left turned
the base of Little Round Top into a shambles, left
the Wheatfield strewn with dead and wounded, and overran
the Peach Orchard. Farther north, Richard S. Ewell's
evening attack on the Federal right at Culp's Hill
and East Cemetery Hill, though momentarily successful,
could not be exploited to Confederate advantage.
On July 3 Lee's artillery opened a two-hour bombardment
of the Federal lines on Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery
Hill. This for a time engaged the massed guns of both
sides in a thundering duel for supremacy, but did
little to soften up the Union defensive position.
Then, in a desperate attempt to recapture the partial
success of the previous day, some 12,600 Confederates
under Generals George E. Pickett, J.J. Pettigrew,
and Isaac Trimble advanced across the open fields
towards the Federal center. Only one Southerner in
three retired to safety.
 With
the repulse of the Confederate assault, the Battle
of Gettysburg was over. The Confederate army that
staggered back into Virginia was physically and spiritually
exhausted. Never again would Lee attempt an offensive
operation of such magnitude. And Meade, though criticized
for not pursuing Lee's troops, would forever be the
remembered as the man who won the battle that has
come to be known as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy."
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