Gettysburg – the quick Sliver

7.4.13 Hancock the Superb

July 4, 2013 Mike Keeler

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4th of July, 1863. In the aftermath of Gettysburg came the miraculous news that a second victory of equal importance had been won. On July 4, Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg after a long siege, removing the last confederate stronghold on the Mississippi and giving the Union complete control of…

7.3.12 Day 3

July 3, 2013 Mike Keeler

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On the final day at Gettysburg, two old friends fought to the death for the future of their country. July 3, 1863, dawned overcast and hot. The bulk of Robert E. Lee’s army was amassed in the trees at the bottom of a hill, looking up across a mile-wide expanse…

2013 George Pickett Gettysburg Lew Armistead Pickett's Charge Robert E. Lee Ulysses S. Grant Winfield Scott Hancock

7.2.13 Day 2

July 2, 2013 Mike Keeler

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On Day 2 at Gettysburg, the great battle between north and south was brutally contested at the south and at the north. To call Cemetery Ridge a ridge is fairly generous. It’s a mild undulation in the Pennsylvania farmland, maybe two miles long, looking west over open fields down to…

2013 Cemetery Ridge civil war Culp's Hill Devil's Den George Gordon Meade George Green George Pickett Gettysburg Little Round Top Peach Orchard Plum Run Robert E. Lee Wheatfield Winfield Scott Hancock

7.1.13 Day 1

July 1, 2013 Mike Keeler

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150 years ago today, the first day of Gettysburg, was a day of confusion. Just three days earlier, the Union army had been completely reorganized under a new leader, George Gordon Meade. Just two days earlier, Robert E. Lee had realized very late that Meade’s army was approaching his own…

2013 Cemetery Ridge George Gordon Meade Gettysburg John Reynolds Robert E. Lee Winfield Scott Hancock

6.28.13 Hancock

June 28, 2013 Mike Keeler

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This is how one man became Superb. Winfield Scott Hancock was born in Montgomery Township, PA, just northwest of Philadelphia, in 1824. His parents came from respectable stock that went back several generations. His father was a schoolteacher and later a lawyer. Hancock was educated at the Norristown Academy, was…

2013 Antietam Chancellorsville civil war Fredericksburg Gettysburg Lew Armistead Robert E. Lee West Point Winfield Scott Hancock

5.3.13 Stonewall by Moonlight

May 3, 2013 Mike Keeler

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150 years ago this week, the hopes of the Confederacy died beneath the light of the moon. And just when things seemed brightest. At the Battle of Chancellorsville in northern VA, Robert E. Lee achieved one of the most noteworthy victories in American military history. He had been outmaneuvered by…

2013 Chancellorsville civil war Confederacy Fighting Joe Hooker Gettysburg Robert E. Lee Stonewall Jackson Union