Essay Archive - Gettysburg
Gettysburg
Gettysburg is arguably the Army of the Potomac's only great victory on the battlefield. Army of the Potomac's did, of course, eventually force Lee's Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) from its impregnable Petersburg trenches. But Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse finally came when the Rebel army was so weakened that surrender was almost a foregone conclusion.
Therefore, such Union victories as the ones at Sayler's Creek and Five Forks in the final weeks before the historic surrender on April 9, 1865 can hardly be called great battlefield victories. While the A....
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