Mistake of the Battle of Gettysburg The battle of Gettysburg is always described as the “turning point” of American Civil War. After this battle, confederate army had never taken offensive to the north again and eventually lost the war. The battle of Gettysburg took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania July 1-- July 3, 1863 and ended up with Confederacy 's defeat, which broke the myth of confederate’s invincibility and caused large number of casualties. However, this failure could be easily avoided by correcting the tactics. General Lee and General Longstreet had several disagreements on tactics, respectively, the day before the battle, the first day of the battle and the second day of the battle; Lee insisted to fight enemy at Gettysburg, but
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He made this suggestion based on three reasons. Firstly, union army would outnumber the confederate army enormously. According to the spy, there were around hundred thousand union men marching toward Gettysburg and would be arrived soon（31）. What was worse, the commanders of confederate army had totally no idea about this . They ordered to spread out their force very thin (32). Secondly, it was a good timing for confederate to move to the south. Union army just took the replacement of General Hooker with General Meade, so, it would take Meade a period of time to be familiar with his army and confederate could use this chance to move to another field (36). Additionally, confederate army was at enemy’s territory, Pennsylvania （36）. That is to say, confederate army was neither acquainted with the terrain well nor close to local people, which brought following difficulty of layout and supply. Because of those three reasons, Longstreet thought confederate was not ready for a battle yet. General Lee, however, viewed the situation oppositely from Longstreet. Lee believed that they should go after enemy’s army as long as they had a chance, because they were not sure about enemy’s position and the conjunction of Gettysburg could be useful. Also，for Lee, Longstreet’s spy was not
He made this suggestion based on three reasons. Firstly, union army would outnumber the confederate army enormously. According to the spy, there were around hundred thousand union men marching toward Gettysburg and would be arrived soon（31）. What was worse, the commanders of confederate army had totally no idea about this . They ordered to spread out their force very thin (32). Secondly, it was a good timing for confederate to move to the south. Union army just took the replacement of General Hooker with General Meade, so, it would take Meade a period of time to be familiar with his army and confederate could use this chance to move to another field (36). Additionally, confederate army was at enemy’s territory, Pennsylvania （36）. That is to say, confederate army was neither acquainted with the terrain well nor close to local people, which brought following difficulty of layout and supply. Because of those three reasons, Longstreet thought confederate was not ready for a battle yet. General Lee, however, viewed the situation oppositely from Longstreet. Lee believed that they should go after enemy’s army as long as they had a chance, because they were not sure about enemy’s position and the conjunction of Gettysburg could be useful. Also，for Lee, Longstreet’s spy was not