Gary V. Powell, Author

Lee was desperate to win in the North. After two years of losses throughout the South, the North was desperate to win anywhere.

Neither side chose Gettysburg. Lee hoped for a surprise attack on Harrisburg. Once there, he could establish his defensive position and wait for the North to attack. He had little doubt he could beat them, because he'd already done so at Manassas, Fredricksburg, and Chancellorsville. A win in the North would give the South leverage for a negotiated end to the war in their favor.

But Lee never made it to Harrisburg. He ran into the newly appointed General Meade and his Army of the Potomac just east of the Blue Ridge mountains.

The battle ran for three days--Lee's entire army, led by Hill, Longstreet, and Ewell, with calvary support from Stuart and Pickett, faced off against Meade, Buford, and Reynolds. The first shots were fired early on the morning of July 1, 1863 on McPherson's Ridge.

On our recent visit to Gettysburg, we stayed at the Doubleday Inn on McPherson's Ridge, looking out across the field where Confederate soldiers first attacked.

By the end of the first day, Reynolds was dead and the North had been routed through the city of Gettysburg, falling back onto the high ground of Cemetery Hill. Federal losses were estimated at 9,000 men.

On the second day, General Sickles of the North, who had been assigned to defend the Northern flank moved his men to a peach orchard west of Little Round Top. Seizing the opportunity, Longstreet attacked the bottom of Meade's "fish hook" deployment. But in a decisive moment, brave men from Maine and New York led by Colonel Chamberlin, fought off Longstreet's troops and held the flank and the higher ground. Sickles' men were routed from the peach orchard in furious fighting, but Longstreet 's forward assault on Little Round Top was ultimately stopped by Northern reinforcements.

On that second day, both sides lost an estimated 9,000 troops.

Although the North held the higher ground, Lee remained to fight on the third day. But given his failure to outflank Meade the day before, he chose to concentrate on the center of the Federal line. Longstreet would lead the assault. The attack began with a bombardment from 140 Confederate cannons intended to soften the Northern center. The North returned fire with 80 cannons. The cannons thundered for nearly two hours and could be heard as far away as Pittsburgh. In early afternoon, Pickett led a force of nearly 12,000 men across the open ground between Seminary Ridge and Cemetery Hill with the intent of converging on the middle of the northern line. Hardly any Confederate troops survived that bloody charge.

All in all, the North lost about 23,000 men over three days, while the South lost upwards to 28,000.

On the same day Lee lost in Gettysburg, Grant and the North also won in Vicksburg.

Lee would never have a chance to win in the North again.

The war was effectively over. But the South refused to concede and went onto the endure the brutalities forced on them by hard men like Sherman and Grant.

When you look out from the high ground of Little Round Top and Cemetery Hill down onto the Wheat Field and Devil's Den, it's hard to understand how Lee believed he had any chance on that third day. Yet, when you stand where Lee stood early that morning of July 3, you understand why he'd stay and fight--he had the war won, if he could just cross that open ground and break through.

As you walk the battlefield, as we did, you realize that the Confederate soldiers who followed Pickett to almost certain death must have believed that was the only way home. They fought for their buddies and for their families and because there was nothing else left.

The word "charge," as Pickett's Charge is referred to, implies a mad dash. But there was no mad dash over that long two miles. Instead, the men walked in line formation. When the man on his left fell, a soldier stepped to the right. When the man on his right fell, he closed to the left.

According to one account, when one of the very few Confederate soldiers who survived the gauntlet reached the Northern line, a Federal soldier extended his hand and said, "Come on over, Brother."