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At the risk of oversimplification it could be said that the Battle of Gettysburg was a contest-at-arms between Robert Edward Lee of Virginia, aged 56, and George Gordon Meade of Pennsylvania, aged 47, commanding generals respectively of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac. Meade and Lee, beyond reach of the direct influence of their civilian bosses in Washington and Richmond, held between them the immediate destinies of approximately 170,000 American soldiers, almost one-third of whom were killed or wounded at Gettysburg; and of even greater historical significance, the determination of ultimate victory for the North or the South. They were generals whose word was law to their subordinates, who were responsible for planning the strategy and who made the major decisions that sent tens of thousands of these victims to their death.
Gettysburg is only one of 592 major battles fought during the Civil War, but is perhaps best remembered because it was the turning point of the War. American�s had been fighting American�s for 27 months and Lee in his arrogance thought his army was invincible. His objective was Washington, but first he had to defeat Meade at Gettysburg. Historical accounts report that Lee was perhaps very disturbed and not thinking clearly at this time. He depended heavily on one of his favorite generals, Stonewall Jackson for support, and Jackson had been killed at Manassas in May. Several of his other generals, such as general Armistead disagreed with his battle plans for Gettysburg, but Lee said he had never been �defeated� and would not listen to any arguments. It was with this attitude that he ordered �his soldiers� to march across an open field, straight into the cannons and guns of the Union army.
From 1861 until the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, hundreds of thousands of people were brainwashed by politicians and military brass into believing they should be happy and more than willing to bleed and die for the �Cause�. Most of the men who did the actual fighting, bleeding and dying couldn�t even write or read the word �Cause�. This was a period of time when only the privileged were educated. Please listen to the lyrics of the song �Bonnie Blue Flag. This song was popular in 1861-1863 and it�s words tell volumes about the kind of brainwashing that was being used during that period of time.
Looking at the battlefield today you see a beautiful, manicured expanse of landscape. Try and use your imagination. Try and see this field covered with thousands of bodies, men and horses. Look at the ground, red with their blood. Think about the smells, the flies and the buzzards. The lucky men were the ones who were killed on impact. The unlucky ones were the wounded. Gettysburg was a farming community and many farm owners kept hogs. The fighting took down the fences and the hogs found a feast among the bodies of the soldiers and horses, and they ate both the living as well as the dead. This may explain why there were about 1,500 men listed as missing but of this number less than a thousand were ever located and identified. 
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Robert E. Lee...................George G. Meade 
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Many books and films portray the Civil War and it�s soldiers in uniform as glamorous. Please look at the pictures displayed,are they glamorous?
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click on the flag men
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