The Hinge of History

The first day of Gettysburg, that great battle, ended 156 years ago today. The Confederate forces were in advantageous positions, but the Union Army had more men, more resources. For the next two days, the titanic clash felled soldiers on both sides, and made the little town of Gettysburg immortal in military annals. Lee's eventual defeat damaged the reputation of the Army of Northern Virginia as invincible, and gave the Union some confidence that they could win the war. But there was another military action happening a few hundred miles away at Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River. Grant's siege of the river fortress city was at its climax, and a day after Lee withdrew from Gettysburg, the city and 30,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered. Now the Union controlled the great river along it's entire length. Lincoln wrote "the Father of Waters once again flows unvexed to the sea". The Confederacy was now split, and Grant was sent east to deal with the still-dangerous Robert E. Lee. The war in the west was won and now the Union focused on destroying Lee and his army.