Battle of Gettysburg: Turning point of the war. The American people in 1860 believed they were the luckiest people alive in all the world. This was before the start of what some believe as “the first real civil war.” (Catton 108). The battle, demonstrating as it did the effectiveness of the Confederate army, changed the status of the conflict from a rebellion to a civil war. Six hundred thousand young Americans, alive when 1860 ended, would all of …showed first 75 words of 848 total…

…showed last 75 words of 848 total…or Richmond, but the attack failed. After the barrage, nearly 12,000 men, including 3 brigades under George E. Pickett, would make the biggest mistake known to the Civil War. Another attack was the one of Little Round Top. Two cavalry forces met three miles east of Gettysburg near the Rummel Farm about noon on July the 3rd. At times a shell would hit then men at one time, leaving “hideous wreckage on the sun baked slope.” (Catton 116).