SHD Press - Gettysburg, The Armies of 1863

Happening almost by chance when the two opposing armies discovered they were closer than expected, the Battle of Gettysburg started as a skirmish between the leading elements of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia, at a small strategically unimportant Pennsylvania town. Both commanders made the decision to fight and it became a race to secure the best terrain. The Union won that race and dictated the next three days of bloodshed. Leaving their Confederate adversaries no other option than to attack them in their strong defensive positions. What followed, was the bloodiest day in the American Civil War and probably the most famous battle fought on the American continent. Gettysburg became a turning point in the war and still remains one of the most defining moments in American history. Of the almost 165,000 men involved, over 51,000 became casualties, which represents a ratio of almost 1 in 3 (although some units suffered far higher loses closer to 1 in 2). This massive casualty figure equates to 7,058 dead, 10,790 captured and a staggering 33,264 wounded – a massive burden on the medical services of the day.Much has been written about the battle and the events leading up to it and it is not in the scope of this work to repeat the exhaustive (yet very good) work of the hundreds of authors who have covered this subject for the past 153 years. Instead this work offers a brief description of the battle and the men who fought it, but its main purpose is intended as a concise and realistic (as possible) representation of the regiments and artillery batteries present between July 1st to 3rd 1863. Nor have the supply, logistics and medical sections of each army been ignored – essential as they were to keep each force in the field. For Commanders. Staff officers, Colonels and units present extensive use has been made of numerous orders of battle to ensure accuracy representing the individual units involved and the men who led them. Exhaustive research has also been made of the uniforms worn and the flag standards carried by the individual regiments to give an accurate visual interpretation of the way each would have appeared at the battle. A scale of 1:10 has been used to give an accurate portrayal of the size and scale of each. A brief synopsis of the armies and the battle, along with a concise appendix of total army strengths and organisation completes this second volume in the ‘Orders of Battle’ series.