Prologue Summary

The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War. It took place near a small Pennsylvania farming town of about 2500 residents between July 1 and 3, 1863. The commander of the Confederate forces, General Robert E. Lee, made the mistake of trying to invade the North, and instead found his forces dying by the tens of thousands in that disastrous three-day battle. When Lee retreated, General George Meade, commander of the Northern forces, let Lee and his army slip through his fingers. Both Meade and Lee offered to resign over the mistakes they made at the Battle of Gettysburg, but their respective leaders - Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, and Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States - refused to accept their resignations.

Although both sides made colossal mistakes at Gettysburg, both Davis and Lincoln, as politicians, had to put what...