USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The charge was repelled by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great loss to the Confederate army . Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between 46, 000 and 51, 000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle, the most costly in US history.

Detailed explanation-2: -Union casualties in the battle numbered 23, 000, while the Confederates had lost some 28, 000 men–more than a third of Lee’s army. The North rejoiced while the South mourned, its hopes for foreign recognition of the Confederacy erased.

Detailed explanation-3: -Nearly one-third of the total forces engaged at Gettysburg became casualties. George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac lost 28 percent of the men involved; Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia suffered over 37 percent. Of these casualties, 7, 058 were fatalities (3, 155 Union, 3, 903 Confederate).

Detailed explanation-4: -The traditional explanation, favored in particular by Lee admirers, is that his underling, Gen. James Longstreet, failed to properly execute Lee’s orders and marched his men sideways while Union forces massed to repel a major Confederate assault.

Detailed explanation-5: -General James Longstreet has always been a question mark in the history of the American Civil War. For years he was blamed by his former Confederate associates for the South’s decisive defeat at the battle of Gettysburg.