On July 1, 1863, the battle at Gettysburg, Virginia started. The battle started because the south was needing better shoes, so they came to Gettysburg to find better shoes and started fighting. General Richard Ewell was the confederate general and General John Buford was the Union's general.

The first battle was in the city of Gettysburg, but when the battle was over General Ewell's troops had driven General Buford's troops three miles away from the city of Gettysburg. For defense, the Union troops hid behind tombstones at Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. The actual graveyard was the place where the union troops hid behind the tombstones from the confederates and their bullets. A week earlier or less the president, Abraham Lincoln for the Union exchanged General Hook for General Meade as the Army of Potomac's commander. The Union troops set up a defense position that took the form of a fishhook called Little Round Top at Gettysburg after following General Robert E. Lee there. Little Round Top went around Ridge and Cemetery Hill towards the north.

On July 2, 65,000 confederate troops stood outside of Gettysburg getting ready to fight 85,000 Union troops. The confederates had to take the heights thought Lee. It would expose the Union plot to fight at Cemetery Hill if they could take over Little Round Top.

On July 3rd General Robert E. Lee planned an all out fight on the center of the Union along Cemetery Ridge. At 1:00 pm the Confederates shot Union troops thinking they had ruined their defense. 2 hours later Longstreet let General Robert E. Lee Take his men to the famous and tragic charge at Cemetery Hill. The Union soldiers waited for the confederates to annihilate them on the ridge. When Lee wanted to plan another fight all George Pickett said was "I have no division".

At the end of the Battle at Gettysburg the South had lost 28,000 men but the north only had 23,000 deaths at Gettysburg. On November 18th four months later at Gettysburg for the new cemetery's dedication, President Lincoln gave his very famous Gettysburg address. The actual month the war ended was July when the Union army won.