HIS 131 - American History I: Gettysburg

The article discusses the U.S. Civil War in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and the proclamation of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln of the emancipation of slaves.

During the heightening sectional crisis of the turbulent 1850s, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a few miles above the Mason-Dixon line, became an important stop on the Underground Railroad, a resting place where slaves fleeing the South could be safely hidden until they could proceed to their next stop. It was the sleepy little Adams County village's first brush with the swirling forces related to the Civil War.

One of the most well known American battles, the Battle of Gettysburg, provides an excellent historical example for studying the link between decision-making and the battlefield. Military historians frequently depict the Battle of Gettysburg as one of the decisive battles that marked a turning point in the American Civil War. Here, Goss details the Battle of Gettysburg and its implications in modern-day warfare.

According to the Powell Doctrine, before the United States undertakes a military action abroad, there must be a clearly defined national purpose supported by the polity and a precise military strategy to accomplish that purpose, no more and no less. Lincoln was reported to have said of McClellan in the fall of 1861, "I will hold McClellan's horse if he will only bring us success." Because of dyspepsia and neuralgia that worsened under wartime pressures and left him virtually blind in one eye, Davis was wracked by pain that exacerbated his waspish temper.