Eve Of War

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In June 1863 after more than two years of bloody conflict, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee commanding, slips across the Potomac River to begin the invasion of the North. It is an army of 70,000 men. They move slowly behind the Blue Ridge using the mountains to screen their movements. Their main objective is to draw the Union army out into the open where it can be destroyed.

Late in June, the Union Army of the  Potomac, 80,000 men, turns north from Virginia to begin the great pursuit up the narrow roads across Maryland and into Pennsylvania. General Lee Knows that a letter has been prepared by the Southern government, a letter which offers peace. It is to be placed on the desk of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, the day after Lee has destroyed the Army of the Potomac somewhere north of Washington.

Lee concentrated his army in the vicinity of Chambersburg, where, impressed by his reputation and noble appearance, a local matron ceased defiantly waving the "stars and stripes" long enough to cry "oh, I wish he was ours!"

From Chambersburg Lee moved his detachments all over Pennsylvania between North Mountain and the Susquehanna River. By June 28 the Army of Northern Virginia was dispersed in an arc stretching some 72 miles from Chambersburg, as far north as Carlisle and Mechanicsburg,  just west of Harrisburg and to the east as far as York.

The Union Army of the Potomac was winding their way north into southern Pennsylvania. These two armies met in a great battle in a small town known as Gettysburg. Little did either side know that this would be one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of the war.

June 30

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General Robert E. Lee

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Day One

Eve Of War

Troop Movements      June 1863

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