176 The American Civil WarFederals scrambling to get to Gettysburg
to blunt Lee's burgeoning success faced far
better prospects than they would have a few
days earlier. A Federal turning point in the
campaign, indeed in the entire war in
Virginia, had come on 27 June when General
Hooker submitted his resignation in a fit of
pique over having his wishes ignored.
President Lincoln delightedly accepted the
resignation and on 28 June General George
Gordon Meade reluctantly took command of
the Army of the Potomac.
Three days later Meade was fighting the
war's largest battle. No American officer, in
any war or era, has ever had so much crucial
responsibility thrust upon him with such
short notice. Meade met the challenge
masterfully, beyond any imaginable degree
that could have been expected, and far more
ably than Hooker could have done. He
confronted Lee's army at the high tide of
Southern success, positioned deep in Federal
country, and with Confederate numerical
strength at a peak. At Gettysburg, Meade
reached the battlefield as Lee swept
everything before him late on 1 July. Against
those odds the brand-new Federal
commander won a pivotal battle.
Meade's challenge early on 2 July was to
restore confidence in his army and place
it carefully on the powerful position
available to him. The Federal line around
Gettysburg resembled a fishhook. The shank
of the fishhook ran straight south from town
along Cemetery Ridge and ended on the
massive anchor of two commanding hills,
Big Round Top and Little Round Top. The
hook curled around Gettysburg, turning east
to another superb anchor at Culp's Hill.
Meade's line enjoyed the obvious tactical
advantage of high ground. Its hook also
ensured the ability to exploit interior lines,
with the invaluable privilege of reinforcing
from one point to another directly and
under cover. The sole tactical defect of the
line was its vulnerability to artillery rounds
pouring in from across a wide arc - the
'converging fire' that is an artillerist's
ideal. That defect never came into play.
Confederate artillery, out-gunned and
As a member of the US Congress before the war, Daniel
E. Sickles had murdered his wife's lover and got away
with the crime. At Gettysburg, he aggressively advanced
his division on 2 July and became the target of a savage
Confederate attack. (Public domain)tacitly commanded by an ineffectual
preacher-general, never levied converging
fire against Meade's fishhook.
Although the great Confederate charge of
3 July garners the most attention, Gettysburg
came to its decisive juncture on 2 July as Lee
tried to exploit the advantages gained on the
1st. Meade resisted stoutly and to good
effect, aided to some degree by Confederate
failings. On the Federal right, Southern
assaults against Culp's Hill faltered after
much desperate bravery on both sides. The
attack never came close to substantial
success. At dusk, two brigades of Rebels
pressed determinedly up the steep face of
East Cemetery Hill - precisely where Ewell
had feared to go the previous day under far
more advantageous circumstances. Despite
canister flung into their flanks, and Federal