Answer:
The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, fought on July 1-3, 1863 near the city of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Northern Virginia's Army of General Robert E. Lee was defeated by the Potomac Army, suffering massive casualties; which - due to the limited recruitment possibilities of the Confederation - turned out to be irreparable. On the third, decisive day, Lee made a mistake by ordering an attack on a well-prepared center of Union troops. This maneuver took his victory away and cost thousands of victims.
Although the Confederate army, not attacked by American troops, withdrew in good order, was never to take the offensive again. With the fall of besieged Vicksburg on July 4, this battle - though not decisive in itself - marked a turning point from which the Confederacy was steadily falling and the Civil War was nearing its end, even though it was going to last almost two years.
About 7,000 men from the South left their lives on this last day of battle, so this great unionist victory left Lee, who saw his halo of invincibility seriously damaged, disconsolate and exhausted.
