War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size,

and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history

through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Music host, James Early. Hello, everybody.

This is James, of course, as always.

And what you're about to hear is the fourth and final part of the four-part

series that I recorded several years ago with Sean McIver and

Steve Guerra on the film Gettysburg as well as the book that it's based on The Killer Angels

and of course the actual history behind the battle.

In this episode, we discuss the epic, classic, legendary events on the third day of the battle,

most notably the massive Confederate attack, which has come to be known somewhat erroneously,

but as pickets charge. So, this is going to wrap up the series, and after this episode, the plan is to kick off my next major series on the Vietnam War.

So hopefully the next time you hear me introducing an episode, it will be for the first episode of the Vietnam War series.

You never know.

Things happen sometimes, and I may have to delay it a little bit more,

but hopefully not.

But anyway, for now, enjoy the final episode of our discussion of Gettysburg.

All right, welcome back, everybody.

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