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SmartHERNews

The Fight That Changed America: The Battle of Gettysburg

SmartHERNews

Jenna Lee

Education, News

4.9660 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The single most costly battle of the American Civil War happened in the early days of July 1863, falling on the same days the Founding Fathers finalized the Declaration of Independence less than 90 years earlier. Ret. Marine Col Rob Abbott, one of the few Licensed Battlefield Guides of Gettysburg National Military Park, takes us through the days before, during, and after the Battle of Gettysburg.



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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello from the Heartland. My name is Jenna, and this is Smarter News, news when it matters and why it matters.

0:10.8

Our Smarter series features unique people who help us think and live smarter.

0:29.0

Rob, take us back to the summer of 1863, the days leading up to the battle of Gettysburg.

0:31.1

What was happening at the time?

0:39.8

The Southern Commander General Lee had just won two big victories, and he's getting ready to invade Pennsylvania. It's kind of important because it's the summer and the Shenandoah is the breadbasket of the Confederacy. It's where all the

0:45.3

good farmland is. It's full of Union soldiers and Lee has to get those soldiers out of the Shenandoah in

0:51.0

time for the harvest. So he's aiming for Harrisburg, which is the capital of Pennsylvania, because if he thinks

0:57.5

if he can threaten the capital of Pennsylvania, you can get the Union Army out in the open

1:01.5

where he can destroy it.

1:02.9

These guys are halfway through the war.

1:05.1

They don't know they're halfway through the war.

1:08.2

There's no program that says the war is going to end in April 65.

1:12.4

A lot of these union guys, they've just been beaten consistently in nearly every battle on the East Coast.

1:17.9

And the Confederates have won nearly every single battle on the East Coast.

1:21.0

So this is what's going on in their heads as they come up here to this fight.

1:25.4

These young men and women are marching 20 to 30 miles a day

1:28.7

to get up here in the June heat. You mentioned women, women too? Yeah, sure. Absolutely,

1:36.3

there are women out here. They're not carrying rivals, but they're doing just about everything else.

1:41.2

I had no idea that the Confederacy was so successful up until that point. Why

1:45.8

were they so successful? They have to be successful. They've got less people. They've got less

1:51.1

industry. They have to be much more bold in their maneuvers and their actions and they're pulling

1:59.0

it off. They're getting away with it.

...

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