Gettysburg
By: Wayne Brown
Down the Shenandoah Valley marched Lee’s Virginia Army
Fresh from victory at Chancellorsville in May of 1863
Lee would push hard northward with great determination
The Union Army waited at Gettysburg to halt the invasion
The Battle commenced at Gettysburg on the 1st of July
Meade’s Potomac Army caught up with Lee on the fly
The Confederates were in high spirit and ready to fight
The Battle commenced and raged on for day and night
By the second day of battle both armies were in full force
The fight would rage a third day to run its course
Fighting raged at Little Round Top and Cemetery Hill
Lee pounded Union lines but could not break their will
Men died at Wheatfield, Peach Orchard, and Devil’s Den
Both lines would collapse and reform time and again
By the 3rd of July, the struggle lived on resolve and will
The fighting had focused along lines known as Culp’s Hill
Pickett’s Cavalry was large standing almost 13,000 men strong
Lee ordered Pickett to charge the center of Union lines headlong
Pickett made the charge but a victory his Cavalry could not bridge
Men lay bloodied, dead and dying over the lines of Cemetery Ridge
General Lee’s Confederates made their retreat to the south
The price had been paid for entering into the Union’s mouth
The Potomac Army had tasted blood and held the ground
Now it was ready to march south and go yet another round
Gettysburg forever stands in history as a Union rally forth
The point at which Lee’s invasion was halted into the north
Nearly 50,000 from both sides suffered or died; battle’s misery
Gettysburg stands as the bloodiest battle in Civil War history
President Lincoln, in November 1863, offered his decree
To declare the Gettysburg grounds as a national cemetery
He cited the heavy loss, the pain, the death and duress
In his famed speech of the day, The Gettysburg Address
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