President Abraham Lincoln was thankful for the early July battlefield victory, but disappointed that General Meade was unable to surround and crush the Confederates before they found safety on the far side of the Potomac. The long retreat triggered nearly two dozen skirmishes and major engagements, including fighting at Granite Hill, Monterey Pass, Hagerstown, Williamsport, Funkstown, Boonsboro, and Falling Waters. Meade's equally difficult assignment was to intercept the effort and destroy his enemy. Lee's post-battle task was to successfully withdraw his army across the Potomac River. Against steep odds and encumbered with thousands of casualties, Confederate commander Robert E. This book is the first detailed military history of Lee's retreat and the Union effort to destroy the wounded Army of Northern Virginia. Thousands of books and articles cover nearly every aspect of the battle, but not a single volume focuses on the military aspects of the important movements of the armies to and across the Potomac River. The three-day Battle of Gettysburg left 50,000 casualties in its wake, a battered Southern army far from its base of supplies, and a rich historiographic legacy.
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