American Military History, Volume 1 by Richard W. Stewart

By 1863 the war had entered what Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman later called its professional phase. The core of troops was well trained, although a constant flow of new replacements required constant "seasoning"; and large numbers had ample combat experience. Officers had generally mastered their jobs and were deploying their forces fairly skillfully in accordance with the day's tactical principles. Furthermore, the increased range and accuracy of weapons, together with the nature of the terrain, had induced some alterations in tactics-more skirmishers and increasing distance between soldiers as they sought to avoid the worst effects of the hail of rifled musket fire-alterations that were embodied in a revised infantry manual published in 1863. Thus, by the third year of the war, battles had begun to take on certain definite characteristics. The battle of Gettysburg in early July is a case in point.

Gettysburg was, first of all, a generally unplanned battle-neither side knew that their forces would be brought together at that obscure crossroads for the greatest land battle on the North American continent. It stands out in American myth as one of the most dramatic battles with individual heroism and extraordinary valor on both sides as victory or defeat seemed separated by only a hair's breadth. The three-day battle began as a meeting engagement, followed by each side's attempting to bring a preponderance of troops onto the field as the battle raged. Some 43,500 Americans were casualties of this great battle, and Lincoln's address over the cemetery of the dead was to be enshrined as a masterpiece of American historic prose. Gettysburg has become the most famous of the battles of that cruel war.