Lee’s deepest invasion of the North was broken in three days, at a cost of roughly 50,000 casualties on both sides — and the very next morning, far to the west, Vicksburg surrendered to Grant. The two defeats together are remembered as the war’s turning point: the Army of Northern Virginia never mounted a major offensive into Union territory again. Yet Meade let Lee’s wrecked army slip back across the Potomac, the chance to end the war that summer went with it, and the fighting ground on for nearly two more years.
Confederate divisions marching in from the northwest blunder into Union cavalry along McPherson’s Ridge. Both armies rush troops toward the sound of the guns; Gen. Reynolds (North) is killed early. By evening the outnumbered Union forces are driven back through the town — but they rally onto the high ground south of it, the hills and ridges that form the fishhook.
