JULY 4, INDEPENDENCE DAY 1863: RETREAT AND BLAME AT GETTYSBURG
july 4, Independence Day 1863 Retreat and blame at gettysburg "This has been all my fault," Lee admitted about his failed July 3 assault at Gettysburg, adding that "it is a sad, sad day for us." General James Longstreet and General George Pickett were in silent agreement. A torrential rain fell over Gettysburg on the 4 th of July, as it seems often happens after a great battle, washing away much of the blood at Devil’s Den, The Peach Orchard, Little Round Top, Cemetery Hill, and the vast field of battle stretching from Cemetery Ridge westward to Seminary Ridge, leaching into the soil to forever hallow that ground, while the bloating bodies of the thousands of dead waited to be moved from where they lay to some slightly better resting place. The stench was horrendous, compounded by the bodies of some 1,800 horses and mules that had been killed. Not much happened that day. It was time for both sides to take stock of the situation, to lick ...