gettysburg was the deadliest battle in american history up to this point in time even today only the battle of musargon in world war one the battle of the bulge in world war ii and the battle of okinawa in world war ii beat it on the first day of the battle confederate forces gained the upper hand and forced american troops back to cemetery hill on the second day of the battle the entire u.s army was in place and they pushed confederates back to their day one positions both armies had heavy losses by this point but were still intact and lee still had the advantage he was on the offense here on the third day of the battle though lee made a fateful error believing the center of mead's line was weak he ordered an all-out assault against it but the night before meade had instructed his officers quote if lee attacks tomorrow it will be in your front he has made attacks on both our flanks and failed and if he concludes to try again it will be on our center the u.s army was ready for the attack by noon the confederates fell back but they tried again at 3 pm a fierce artillery jewel was fought and then all of a sudden american guns went silent confederates assumed that they had knocked out the american artillery confederate general pickett then led a charge marching men out of the woods in a one and a half mile long line once out in the open 200 pieces of american artillery answered pickett's charge only a few of pickett's men ever reached the american lines about one in ten of them and the american federal reserves pushed pickett's men back into full retreat the charge cost piggett two-thirds of his army including every senior officer he had lee looked at the destruction on the field and said quote all of this has been my fault on july 4th independence day lee's army retreated across the potomac once again the cautious american general mead didn't pursue him the american victory at gettysburg halted the confederate advance into the north it was a major blow to psychologically to the confederacy but it was also the bloodiest battle of the entire war 23 000 american and twenty eight thousand confederate casualties lincoln was furious with need for not pursuing lee and ending the war a few months later lincoln dedicated a cemetery at gettysburg and he gave his very famous gettysburg address lincoln balanced the calls of the union the united states to that of the country's founders saying quote four score and seven years ago now a score is 20 years so let's do the math here and figure out what lincoln was referring to in 1863 so four score is four times 20 which is 80 years four score and seven years ago is 87 years ago counting back from 1863 that brings us to 1776 what document was written in 1776 not the american constitution but the declaration of independence it's an interesting choice during a civil war and a constitutional crisis over secession and the future of democracy lincoln chose to point the nation back to the declaration of independence daring the nation to live up to the high standard it's set and which we've been striving for ever since proceed to the next part of the lecture page to hear the gettysburg address delivered by some very famous americans and focus on the words of the speech and you'll be asked about them on the quiz and on the exam