Gettysburg

The decisive turning point in the war came in the first weeks of July when the confederacy suffered two crushing defeats in the West and the East. In the East, Robert E. Lee a  Confederate , took the offensive by leading an army into enemy territory: the Union states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. If he could either capture or destroy the Union army or capture a major Northern city, Lee hoped to force the North to call for peace- or at least to gain foreign intervention for the South. On July 1, 1863, the Southern army suprised Union units at Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania. This was the most crucial battle of the war and the most bloodiest, with over 50,000 casualties. Lee's assault on Union lines proved futile, and destroyed a good part of the Confederate army. The Confederate's plan of winning the war came to an abrupt end after this battle .