Defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg

Date: July 3, 1863 • Location: Gettysburg, United States

Confederate forces were defeated by the Union Army on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg (pictured), a turning point in the American Civil War. The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces to support the rebellion of the Southern states. On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly chosen Confederate States president, Jefferson Davis (1808–1889). Davis was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, on the Hudson River at West Point, New York, and colonel of a volunteer regiment during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He had also been a United States senator from Mississippi and served as U.S. Secretary of War under 14th president Franklin Pierce.