Procedure behind the project
Process Paper Marty, Philip, Stephen
When our group was thinking of a topic, all three of us realized we had a common personal interest in The Battle of Gettysburg. Additionally, Marty had visited Gettysburg at the sight of the battle, thus helping us with our knowledge of the battle before we started the project.
The essential goal of our research is to determine how the Battle of Gettysburg affected the result of the Civil War, and how America would be different if the Union had not won the battle. From there we are further focusing it down to the specific economic, strategic, and political advantages the North had during the battle. This is difficult because the battle is very complicated and many details have been lost throughout history. To solve this issue we have been trying to find more primary sources in order to find opinions and ideas that haven’t been changed through history. Some valuable resources we found were recommended to us from Professor David Sibley from Cornell. David Sibley had previously run a seminar about our topic and provided us with multiple books from military historians. Much of our research has been dedicated to learning more about Union and Confederate battle tactics and strategies. This has helped us realize how the Union prevailed in the Battle of Gettysburg. Additional research of economic unbalance between the two armies also helps show how the Union was able to claim victory. One other source we found to be helpful was written by James M. McPherson about the Civil War from beginning to end. McPherson gives great insight on the many influences of politics on the armies as well as the main reasons for the Union’s victory over the Confederates. One more valuable source we found from Bruce Catton shows great in-depth detail of the creation of the Army of the Potomac, all the way to its participation in the Battle of Gettysburg. It provided great background on the Union army’s experience and generals.
We decided to do a group project because we believe that with multiple people we would have more varied opinions of the subject. This is important because there are many different sides of argument over the Battle of Gettysburg that need to be discussed. Also, the Battle of Gettysburg is a very popular topic that has been written about for many years and therefore there are many sources. We figured with more people, we would be able to find the better sources.
The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in history because the North had the upper hand in the Civil War after it was over. The Union was able to weaken the army of General Robert E. Lee, one of their greatest threats to them during the war, and was able to defend their territory which, if taken, could have turned the war in favor of the Confederates. Although both sides lost many, only the North had enough people and resources to recover.
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