Today marks the 150th anniversary of perhaps the most significant battle in American history, the Battle of Gettysburg. For three days, from July 1 through July 3, 1863, nearly 200,000 troops combined from the Union and the traitorous Confederacy battled in what turned out to be the high-water mark for the Confederate rebellion. In defeat, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia retreated back to Virginia and fought a defensive war from that point onward until their surrender in April, 1865. Four months after the battle at Gettysburg, President Lincoln dedicated a cemetery for the fallen soldiers with an address that will be remembered far into the future as the definitive statement of what America is.
