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The next decisive battle in 1863 was a Union victory, but it was an accident - kind of. General Lee wanted to keep up the momentum following his victory at Chancellorsville. He believed that a successful invasion of a Northern city would turn popular opinion (and therefore politicians) against Lincoln and the Civil war, ending it for good.
So Lee started to gather the Confederate forces in southern Pennsylvania, under strict orders not to engage the enemy until the entire army was in place. While they waited, one of Lee's commanders sent a brigade of soldiers east to a town called Gettysburg for supplies. They didn't expect to run into the Union cavalry.
President Lincoln had gotten wind of the planned invasion and sent the U.S. Army to cut off the invasion force. The two sides surprised each other on July 1, starting the three-day Battle of Gettysburg. Confederate troops forced the Union soldiers back through town, and both generals immediately sent for reinforcements.
By nightfall, they faced each other on parallel ridges outside the town. The armies pounded each other the following morning, but a series of leadership errors on both sides dragged the conflict out for yet another day. Lee might have been successful if he'd had a skilled leader like Stonewall Jackson.
But he didn't, and a less competent general ordered what is infamously known as Pickett's Charge - a gutsy but suicidal march across a mile-wide open field, up a hill and into the face of a crouching Union artillery and infantry.
When the North opened fire, they killed more than half of the 13,000 charging Confederate soldiers in less than an hour. The Southern cavalry, which was to have attacked the rear of the Union line, had also been contained.
General Lee retreated, and the deadliest campaign of the war was finally over. More than 57,000 American men were dead, wounded or missing, including nearly a third of General Lee's Southern officers. Many historians agree that the Battle of Gettysburg was the most decisive turning point for the Union.
Lee had lost thousands of troops and officers that he couldn't replace, and he never again attempted an invasion of the North. The defeat also led to a sell-off of Confederate bonds, dealing a huge blow to the economy and morale of the Southern population.
Later that year, Lincoln would dedicate the battlefield as a national cemetery, delivering his famous Gettysburg Address.
