In late June, 1863, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee crossed into Maryland and Pennsylvania in an invasion of the North. It was the third year of the American Civil War. Several Union defeats at the hands of Lee and his army had kept the Federal Army of the Potomac on its back heels, but Lee and the Confederate leadership knew that the vast resources of the North would eventually grind the South into final defeat. It was only a matter of time. The only possible chance for the Confederacy was to force an armistice with one last great victory, and force the Union to peace talks, and perhaps even convince foreign powers like England to intervene. It was a gamble that almost paid off.
Following the great cavalry battle at Brandy Station, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia broke away north, using the Blue Ridge Mountains to screen their movements. The Army of the Potomac had no choice but to follow, but without a clear idea of Lee’s intentions. Here is where good fortune intervened for the North. A slave by the name of Charlie Wright who had accompanied Lee’s army escaped and found his way to Federal forces. Charlie Wright was a fountain of information about the Army of Northern Virginia. Numbers of men, cannon and cavalry, names of commanders of units, private conversations among Confederate officers, all found a place in his head. He shared this information with the Union Bureau of Military Information, the BMI, who collated intelligence from all sources: cavalry scouting, prisoner interrogation, spies penetrating Confederate units, accounts by escaped slaves (called ‘contraband’), signals intelligence, and even balloon units. Charlie’s information provided the first indication of Lee’s plans, and even more importantly the exact composition of his forces. That last piece of information was vital. Lee’s plans were also complicated by the absence of the bulk of his cavalry, the eyes of the army, as cavalry leader Jeb Stuart led the rebel cavalry on a purposeless chevauchée through Pennsylvania, far from Lee’s army.
A gallant defence of the approaches to Gettysburg by John Buford’s cavalry division delayed Lee’s army and allowed Federal forces to occupy the heights surrounding the town instead of the rebels, after a long, hot march from the Potomac River. After two days of grueling combat that followed, both sides were battered. General Meade, the Union commander, wavered. Lee was a formidable opponent. He was inclined to retreat and regroup nearer Washington. But, armed with Charlie Wright’s information, and with the many rebel prisoners taken, the BMI had a precise idea of the strength of the Confederate army and managed to convince Meade to remain and fight it out on the third day, which led to victory, and the retreat of Lee’s army back to Virginia.
Then came the aftermath. As the armies left Gettysburg, they left behind thousands of dead to be buried, including thousands of horses, and tens of thousands wounded, with almost no infrastructure to care for them.
And here the story of Season Of Life begins.
