This work was written for the study of the Battle of Gettysburg by West Point cadets.
Military Situation June 1, 1863.—The Civil War, begun in the spring of 1861, had been in progress two years. The United States had 500,000 troops actually in the field and 625,000 on the rolls.
In the Atlantic coastal plain, Union troops occupied West Point, Yorktown, Norfolk, and Suffolk, Va.; Plymouth, Washington, Newbern, and Beaufort, N.C.; the islands along the coast of South Carolina between Charleston and the Savannah River; and Fernandina and St. Augustine, Fla. To protect the railroad connecting Richmond, Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah and the important towns along the railroad from raids or more serious operations by these Union troops, the Confederate government was compelled to leave a considerable force in the South Atlantic States.
In northern Virginia, where active operations had temporarily ceased, the opposing armies, the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker and the Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee, lay on opposite banks of the Rappahannock River midway between Washington and Richmond. In West Virginia there were a number of Union garrisons ‘to protect the State, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad which traversed it, from Confederate raids.
In Kentucky, Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside was organizing the Army of the Ohio to advance against Knoxville, Tenn., held by Maj. Gen. Simon B. Buckner. . . .
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