How the battle of Gettysburg changed the Civil war Thesis

How the battle of Gettysburg changed the Civil war - Thesis Example It was the strategic turning point of the war. Several years of war before the battle of Gettysburg were a time of military success and economic collapse of the blockaded South. The Federals suffered defeats, but retained their economic and political advantages. Military defeats, in no small measure, were due to failures of command authorities. â€Å"Generals-politicians† were much better in intricacies of a political struggle than in the art of war in battlefields. President Abraham Lincoln had to change and shuffle his â€Å"brave Generals† periodically. As far as the warfare proceeded, a new galaxy of generals made mark; generals able to withstand the brilliant Southerners, such as General R. Lee and Gen. T. Jackson. Lee’s Gettysburg campaign had to thwart the Federal army plans for the summer, ease the pressure on the besieged Vicksburg, take away the burden of the army munitioning from Virginia, and, which is the most important, to threaten Washington to per suade it to peace negotiations. Repulse of the Southerners’ attacks at Gettysburg and defeat of the invincible Lee, are considered as the watershed in the war, but this statement is true only if the battle of Gettysburg is viewed together with the capture of Vicksburg, which occurred on the same day in the Western theater of operations.