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Two Of The Confederacy’s Worst Defeats Concluded On The Same Day
A hot July day that turned the tide of war
President Abraham Lincoln was likely not planning to wake up to good news on July 4th, 1863. His forces were engaged across North America in a brutal war that had ground on for far longer than anyone had anticipated. 1862 quickly turned into 1863 without any signs that the war was slowing down or close to being won. Independence Day, the day that the president was expected to get up and celebrate the birth of a shattered Union, was looking as though it was going to be a bleak one.
However, that fateful day ended up being one of the best, and most somber, days of the entire Civil War. Lincoln would go on to receive news of not just one, but two, great victories in two separate theaters of war. In one fell swoop, it seemed as though the war had turned on a pivot. The corner had been rounded.
What day could be more fitting to ring in two mammoth wins for the Union than July 4th?
Victory In The East
July 4th, 1863, saw Robert E Lee’s defeated army stare forlornly out across a field of…