[2] This designation was invented by government historian John B. Bachelder after the war when the monuments of the Gettysburg Battlefield were being erected.

[3] Some historians have argued that the battle was the turning point of the war and that this was the place that represented the Confederacy's last major offensive operation in the Eastern Theater.

Union guns and infantry on Cemetery Ridge opened fire on the advancing men, inflicting a 50% casualty rate on the Confederate ranks.

This gap in the Union line was hastily closed, with any Confederate soldiers who had breached it being quickly captured or killed, including Armistead.

Even though the war lasted almost another two years, Lee launched few offensive operations during that time, none of them near the scale of the Gettysburg campaign.