A string of Confederate victories at Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville led to the June 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania by General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. As Lee was aiming toward Harrisburg, the state capital, General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac drove hard to catch up with him. Although neither general had planned to fight at the small crossroads town of Gettysburg, a skirmish broke out on July 1 when advance elements of the Confederate army collided with pickets from a Yankee cavalry brigade. Three days of bitter fighting ensued. When the vicious encounter was over - having been fought at places like the railroad cut, Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, Little Round Top, and Culp's Hill, and culminating in Pickett's desperate charge on July 3 - Lee's army was in retreat, and Meade had scored a major victory for the North. Based on deep knowledge of the battle and battlefield and driven by masterful, excitingly paced storytelling, They Met at Gettysburg is the classic narrative of the greatest battle ever fought on American soil.
