UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, two faculty Civil War experts from Penn State's George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center have offered their insights into the battle's significance and Penn Staters' role in it.
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee mobilized his Northern Virginia Army in an attempt to take Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, and thus shorten the war. On the way there, Union troops met the Confederates in a small town south of Harrisburg named Gettysburg. William Blair, professor of American history at Penn State and director of the Richards Civil War Era Center, takes a brief look at the forces that coalesced to make the Battle of Gettysburg one of the most important in U.S. military history.