DANIEL E. SICKLES
The Confederate cannon were already unlimbering, and soon the chilling “Yip! Yip!” of the rebel yell would be heard above the din of battle.
On 2 July 1863, the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the American Civil War, hung in the balance. Although neither Major General George G. Meade, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, nor Lieutenant General Robert E. Lee, the revered leader of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, had intended to fight near the small town in southern Pennsylvania, the death struggle was in its second day.
After nearly suffering a catastrophic defeat on the first day, Meade had deployed his army on favourable ground, in the shape of a fish hook, which would afford him the advantage of interior lines – the
