After being pushed off McPherson's Ridge, the battered Union I Corps fell back to Seminary Ridge, anchored by the brick buildings of the Lutheran Theological Seminary. The seminary's cupola had served as an observation post throughout the morning fighting. On the ridge, Union artillery and infantry made a final determined stand against the Confederate advance. Gen. Abner Doubleday commanded the I Corps after Reynolds's death and attempted to hold the line, but the simultaneous collapse of the XI Corps to the north exposed his right flank. By mid-afternoon, Confederate forces from multiple directions overwhelmed the position and the retreat became a rout. The seminary buildings were immediately converted to field hospitals and remained so for weeks, treating thousands of wounded from both sides. The ridge subsequently became part of the main Confederate line for the remainder of the battle.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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