On the evening of July 2, 1863, Hays's division of Early's Corps, including the famed Louisiana Tiger brigades, launched an assault up the steep slopes of Cemetery Hill. The Confederates climbed under intense artillery and musketry fire. In the darkness, the Tigers reached the crest and fought the Union gunners at point-blank range with rifle butts, rammers, and handspikes in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Battery positions were briefly overrun. The attack came desperately close to success, but Early failed to send supporting troops forward in time, and coordination with other Confederate units broke down. Union reinforcements, including the 106th Pennsylvania and elements of the I and II Corps, counterattacked and drove the Confederates back down the hill. The fight illustrated how close Lee came to breaking the Union line on Day 2, and how Union control of Cemetery Hill remained the foundation of the entire Federal defensive position throughout 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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