Between July 1 and July 3, 1863, massive Union and Confederate armies fought in the fields and hills around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. By the time the smoke cleared close to 50,000 men were casualties. The Union victory - often in doubt but ultimately decisive - sent Robert E. Lee's, ragged, defeated army back to the South and changed the course of the American Civil War. Inside you'll find stories on: What happened on those three days in July 1863, from the first shots west of town to Robert E. Lee's dramatic losing gamble known to history as Pickett's Charge. President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg, including how he stayed informed about the battle while it was unfolding. The medical conditions at Gettysburg and how the battle introduced a new approach to taking care of the wounded. Jubal Early, an unlikely general and "snarling misanthrope" who "scared Abraham Lincoln like-hell" and whose writings after the war helped romanticize Gen. Lee. The Irish Brigade, a unit famous for its bravery and terrible losses on the battlefield, and its chaplain Father Corby, a priest who stood on a rock as bullets whizzed by and performed a general absolution. A father found dead on the battlefield clutching an ambrotype of three children, how his identity was eventually discovered, and the odd postscript to a dramatic tale. The moving reunion at Gettysburg in 1913, 50 years after the battle, and the story of John Clem, the boy sergeant who was just 61 years old on the battle's 50th anniversary. Gettysburg's many monuments, from the strange 30-ton rock from Boston to the general who is forever scanning the horizon atop Little Big Top. Civil War sites near Gettysburg, including Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the only town north of the Mason Dixon line to be completely destroyed in the war. The status of battlefield preservation and how a philosophy change is reshaping Gettysburg today. Book jacket.