Yet none of the Confederate victories was decisive. The federal
government simply mustered new armies and tried again. Believing
that the North's crushing defeat at Chancellorsville gave him
his chance, Lee struck northward into Pennsylvania, in July
1863, almost reaching the state capital at Harrisburg. A strong
Union force intercepted Lee's march at Gettysburg, where, in a
titanic three-day battle -- the largest of the Civil War -- the
Confederates made a valiant effort to break the Union lines.
They failed, and Lee's veterans, after crippling losses, fell
back to the Potomac. More than 3,000 Union soldiers and almost
4,000 Confederates died at Gettysburg; wounded and missing
totaled more than 20,000 on each side. On November 19, 1863,
Lincoln dedicated a new national cemetery at Gettysburg with
perhaps the most famous address in U.S. history. He concluded
his brief remarks with these words: ...we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation,
under God, shall have a ne