Inscription(Preface): After Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's
stunning victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863, he led the
Army of Northern Virginia west to the Shenandoah Valley, then
north through central Maryland and across the Mason-Dixon Line
into Pennsylvania. Union Gen. George G. Meade, who replaced Gen.
Joseph Hooker on June 28, led the Army of the Potomac in
pursuit. The armies collided at Gettysburg on July 1, starting a
battle that neither general planned to fight there. Three days
later, the defeated Confederates retreated, crossing the Potomac
River into Virginia on July 14. Last Updated: 7/18/2011 8:35 AM