Battle of Gettysburg
The nature of the result of the Battle of Gettysburg has been the subject of controversy for years. Although not seen as overwhelmingly significant at the time, particularly since the war continued for almost two years, in retrospect it has often been cited as the "turning point", usually in combination with the fall of Vicksburg the following day. This is based on the observation that after Gettysburg Lee's army conducted no more strategic offensives—his army merely reacted to the initiative of Ulysses S. Grant in 1864 and 1865—and by the speculative viewpoint of the Lost Cause writers that a Confederate victory at Gettysburg might have resulted in the end of the war.
It is currently a widely held view that Gettysburg was a decisive victory for the Union, but the term is considered imprecise. It is inarguable that Lee's offensive on July 3 was turned back decisively and his campaign in Pennsylvania was terminated prematurely (although the Confederates at the time argued that this was a temporary setback and that the goals of the campaign were largely met). However, when the more common definition of "decisive victory" is intended—an indisputable military victory of a battle that determines or significantly influences the ultimate result of a conflict—historians are divided. For example, David J. Eicher called Gettysburg a "strategic loss for the Confederacy" and James M. McPherson wrote that "Lee and his men would go on to earn further laurels. But they never again possessed the power and reputation they carried into Pennsylvania those palmy summer days of 1863."
Adolfo Fernández Cavada
He was wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg when his horse was shot and killed from under him. Fernández Cavada kept a diary during the war which is considered to be one of the most vivid and articulate accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg. His eyewitness account of the famous conflict provided an expressively descriptive account of the battle. During one day of the July battle, he recorded how "The air was soon full of flying shot, shell and canister--and a groan here and there attested their affect. ...the roar of musketry and the crashing, pounding noise of guns and bursting shells was deafening..."
After the war, Fernández Cavada was appointed as United States consul at Cienfuegos, Cuba. Fernández Cavada resigned his position upon the Cuban insurrection against Spanish rule, which became known as Cuba’s Ten Years' War (1868–1878). Together with his brother Federico, who had also resigned from his appointment as consul to Trinidad, he joined the Cuban insurgents in their quest for Cuba's independence.