[Illustration: THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN] [Illustration: _Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade, Commander of the Union Forces at Gettysburg._ Courtesy National Archives.] [Illustration: _Gen. Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Confederate Army at Gettysburg._ Courtesy National Archives.] Confederate strategists had considered sending aid from Lee’s army to Vicksburg, which Grant was then besieging, or dispatching help to General Bragg for his campaign against Rosecrans in Tennessee. They concluded, however, that Vicksburg could hold out until climatic conditions would force Grant to withdraw, and they reasoned that the eastern campaign was more important than that of Tennessee. Both Union and Confederate governments had bitter opponents at home. Southern generals, reading in Northern newspapers the clamors for peace, had reason to believe that their foe’s morale was fast weakening. They felt that the Army of Northern Virginia would continue to demonstrate its superiority over the Union Army of the Potomac and that the relief from constant campaigning on their own soil would have a happy effect on Southern spirit. Events were to prove, however, that the chief result of the intense alarm created by the invasion was to rally the populace to better support of the Union government. [Illustration: _Statue of General Meade, located on Cemetery Ridge._] [Illustration: _The Virginia Memorial, surmounted by the statue of General Lee, on Seminary Ridge._] [Illustration: _Gettysburg, as it appeared from Seminary Ridge a short time after the battle._ (Brady photograph.)] _The Plan of Campaign_ Lee’s plan of campaign was undoubtedly similar to that of his invasion which ended in the battle of Antietam in September 1862. He then called attention to the need of destroying the bridge over the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg and of disabling the Pennsylvania Railroad in order to sever communication with the west. “After that,” he added, “I can turn my attention to Philadelphia, Baltimore, or Washington as may seem best for our interest.” Lee had suffered an irreparable loss at Chancellorsville when “Stonewall” Jackson was mortally wounded. Now reorganized into three infantry corps under Longstreet, A. P. Hill, and R. S. Ewell, and a cavalry division under J. E. B. Stuart, a changed Army of Northern Virginia faced the great test that lay ahead. “Stonewall” Jackson, the right hand of Lee, and in the words of the latter “the finest executive officer the sun ever shone on,” was no longer present to lead his corps in battle.