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This panoramic photo is an early twentieth-century photograph atop Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg. The statue is of Union Major General Oliver O. Howard, whose Eleventh Corps held defenses on top of Cemetery Hill for the second and third days of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War (1861–1865). On the first day of the battle, Howard's troops were pushed through the town of Gettysburg by Confederate lieutenant general Richard S. Ewell. On the evening of the first day, July 1, 1863, Ewell decided not to attack the Union positions on Cemetery Hill in the face of somewhat confusing orders from General Robert E. Lee; while the Union position on the hill was probably too strong for an attack to succeed, Ewell's decision would become one of the most controversial of the war.
Original Author: Haines Photo Co., Copyright Claimant
Created: 1909
Medium: Photograph
Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, [LC-USZ62–40260 DL]
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