Registration for this course is closed. This course proposes to examine the Gettysburg Campaign of June and July of 1863. Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought in North America and occupies a prominent place in the popular view of the Civil War. The overarching goal of the course is to show how several rapid and critical battlefield decisions likely made the difference between victory and defeat for the Union Army. The course will be divided into four sessions. The first will discuss the status of the Civil War in the summer of 1863 and the historical context of the Civil War. Each of the other sessions will deal with one different day of the three-day Gettysburg battle and the critical decisions made that day that set the stage for the next day’s fighting. There is no required reading but any of the following are recommended prior to class: the Ken Burns PBS documentary “The Civil War,” the movie “Gettysburg” (1993), and/or the historical novel “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara.