The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The reason of this battle is because Confederates attacked the Federals on both left and right. On July 3, Confederate General Robert  E. Lee ordered an attack by fewer than 15,000 troops on the Union’s center at Cemetery Ridge. The assault, known as “Picketts Charge,” managed to pierce the Union lines but eventually failed, at the cost of thousands of rebel casualties, and Lee was forced to withdraw his battered army toward Virginia on July 4. Thousands of soldiers were killed in this battle.

It is called a turning point because from this point forward the Confederate Army was on the retreat.  The entire town of Gettysburg was turned into a field hospital and thousands of dying men were lined up in the fields and woods so that it would be easier to bury them when they died.  The suffering of just this one battle seems hard to imagine.  Abraham Lincoln would visit Gettysburg in November of 1863 to rally the Union spirit with a short but memorable speech known as the Gettysburg Address.

http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/july03/civil.html

http://www.gettysburgcivilwar150.com/pages/why_we_remember.aspx

In my opinion no one should be killed for a battle, but because they decided to enter a battle the soldiers knew the risks they had. Thousands of soldiers died to protect everyone else. For this battle only lasting 2 days its unbelievable how many people/soldiers were killed.  It seems that they were killed for no reason at all but President Abraham Lincoln reminded American’s why so many died.

The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln 

Gettysburg Pa. , November 19, 1863