Gettysburg in Literature, Film, and History: Day 1

Key Battles of American History

History

4.7 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Sean, Steve, and James continue our discussion of the real events and background of the Battle of Gettysburg as portrayed through the 1993 film Gettysburg. The discussion today focuses on the events of the first full day of battle, July 1, 1863. We look at some of the big players and the early strategies the two sides used to try and get the upper hand.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding
0:10.7	right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its
0:16.4	size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.
0:23.9	Welcome to Key Battles of American History,
0:26.7	a podcast in which we discuss American history
0:28.9	through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.
0:32.7	Here is your host, James Early.
0:43.4	Thank you. host, James Early. Hello, everyone.
0:44.5	This is James again.
0:46.0	And what you're about to hear is the second of the four-part series that Sean McIver and
0:51.1	Steve Gwara and I did on the Battle of Gettysburg and the film Gettysburg in the book The Killer Angels.
0:58.1	In this episode, we're going to be talking about the events on the first day of the battle, July 1st, 1863.
1:05.9	So without any further ado, here it is. I hope you enjoy.
1:15.3	Thank you. Without any further ado, here it is. I hope you enjoy. So here we are the first actual day of battle, which was Wednesday, July 1st of 1863.
1:24.8	James, why don't you give us a quick overview of the fighting, and then, Sean, we can
1:29.0	dig in a little bit deeper. Okay, so as we'd seen the Confederate, I mean, sorry, the Union
1:35.9	Cavalry under General John Buford was deployed on Seminary Ridge, just west of Gettysburg,
1:41.7	good high ground, and the Confederates are there, and
1:45.6	fighting breaks out. General Lee had ordered his division commanders that were in the front of
1:52.5	his column not to engage, not to get involved in combat, but they just couldn't help it. It just,
1:57.6	it just happened because they're being attacked by the unions of forces there,
2:02.7	the cavalry that we mentioned. So Lee finally says, okay, go ahead and attack. And he sends in a
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 15 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Key Battles of American History, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Key Battles of American History and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.