Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North--which included the greatest cavalry battle ever fought on American soil: the battle of Brandy Station, Virginia--filled the storehouses and stables of Virginia with captured supplies and livestock before ending in defeat in the monumental three-day battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1-3, 1863, a major turning point of the war. Some forty Northern reporters covered the battle, and when their stories of Union victory were published, civilian morale, lowered by the recent trouncing of the Federals at Chancellorsville, rose sharply.

"T[he] results of this victory are priceless," exulted New York diarist George Templeton Strong. "The invincibility is broken. The Army of the Potomac has at last found a general that can handle it, and has stood nobly up to its terrible work in spite of its long disheartening list of hard-fought failures...Copperheads [Peace Democrats] are palsied and dumb for the moment at least...Government is strengthened four-fold at home and abroad."

Caption written by Margaret Wagner, Publishing office, Library of Congress.

Louis Prang (1824-1909) the publisher of this image, was at one time known as "The Father of the American Christmas Card" and was a pioneer in the mid- to the late-1800's American printing technologies. He perfected chromolithography which allowed the use of 32 colors in a single image. Like Currier & Ives, he produced a variety of paintings and illustrations without the attribution of the artist. With the advent of much higher quality printing, he began publishing reproductions of famous paintings. His company evolved over the years and today is known as Dixon Ticonderoga--the famous makers of the # 2 pencil.

Medium : 1 print : lithograph, color

Created/Published : May 16, 1887

Creator : Not attributed

Housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

Availability: Usually ships in one week

Product #: cph3b52684