The year 1863 was the turning point in the Civil War. Militarily, it contained three extremely important, decisive battles that would turn the tide of the war and be, in essence, the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

By this point in the war there were many issues that lent to the conditions that the Confederates found themselves in during the battles at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. Supplies were running out, leaving many Confederate soldiers without even the most basic of necessities, and unlike the industrialized North that could manufacture their own supplies, the agrarian South was without the ability to restock their depleting army, both in terms of supplies and men.With the Northern population being 3 times that of the South, men to fight the war was also an issue. The military events that happened this year came at a time when the Confederate army was running out of everything.In July 1864 two events happened that were important militarily. General George Meade, a Union officer, and the Union army defeated the Confederate Army, led by Robert E.

Lee, at Gettysburg. This event was historic and set the stage for the end of the Civil War in more ways than one. One day later General Ulysses S. Grant took control of the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, known as the Union victory at Vicksburg.

These two events in conjunction were extremely important, but still another happened during this year that can be considered a turning point, when added to the other two Union military victories. In Chattanooga there were railroads that linked, on which supplies for the South were transported. When the Union was victorious at taking over this city and stopping the Confederate supplies from getting to them, it was, in essence, the end of the Civil War because they now didn’t have any way of re-supplying