Hello and welcome to Civil War Stories. I'm your host, Steve Matthews. Today we're going to explore the bloodiest, most devastating battle ever fought on American soil - the Battle of Gettysburg. Over three terrible days in July 1863, more than 51,000 American soldiers would be killed, wounded, captured, or reported missing in a small Pennsylvania farming town that most had never heard of before. This is not just the story of military strategy or political consequences, but the story of human suffering on an almost unimaginable scale - of young men cut down in the prime of life, of families destroyed, and of a nation that would forever be changed by three days of unparalleled carnage.