"The slaughter was perfectly unparalleled," reads the July 9, 1863 issue of Washington, D.C.'s Daily National Republican. July 1, 1863 marks the start of the Battle of Gettysburg; three days and over 50,000 casualties later, the battle ends when General Lee retreats with his troops in the early morning of July 4. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.