Editing Battle of Gettysburg (section)

===Military situation===
{{Main|Gettysburg campaign|Gettysburg Battlefield}}
{{further|Battle of Chancellorsville|Eastern theater of the American Civil War|American Civil War}}
[[File:Gettysburg Campaign.png|thumb|A military map of the [[Gettysburg campaign]] through July 3, 1863, including cavalry movements shown with dashed lines {{legend|#ED1C24|Confederate}}
{{legend|#2E3192|Union}}
]]
Shortly after the [[Army of Northern Virginia]] won a major victory over the [[Army of the Potomac]] at the [[Battle of Chancellorsville]] (April 30&nbsp;– May 6, 1863), General [[Robert E. Lee]] decided upon a second invasion of the North (the first was the unsuccessful [[Maryland campaign]] of September 1862, which ended in the bloody [[Battle of Antietam]]). Such a move would upset the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]'s plans for the summer campaigning season and possibly reduce the pressure on the besieged Confederate garrison at [[Vicksburg, Mississippi|Vicksburg]]. The invasion would allow the Confederates to live off the bounty of the rich Northern farms while giving war-ravaged [[Virginia]] a much-needed rest. In addition, Lee's 72,000-man army<ref name=BM260/> could threaten [[Philadelphia]], [[Baltimore]], and [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], and possibly strengthen the growing peace movement in the North.<ref>Coddington, pp. 8–9; Eicher, p. 490.</ref>