Editing Battle of Gettysburg (section)

===Effect on the Confederacy===
In fact, the Confederates had lost militarily and also politically. During the final hours of the battle, [[Vice President of the Confederate States of America|Confederate Vice President]] [[Alexander Stephens]] was approaching the Union lines at [[Norfolk, Virginia]], under a [[White flag|flag of truce]]. Although his formal instructions from [[President of the Confederate States of America|Confederate President]] [[Jefferson Davis]] had limited his powers to negotiate on prisoner exchanges and other procedural matters, historian [[James M. McPherson]] speculates that he had informal goals of presenting peace overtures. Davis had hoped that Stephens would reach Washington from the south while Lee's victorious army was marching toward it from the north. President Lincoln, upon hearing of the Gettysburg results, refused Stephens's request to pass through the lines. Furthermore, when the news reached London, any lingering hopes of European recognition of the Confederacy were finally abandoned. [[Henry Adams]], whose father was serving as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom at the time, wrote, "The disasters of the rebels are unredeemed by even any hope of success. It is now conceded that all idea of intervention is at an end."<ref>McPherson, pp. 650, 664.</ref>

Compounding the effects of the defeat was the end of the [[Siege of Vicksburg]], which surrendered to Grant's Federal armies in the West on July 4, the day after the Gettysburg battle, costing the Confederacy an additional 30,000 men, along with all their arms and stores.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/vicksburg |title=Vicksburg |publisher=American Battlefield Trust |access-date=June 5, 2022 |archive-date=June 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602022538/https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/vicksburg |url-status=live }}</ref>

The immediate reaction of the Southern military and public sectors was that Gettysburg was a setback, not a disaster. The sentiment was that Lee had been successful on July 1 and had fought a valiant battle on July 2–3, but could not dislodge the Union Army from the strong defensive position to which it fled. The Confederates successfully stood their ground on July 4 and withdrew only after they realized Meade would not attack them. The withdrawal to the Potomac that could have been a disaster was handled masterfully. Furthermore, the Army of the Potomac had been kept away from Virginia farmlands for the summer and all predicted that Meade would be too timid to threaten them for the rest of the year. Lee himself had a positive view of the campaign, writing to his wife that the army had returned "rather sooner than I had originally contemplated, but having accomplished what I proposed on leaving the Rappahannock, viz., relieving the Valley of the presence of the enemy and drawing his Army north of the Potomac". He was quoted as saying to Maj. John Seddon, brother of the Confederate secretary of war, "Sir, we did whip them at Gettysburg, and it will be seen for the next six months that ''that army'' will be as quiet as a sucking dove." Some Southern publications, such as the ''Charleston Mercury'', were critical of Lee's actions. On August 8, Lee offered his resignation to President Davis, who quickly rejected it.<ref>Gallagher, ''Lee and His Army'', pp. 86, 93, 102–05; Sears, pp. 501–502; McPherson, p. 665, in contrast to Gallagher, depicts Lee as "profoundly depressed" about the battle.</ref>