Battle Brief - In Pursuit of Lee: The 1863 Battle of Williamsport and the Gettysburg Campaign

About this event

The Battle of Williamsport, Maryland, took place from July 6 to July 16, 1863, during the U.S. Civil War. It marked the perilous retreat of General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army after their defeat at Gettysburg, when a flooded Potomac River trapped the rebels on the northern banks as they tried to cross into Virginia. Learn how Union forces under Maj. George G. Meade tried to crush Lee’s troops, and how a slow pursuit failed to bag Lee and frustrated the President of the United States.

John R. Maass is a historian and educator at the National Museum of the U.S. Army. He received a BA in history from Washington & Lee University, and a PhD in early U.S. history from the Ohio State University. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve (80th Division). His most recent book is “The Battles of Spencer’s Ordinary and Green Spring, 1781” (2025).