Thomas Nagel, death Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Thomas Nagel, death - Essay Example There are a number of arguments that have been presented in the written work by Nagel concerning the death being an ultimate loss. However, the major aspect that has been well evaluated by the author through rhetoric is the understanding of death being an ultimate loss or the perfect end of an existence. Herein, one can notice that there is strength as well as weakness of the claim concerning death in the written piece. Firstly, the author has appointed two hypotheses to evaluate the subject matter from various perspectives. The appointment of such an approach has rather allowed the author to bring differing viewpoints in contrast1. In such a way, the author has been extremely successful in allowing the readers to understand the context of discussion. It is one of the ways through which the literature gap could easily be understood. As a matter of fact, the weakness of the argument is in terms of pathos. The author has not been able to make an effective use of pathos that could have allowed better back up to the claims and information presented. For instance, the author asserted that life itself is meaningful and one can notice that if there is no evil or good then it, there remains certain value. In order to present a counter crime, the author has weakened the position by asserting that the loss cannot be accounted. On a closer analysis of the pointers and claims presented by Nagel, it comes to understanding that he has brought a very profound debate. There are a number of critics who can consider the hypothesis to be overly presented within the context. The usage of counter arguments as presented by the author surely presented death to be the end of existence but it does not formally answer the questions. In simpler words, the claims and arguments within the article rather leave more questions to be answered. For instance, the understanding of the article by Nagel has been closely underpinned for further research by

The Rocking Horse Winner Essay Example for Free

The Rocking Horse Winner Essay In D. H. Lawrence’s offsetting story The Rocking Horse Winner, there are a number of intriguing characters presented to us. None, however, are quite as thought provoking or as clearly defined as Paul’s morally culpable, denatured mother, Hester. In a story full of viscous, confusing characters, Hester is directly and indirectly characterized as being a loveless, spiteful, greedy woman, who abides to the philosophy that luck coincides with prosperity. The first indicator of Hester’s personality is found by examining her relationship with her offspring, for although she has mothered and raised multiple children it is also shown that the relationship between mother and child is anything but maternal. Her neighbours and friends praise her, for they think that â€Å"she is such a good mother. She adores her children,† (Lawrence, 307) but that she herself and her children knew that was far from the truth, because â€Å"they read it in each other’s eyes,† (307). Hester’s character can further be analyzed as you observe her relationship concerning her dependence on luck, for â€Å"it’s what causes you to have money,† (308). She is living in the constant dissatisfaction of having insufficient funds to continue on her frivolous lifestyle, despite her inability to maturely address their current financial situation. Instead, she quickly draws parallels between their financial crisis and her husband simply being â€Å"very unlucky,† (308) rather than continuing to work towards a more stable situation. On top of treating the family’s financial dilemma maturely, the greed in her that seems to be one of the key causes to their strife is outlined indirectly through the course of events that take place after she learns about the five-thousand pound grant that she will have trickled down to her over the next five years. After learning of this, she immediately goes into town to talk to their lawyer, â€Å"asking if the whole five thousand could be advanced at once,† (315). Despite the kind gift from her child, she is driven to the point of desperation by her addiction to money, and this swell fortune only added more fuel to the fire, as the house’s whispers of â€Å"There must be more money! † (315) continued to grow. All in all, Hester’s two main relationships, that with her family and that with luck and money accurately characterize her as a loveless, greedy woman.

Impact of Macroeconomic Policies

Impact of Macroeconomic Policies Table of Contents (Jump to) The expansionary monetary policy decisions of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) during the six months after the global financial crisis (GFC) escalated in September 2008. 1. Executive Summary 2. Monetary Policy of Australia after GFC 2.1 Arguments in Support of policy Decision 2.2 Arguments against the policy decision 3. Conclusion References The expansionary monetary policy decisions of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) during the six months after the global financial crisis (GFC) escalated in September 2008. 1. Executive Summary The assignment is based on the Global Financial Crisis 2008 and its impact on the Australian economy. The assignment covers the main reason behind the GFC and the response of Australia’s reserve bank regarding the expansionary monetary policy to fight the Global financial Crisis. Later assignment also has the arguments in support and against the policy decision. Later it is concluded by following the evaluation outcomes. 2. Monetary Policy of Australia after GFC The global Financial Crisis of 2008 was considered as the worst financial crisis since year 1930 by several economists. It leads to the total collapse of many large financial institutions, the rescue of many banks by the government and major downfall of the world’s stock market (Williams, 2012). Due to the crash of the global share market, the Australian Dollar also collapsed. The net wealth of Australia was declined and the unemployment was increased considerably. There was a wave of uncertainty that swept the entire economy of Australia. . As per the data, the average of the household debt was increased from increased from $A190 billion in 1990 to $A1.1 trillion in year 2008 (ABS, 2009). The direct impact of the Global crisis 2008, in Australia was: The decline of Australian Dollar from 0.98 to 0.60 The decline in the summative value of the households between 13 to 14 % The significant decline in the household consumption The increase in saving of household from 1.2 % to 8.5 % Increase in rate of unemployment from 4.1% to 5.8 % The Australian government was very prompt to take the action against the situation in order to reduce the impact of the Global Financial crisis 2008. The reserve bank of Australia decided to loosen the monetary policy for one year with the aim of rectifying the loss of big business and consumers that occurred due to Global Financial Crisis. Under this policy the RBI made the considerable reduction in the interest rates and increased the money supply in market. This led to overall consumption in the market of Australia (Green et al., 2009). The cash rate as also reduced by the reserve Bank and it lead to overall 4 % drop within the months of policy formulation. The monetary policy had the following effects on the Australian economy: It showed the positive result in dealing with Global Financial Crisis and prevented the Australian economy from recession lead to an apparent recovery The investment and consumption levels were increased and the unemployment rate was decreased that showed the favorable national output and aggregate demand (Gregory, 2008) The impact of the expansionary monetary policy and the fiscal led to a positive impact in relation to the level of Gross Domestic Product growth rate of 0.9% in December 2009 quarter from -0.8% in December 2008 (Rotheli, 2010) As per the treasury reports of Australia, without implementation of the expansion monetary policy the gross domestic product of the economy would have been accounted to 0.7 percent (ABS, 2013). 2.1 Arguments in Support of policy Decision The monetary policy regulated by reserve bank of Australia played a significant role in fighting with global financial crisis. The monetary policy helped the Australian economy to fight the severe inflation conditions. In the beginning of the global financial crisis, the conservative monetary policy was formulated and implemented in response to the substantial decrease in the aggregate demand and the declining of the global financial market circumstances. The Australian government took the conventional monetary action with determination and speed. The target national funds rate was slash rapidly from five hundred and twenty-five points in September 2007 to zero till twenty five points in December 2008 (ATO, 2009). The other countries also followed this path by decreasing the interest rates on an average by 330 points in the developed countries and 300 points in developing economies. In the current situation Australia is one of the major four developed economies with official interest rates above 1 % (ABS, 2010). According to the world standards, Australia responded reasonably to the Global Financial Crises through a good combination of government stimulus, responsive policies of reserve bank, resources boom and prudential standards that were pre-existing. 2.2 Arguments against the policy decision There are many weak points in the monetary policy by the Reserve bank of Australia. There were many discrepancies that were exposed later. The arguments against the policy decision include the following points: There was no uniformity in the prices of Australian stock market and this anchored the inflation expectations. The implementation timing of the monetary strategies will be dependent on recovery pace and the return of normal conditions of the financial markets (Lunn, 2008). The policy raised the concerns about the fiscal stability in international market The policy was not able to deal with the major problem of unemployment in Australia. The unemployment figures of Australia during the Global Financial crisis were at 6.5 percent as compared with the United Sates was over 10 percent. In the current situation, the current unemployment rate in Australia is 5.3%. Consequently they have improved and recovered from the crisis but did not move in the required rate (Eslake, 2009). 3. Conclusion For determining the Australia’s economic condition there are many factors that must be considered. This report focused on the major factors of the policies implemented by the Australian government to reduce the impact of Global Financial Crisis. The Australian government was very prompt in taking the action against the losses of Global financial crisis. It is noted that the policies and procedures of the Australian government helped them to recover fast and they are much ahead of other developed nations. Australia responded reasonably to the Global Financial Crises through a good combination of government stimulus, responsive reserve bank, resources boom and prudential standards that were pre-existing. Even though the current situation of Australia has not reached the level of pre GFC situation, but still it regained mush better than the other developed nations like United States of America. References ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2009)Australian Social Trends4102.0. Available at: www.abs.gov.auaccessed 18/4/10. ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2010)Labour Force, Australia6202.0 Available at: www.abs.gov.auaccessed 18/4/10. ATO (Australian Tax Office) (2009)Commissioner of Taxation Annual Report 2008-09 Available atwww.ato.gov.auaccessed on 11/02/09 ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2013)Labour Force, Australia6202.0 Bloxham, P. and Kent, C. (2009) ‘Household Indebtedness’The Australian Economic Review, Vol 42(3): 327-39. Debelle, G (2008) ‘A comparison of the US and Australian housing markets’BulletinJune 2008 RBA Available at:www.rba.gov.au/publicationsAccessed 18/4/10 Eslake, S. (2009) ‘The global financial crisis of 2007-2009: An Australian perspective’ Economic PapersVol. 28(3): 226-238 Green, H. Harper, I and Smirl, L. (2009) ‘Financial Deregulation and household debt: the Australian experience’The Australian Economic ReviewVol. 42(3) Gregory, R. G. and P. Sheehan (2008), ‘Poverty and the collapse of full employment’, in R. Fincher and J. Niewenhuysen, (eds.), Australian Poverty: Then and Now, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 103-26 Lunn, Stephen (2008).Life gap figures not black and white.The Australian(News Limited). Retrieved 7 December 2010. Paletta, Damian; Lucchetti, Aaron (2010). Senate Passes Sweeping Finance Overhaul. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 22, 2010. Rotheli, T. (2010) ‘Causes of the financial crisis: Risk misperception, policy mistakes, and banks’ bounded rationality’The Journal of Socio-Economic39(2010): 119-126 Valentine, T. (2009) ‘Alternative Policy responses to the global financial crisis’EconomicPapersVol. 28(3): 264-269. Williams, Carol J. (2012).Euro crisis imperils recovering global economy, OECD warns. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 23, 2012. Williams, R. (2009) ‘Household debt: Is it a liability?’The Australian Economic ReviewVol.42(3): 321-32

Comparing Social Expectations in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club and Huckleberry Finn :: comparison compare contrast essays

Social Expectations in Joy Luck Club and Huckleberry Finn       Of the many novels written in recent history, perhaps two of the most of these society expectant novels are Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, and Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. These books present the views of society very well, yet at the same time, differentiating very much from each other.    In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, a boy takes an incredible voyage down the river, representing life's journey. This voyage takes Huck Finn through many places, and demands him to make good moral decisions along the way, regardless of what society thinks. In the process of the story, Huck Finn learns that although society is usually correct in his eyes, he must learn to make decisions that he knows deviate from the values of society, yet he also learns that his decisions are morally correct.    In a different perspective, The Joy Luck Club sheds an different light on societies expectations, partly because of the different ethnicities involved in these two stories. The societal demands on the characters in the Joy Luck Club are very different from the ones expressed in Twain's novel. While the characters in The Joy Luck Club are Chinese immigrants, the characters involved in Twain's novel are White Americans, with the exception of Jim, the Black slave Huck learns to befriend. In critiquing these two novels, one notices that these two novels are in fact very different from each other, especially so in the aspects of societal expectations.      In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, the main conflict that comes up is that of the issue of slavery. The society in this novel does not even consider slavery to be wrong, while Huck Finn continues to shun slavery more and more, as the book unfolds. This very belief Huck Finn beholds is evident, with his ever growing friendship with Jim, a slave in the novel. While society sees Jim as property, Huck can discriminate, and sees past the societal ploy for ethical mistreat on another human being, more specifically on an entire race. In this same novel, other societal expectation are present, and noticeable. This is evident through Huck's education. Society expects him to be educated, while Huck resents this all the while (Twain 20,21). In this expectation of Huck by society, there can be found no wrong.

Coca-Cola Versus Pepsi-Cola Essay

Summary In the late 1800s, American pharmacists started mixing fruit syrups and carbonated soda water, causing a new kind of beverages known as soda drinks. The most famous brands that started in the business are Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and Dr. Pepper; but the big long-lasting rivalry is until today between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. In 1886, a pharmacist named Dr. John Pemberton made the formula of Coca-Cola and the drink was sold in at the counter of Jacob’s Pharmacy as a refreshing drink. Pemberton was a part owner of the pharmacy after he left, eventually, Asa Candler became the sole owner and had the rights to the drink. Candler sold the Coca-Cola syrup to pharmacies and started a big advertising campaign which gave Candler a strong sales force. In 1899 Candler granted the first bottling franchise, which eventually grew rapidly. Ernest Woodruff bought Coca-Cola in 1919 for 25$ million, Woodruff and his son worked on making Coke a convenient product that’s available everywhere. Woodruff made a great decision at the time of the beginning of World War II; he stated that every man wearing a uniform should get a Coca-Cola bottle for only 5 cents whatever it costs. This decision made Coke have a strong market-share in Asian and European countries; in the late 1950’s, Coca-Cola advertised as â €Å"Americans Preferred Taste†. Woodruff was influential in Coke’s strategic decisions until 1982. A pharmacist named Caleb Bradham invented the formula of Pepsi-Cola in 1893 in New Bern, South Carolina in 1893. Pepsi followed a similar path as Coke in the expansion, using franchisers to spread their beverage. The company faced bankruptcy many times due to the strong advantage that Coke had over Pepsi-Cola and the weak competition between the two companies at that time. In the period following WWII, Coke outsold Pepsi by a 10 to 1 ratio per unit; in that period many soft-drink producers started entering the market with a big variety of flavors other than cola flavor. Alfred Steele became Pepsi’s CEO in 1950, he believed that his company will take over Coke one day, Steele was a former Coca-Cola marketing executive, and he helped Pepsi a lot due to his wide knowledge about the rival which is Coca-Cola. In an effort to raise the company’s sales, Pepsi introduced new bottle sizes such as the 24-oz family bottle. 1955 Steele married an actress named Joan Crawford and sta rted a big advertising campaign; Alfred Steel’s motto was â€Å"beat coke† which led to increasing Pepsi revenues to over 300% between years 1950 and 1959. Through the years many soft drink companies joined the industry, but the difference is that these companies focused on tastes other than colas, such as 7UP which is a mix of citric flavors and soda, 7UP was first introduced in 1929; the introduction of 7UP led to an increase in the national market share. Coca-Cola continued to expand in the 1960s making Coke available internationally and in the United States. Coca-Cola started diversifying when it bought Minute Maid Juice Company; Cola-Cola also produced new products such as Sprite. Coca-Cola offered its soft drinks either in cans or glass bottles in 1961. Throughout the years in the 1960s and 1970s, Coca-Cola introduced different new products such as Sprite, Tab, Mr.Pibb, Fresca, and Mellow Yellow. Coca-Cola concentrated on international markets to spread the drinks, this strategy of spreading Coca-Cola internationally had matured the company and made the brand image much stronger than Pepsi. Donald Kendall, a former sales manager became Pepsi CEO in 1963, under Kendall Pepsi was renamed PepsiCo and started an unrelated diversification by opening restaurants such as Pizza Hut and producing snacks. Pepsi extended its line of products in 1964 by introducing Diet Pepsi and Mountain Dew; Mountain Dew has a similar taste to Sprite with was introduced by Coca-Cola. Pepsi tried to keep track with Coke in order to keep the competition even though Coca-Cola was more powerful than PepsiCo at that time. Pepsi became more aggressive and competition hungry in 1970 and 1971 when they employed experienced marketing executives. In the 1950s and 1960s the price of Pepsi was 20% less than the price of Coke, but still wasn’t able to reach Coke’s strength; with the strong advertising campaigns thanks to the experienced executives that Pepsi recruited, Pepsi was able to gain a stronger market-share for the first time in 1975. In 1974, Pepsi was the third largest-selling soft drink after Coke and Dr. Pepper. Researchers from Pepsi have shown that in a blind test the majority of consumers preferred Pepsi over Coke. This successful experiment which was called â€Å"The Pepsi Challenge† increased Pepsi’s market share and made it the number-two brand. After the great success that this challenge brought to Pepsi, Victor Bonomo, president of Pepsi USA in 1974, decided that the Pepsi challenge should be deployed I all market where Pepsi is weak. The spread of the Pepsi challenge led to an increase in Pepsi sales by 20% in the biggest cities of America. Pepsi launched the Challenge all over the nation in 1977, and after 3 years Pepsi brand was widely recognized in the U.S. and gave Pepsi an additional 1.3% market share lead over the rival Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola responded to the challenge by giving big discounts in certain markets where Coke has a competitive advantage over Pepsi and by stating that Coke’s bottlers are owned by Coca-Cola, but Pepsi bottlers are franchisees. Knowing that Coke and Pepsi is a standardized product, Coca-Cola used price as a market weapon to target Pepsi consumers. Coke tried to regain money lost that was a result of the huge discounts that the company kept on introducing, by selling franchisees the concentrate rather than the syrup they use in manufacturing the drinks. Roberto Goizueta became CEO of Coca-Cola in 1980, he introduced a 1200-word strategy statement, and the main aim of this statement is price discounting in order to regain Coke’s position in the market. Coca-Cola began to influence the ownership and management of the of their franchised bottlers, despite being committed to independent bottlers, they replaced bottlers in key markets that were not deemed sufficiently aggressive in selling their product. The CEO of Coca-Cola USA stated that the company had some role to play in the reasons the buyers purchase the product by offering in several instances to increase the numbers of their investments with the potential buyers. 2) Contribution The â€Å"Coca-Cola Versus Pepsi-Cola† case study was written to give the maximum amount of information to business-oriented individuals, it gave so much information about two of the most competitive companies throughout history; the paper illustrated the history of the two main soft drink companies and also talked about other companies that entered the industry. The irony is Pepsi and Coca-Cola were invented by pharmacists who are supposed to prescribe drugs to people and not give them beverages with high amounts of sugar and artificial tastes, the case explained how Pepsi and Coke changed people’s views of a beverage when the companies invented carbonated soda beverages. The paper explained in details the huge cola advertising war that started in the 1980s between the rival Coca-Cola and PepsiCo that caused a big revolution in the beverage industry and incentivized new companies to enter the industry and produce beverages with different flavors. The case explained the positioning of the two companies and showed the difference in the brand value of the companies. The case was great also in giving the comparative analysis between the two companies, giving the different products other than the main product that was first manufactured by the companies. The case also showed us how the companies implemented different strategies to increase revenues and to increase market share and gain the most competitive advantage. Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola SWOT analysis Strength: *Pepsi: Very Innovative, the broad portfolio of products, more flexible franchise network, aggressive marketing strategy. *Coca-Cola: One of the most valuable brands in the world, largest market share in the soft drink industry, and great customer loyalty Weakness: *Pepsi: Competition with Coke, higher prices than Coke, and lower net profit margin than Coca-Cola *Coca-Cola: Competition with Pepsi, relies on soft drinks, and lacks diversification Opportunities: *Pepsi: International expansion and growth in the bottled water industry *Coca-Cola: Reduce costs and increased demand for bottled water Threats: *Pepsi: Increased marketing campaigns by Coke and restrictions to sell in certain countries because Coke has control on them *Coca-Cola: Strong local brands in some countries and negative publicity Michael Porter’s 5 Forces on Pepsi and Coca-Cola Knowing that Pepsi and Coca-Cola have standardized products, I won’t need to talk about every company alone. The intensity of Rivalry between Competitors: Pepsi and Coke are historical competitors, in the 1980s; the rivalry between them was very ferocious, and the cola war occurred at that period of time to show which companies’ products taste better. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Suppliers have no power over Pepsi or Coca-Cola, it is very easy and cheap to buy all the ingredients to manufacture soft drinks, in fact, the competition between Pepsi and Coca-Cola’s suppliers is really strong because of the great and presence of all the material. In my opinion, Pepsi and Coca-Cola have power over their suppliers; this helps them in decreasing their costs a lot. Bargaining Power of Buyers: The power of buyers in the case of Coca-Cola and Pepsi is high, because the switching cost is low or even the same depending on the geographical segment; both companies try their best to gain customer loyalty, but Coke does it better by playing on its customers’ emotions in its advertisements. The threat of New Entrants: This force is low, the soft drink industry is very competitive if a possible new product enters the market, and it would be really expensive and hard to position in the very strong industry. Threat of Substitutes: This force is high, especially because of health trends that hit the community from time to time, bottled water and juice companies are working hard in order to gain a competitive advantage over Pepsi and Coke by showing consumers the bad effects and obesity that this soda beverage can cause to our health, this is causing a change Pepsi and Coca-Cola’s strategies and making them introduce diet beverages as mentioned in the case, or even causing the Pepsi and Coca-Cola to buy big companies that produce healthy beverages; as an example, Pepsi bought Aquafina in order to have an advantage over the competitor.

How Does the Bfg Function?

The BFG is a book about a little girl from an orphanage named Sophie who is lying awake in bed one night and sees a giant walking the streets. She tries to hide once she has seen him but it is too late. He takes her out of her room and runs back to his cave. At first she is worried that he is going to eat her but he is not that type of giant. He is known as the Big Friendly Giant and eats disgusting vegetables that taste like rotting frogs. His main idea of fun is catching dreams and blowing the happy ones into children’s bedrooms at night.The other nine giants however are man eating giants and they go to different countries every night to eat people. They take them from their homes while they are sleeping and eat them. Sophie thinks these other giants need to be stopped but they are a lot bigger and meaner than the BFG. In the end she does come up with a plan to mix up a dream to tell the queen of England what is going on with these giants. Sophie and the BFG create a dream t hat tells the queen all about the bad giants and what they do at night and about her and the good giant.When the queen awakes Sophie is on her windowsill to confirm the dream and to help create a plan of action. After a very interesting breakfast during which the BFG is sitting on a piano piled with other things for his chair and a ping pong table on top of four grandfather clocks for his table then the queen invites the heads of the military in to create a plan. They decide to catch the giants while they are sleeping and carry them off with helicopters.In the end the bad giants are forced to stay in a huge pit and they are fed the disgusting vegetables that the BFG was forced to eat before. The BFG gets a nice huge house next to the castle and Sophie gets a little cottage next to him and the BFG writes a book about his experiences, which as we find out in the end is the BFG, the book we just read. Personal Notes: This is a really fun and quick book. Easy to read and grabs the reade r’s attention. I really liked the parts where Dahl makes up new words for things.I think it creates a sense of wonder in the children. I remember when I used to read his books and they included words that weren’t really words that this was fun. I never mistook them for real words or used them in school, that might make me look funny, but I loved the way he used them just the same. I think that is very applicable in a book about things that don’t really exist, man eating giants, it helps the reader appreciate that these things aren’t real and adds imagination to it.

Free Essays on The Battle Of Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg was â€Å"one of the deadliest battles ever fought on North American soil† (Internet Resource 4). More soldiers fought and died in the Gettysburg Battle than in any other battle in America. There were â€Å"more than 2,000 land engagements of the Civil War† (Internet Resource 4), but Gettysburg ranks supreme. Although the Battle of Gettysburg did not end the war, nor did it start the Civil War, it still remains the most important battle of the war. The Confederate army carried Generals and Commanders far more experienced and enhanced when compared to that of the Union. John Buford was the commanding officer for the Northern union at Gettysburg. Within six months of his having played a key role in the opening of the battle of Gettysburg, John Buford died from typhoid fever. Robert E. Lee was the great, powerful Southern confederate General and he decided to move the war north. He planned to obliterate the railroad bridge at Harrisburg, then "turn my attention to Philadelphia, Baltimore, or Washington as may seem best for our interest."(Internet Resource 4) After the extensive march north, Confederate troops were spread out all the way from Chambersburg, through Carlisle, and into York. Towns across southern Pennsylvania were being "explored"(Internet resource 4) for greatly needed supplies to carry on the Southern offensive. While looking in Gettysburg, Pettigrew's brigade looked around and eventually found Bufordâ₠¬â„¢s cavalry on the ridge one mile west of the town. The Battle of Gettysburg began after that sight on July 1-3, 1863 when Confederate troops attacked the Union cavalry division on McPherson Ridge, just west of town. Out-numbered, the Union forces managed to hold, and even force the Confederate troops back, after the much needed addition of John Reynold's infantry division. They triumphed until late afternoon, when they were overwhelmed by supplementary southern troops, and driven a... Free Essays on The Battle Of Gettysburg Free Essays on The Battle Of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg was â€Å"one of the deadliest battles ever fought on North American soil† (Internet Resource 4). More soldiers fought and died in the Gettysburg Battle than in any other battle in America. There were â€Å"more than 2,000 land engagements of the Civil War† (Internet Resource 4), but Gettysburg ranks supreme. Although the Battle of Gettysburg did not end the war, nor did it start the Civil War, it still remains the most important battle of the war. The Confederate army carried Generals and Commanders far more experienced and enhanced when compared to that of the Union. John Buford was the commanding officer for the Northern union at Gettysburg. Within six months of his having played a key role in the opening of the battle of Gettysburg, John Buford died from typhoid fever. Robert E. Lee was the great, powerful Southern confederate General and he decided to move the war north. He planned to obliterate the railroad bridge at Harrisburg, then "turn my attention to Philadelphia, Baltimore, or Washington as may seem best for our interest."(Internet Resource 4) After the extensive march north, Confederate troops were spread out all the way from Chambersburg, through Carlisle, and into York. Towns across southern Pennsylvania were being "explored"(Internet resource 4) for greatly needed supplies to carry on the Southern offensive. While looking in Gettysburg, Pettigrew's brigade looked around and eventually found Bufordâ₠¬â„¢s cavalry on the ridge one mile west of the town. The Battle of Gettysburg began after that sight on July 1-3, 1863 when Confederate troops attacked the Union cavalry division on McPherson Ridge, just west of town. Out-numbered, the Union forces managed to hold, and even force the Confederate troops back, after the much needed addition of John Reynold's infantry division. They triumphed until late afternoon, when they were overwhelmed by supplementary southern troops, and driven a...