Watch VoirFilms. Lasting two bloody days in July 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg was a fight of epic proportions between the armies of the North and South. In the end, tens of thousands of Americans died in battle in the most extensive war ever to be waged in the United States. Get a first-hand account of what it was like for the soldiers in this faithful re-creation based on a moving letter written by Union Lieutenant Frank A. Haskell to his family.