In the Civil War, the use of geospatial intelligence was crucial to many battles, and ultimately the Union Army’s effective use of GEOINT led to their success. General Lee was not able to effectively utilize forms of intelligence to determine location of opposition soldiers and was hindered in his ability to monitor troop movements. The Union army established an intelligence service with the intent to utilize covert and conventional methods to gather crucial information about the opposing force’s locations and strategies. This service was successful in orchestrating troop movements and planned retreats. Flaw that was noticed was the vast amounts of input to the service and a lack of vetting pertinent information. This overload of information caused vital intelligence to be lost in the mix of other non-important intelligence.
At the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union Army effectively utilized geospatial intelligence to for a strategic front to counter the Confederate Army that outnumbered the Union. The way the Union Army prepared themselves prior to engaging in conflict, enabled them to retreat to a strategic defensive position that would place their troops on the high ground. This enabled the scouts to monitor Confederate movements and plan coordinated attacks on the enemy troops and ultimately win a pivotal battle.