The fight itself was awful, but it set the stage for eventual victory. Key point: As bad as many things are today, most Americans have not had to endure the hellish battlefields of the Civil War. Here is how the Battle of Gettysburg was especially brutal. November 8 witnessed one of the most stunning upsets in U.S. political history when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. But it might not have been the most stunning upset. 150 years earlier, also on November 8, a U.S. presidential election produced a shocking winner in what may be the most consequential election ever held in America.