Posted on Jul 21, 2017
Should Lee have listened to Longstreet's advice and not have attacked the Union Center on Day 3 of Gettysburg?
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Civil War
Tactics
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Fascinating observations from a total grunt. Your perceptions and insights are excellent reads! Or as we say here in the south...
Y'all are talking real funny! General Lee don't make mistakes! Its was the other 75,000 people that just got confused! lol
If the cavalry charge of Little Round Top and Big Round Top on day 2 were more intense and could have turned the left flank of the Union line, General Meade would have had to dedicate a great deal more resources to that attack, weakening the power of the center of the line, making the full frontal assault successful!
Thank God it failed!!!
Y'all are talking real funny! General Lee don't make mistakes! Its was the other 75,000 people that just got confused! lol
If the cavalry charge of Little Round Top and Big Round Top on day 2 were more intense and could have turned the left flank of the Union line, General Meade would have had to dedicate a great deal more resources to that attack, weakening the power of the center of the line, making the full frontal assault successful!
Thank God it failed!!!
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I'd say it is hard to answer this without looking at a more macro picture of the war itself. The Union strength was steadily increasing and the Confederate strength was slowly decreasing. Prolonging the war wasn't a viable path to victory for the Confederates and they were forced to take more and more chances to continue to keep themselves together, eventually one of those gambles was going to fail.
At that point there best path to victory was to try and force a settlement before they were overwhelmed, which is why they were in PA but they could only maintain that for a short period too. Should they have taken that particular risk? In hindsight no. Perhaps they could have waited for the Union to attack instead but it also seemed the Union was constantly sending in more troops, their chance to put pressure on DC was slowly expiring and it's always possible the Union would have continued a blocking action. Lee made another gamble while he still could. The others paid off and perhaps he was waiting for a mistake to exploit as had happened in the past.
Unlike the Union, the Confederates couldn't lose such a gamble but not taking them was going to result in a loss too.
At that point there best path to victory was to try and force a settlement before they were overwhelmed, which is why they were in PA but they could only maintain that for a short period too. Should they have taken that particular risk? In hindsight no. Perhaps they could have waited for the Union to attack instead but it also seemed the Union was constantly sending in more troops, their chance to put pressure on DC was slowly expiring and it's always possible the Union would have continued a blocking action. Lee made another gamble while he still could. The others paid off and perhaps he was waiting for a mistake to exploit as had happened in the past.
Unlike the Union, the Confederates couldn't lose such a gamble but not taking them was going to result in a loss too.
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LTC Orlando Illi
Shelby Foote, esteemed historian, seems to believe that Lee's victory at Chancelorsville imbued in him a sense of invulnerability. I believe that may have been the case. Why else would Lee have apologized to his men after the charge?
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SPC Kevin Ford
LTC Orlando Illi - That's what I've read too, he seemed to believe his veterans could take on the Union troops that where as a whole much greener. He also wanted to keep hitting the Union army before they had a chance to assemble. He pushed it too far on day three and the Union army had indeed to a large extent assembled.
If anything perhaps needed to adapt as the premise in his own strategy changed, since they had assembled, it was time to stop. Instead he rolled the dice again, it had worked for him before.
If anything perhaps needed to adapt as the premise in his own strategy changed, since they had assembled, it was time to stop. Instead he rolled the dice again, it had worked for him before.
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He should not of he should of kept the old plan of bring them to you from a position of strength.
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LTC Orlando Illi
SSG Howell. Thanks for your response. If I may be permitted to offer a rebuttal. I have studied this battle since High School and still remain unconvinced that Lee made the correct decision. A case in point was Lee's desire to use massed Artillery to dislodge the Union Center prior to the attack. Records indicate that COL Alexander's Confederate Artillery bombardment, comprised of @ 172 guns, commenced at @13:00 and ended at @ 15:50. While the sound effect was stupendous; the accuracy was not as many of his rounds were fired high and as result only about 200 of the 5750 infantrymen deployed in this sector were killed or wounded. Accordingly, the artillery preparation that Lee desired a failure. Consequently, 15,000 men marched into concentrated artillery and musket fire. For a more recent parallel occurrence please consider the Battle of the Somme. In both battles infantry marched to their deaths without hesitation. Unfortunately, while their valorous conduct under fire is the stuff of legend; their sacrifice was for naught.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme
Battle of the Somme - Wikipedia
The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme, German: Schlacht an der Somme), also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the River Somme in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies and was the largest battle of the...
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CPT Lawrence Cable
LTC Orlando Illi - I agree that it was one of Lee's biggest mistakes. I'm unimpressed with Lee as an offensive commander, he gambled the lives of his men, seemed relatively uncaring about mass casualties and was saved on both of his Offensive Campaigns by timid Union generals that didn't vigorously pursue the retreating Confederates. In this case, ineffectual Confederate Artillery while the whole field was in range of the Union guns on both Heights, including their staging area. The Union positions were laid out such that reinforcements could be moved rapidly from one place to another and this time they had the Stone Wall. When you throw in the sunken road and fences, what cohesion the units had to that point were gone.
I think Sherman was one of the few Generals of the day that understood what the advances in weapon technology meant to tactics.
I think Sherman was one of the few Generals of the day that understood what the advances in weapon technology meant to tactics.
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