Battle of Gettysburg - Turning Point in Civil War

American Minute ^ | July 3, 2019 | Bill Federer

[central_va]

Longstreet gets a lot of flack for giving his blunt assessment to Lee but heck, he almost pulled off the impossible that day. The fighting on cemetery ridge was a close run thing.

[Mr Rogers]

My grandfather’s Dad fought in the Civil War for Indiana. I have no idea what unit he was in. After the war, he named one of his sons after Robert E Lee.

[Sans-Culotte]

Pickett’s Charge, which was ill-conceived, was Lee’s only real option left on the 3rd day. I think he knew it was very likely to fail, but he had not other option than to try to ‘close the deal’.

All of the Confederate attacks the previous days had been devastating. Lee probably thought the charge would be enough to break through. Almost was. The Union soldiers really fought well to fend off all the assaults in that battle.

[RayChuang88]

I'd STILL like to know why Lee ordered Pickett's Charge on the third day of the battle. You'd think they would know the history of the Battle of Bunker Hill, where the British got repulsed twice by the Colonials on the top of Breed's Hill and only took it because the Colonials ran out of ammunition.

[SunkenCiv]

General George Meade was a classic counterpuncher. Chose his ground well, stuck to his plan.

[llevrok]

There were several small things that if they had been different, the outcome would have been different... Like much of history.

As the old saying goes, for want of a nail, a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe, the horse was lost....

[SunkenCiv]

I wholeheartedly agree.

[Midwesterner53]

“If the spirit of America were killed, even though the Nation’s body ... lived on, the America we know would have perished.” And this is exactly the purpose of the left today, pushed on by their elected officials, media allies and now sports figures who daily display their hatred of our ideals and country.

[circlecity]

While Gettysburg is easily the most fascinating Battle of the war, I’ve always considered Chattanooga to be the turning point. That’s the Union victory that convinced Lincoln (and congress) to promote Grant to military commander in chief in charge of all union forces and for Lincoln to give him carte blanche in whatever he wanted to do. After that it was only a matter of time.

[traderrob6]

“Ewell should’ve take that hill.
Lee should’ve listened to Longstreet.
Stuart should’ve been there by the 1st.

It wasn’t just one mistake that cost them the battle.”

All true.

[central_va]

Day 1

[central_va]

The fall of Atlanta was the beginning of the end. The war was unpopular in the South after that. It was mostly unpopular in the North for most of the entire war until then. Atlanta changed everything.

[Lonely Are The Brave]

lee’s plan was to use stuart’s cavalry to smash the union from behind during pickett’s charge. custer’s cavalry engaged stuart’s men and prevented that from happening ...

put me in that camp of belief ...

[HereInTheHeartland]

I have been to Cold Harbor, a much less known battlefield.
It’s a powerful thing to walk across the killing field where thousands fell in minutes.

[tm61]

Do a google search for Indiana digital archives

You should be able to enter his name and see if
Its listed in military records

[Doche2X2]

It’s interesting how some of us, if we’re old enough, still have memories of relatives who remembered someone who fought at Gettysburg. My Aunt told me stories about my gg grandfather who fought with the 18th Mississippi (Barksdale’s Brigade). Barksdale was killed there.

[circlecity]

"The Army of Northern Virginia (of which my gg grandpa was an infantry soldier in the 29th VA infantry) failed to take the high ground of Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill on day 1. It easily could’ve been taken."

Maybe it could have been taken but it sure wouldn't have been easy. Union Artillery commander Henry Hunt had been on Cemetery hill all afternoon placing his guns and would have rained hell on any attacking forces. We've seen too often what happened to soldiers in the civil war attacking an uphill position against artillery. Further, Ewell's army was pretty played out by that time, which was the excuse Ewell and Early gave for not attacking.

But Jackson would have attacked that hill. Jackson, like Grant, realized that if you give the enemy time to fortify on good ground the results are much worse than going right then with what you've got, despite an apparent mismatch. It was only going to be worse the next day so if they wanted to "take that hill", this was the time to do it. Damn the torpedoes. But that's what makes Gettysburg such a fascinating battle. So many "what ifs".

[circlecity]

"I have been to Cold Harbor,..."

7 thousand union casualties in the first 20 minutes. Grant's biggest mistake and he admitted as such.

[Hootowl]

Most likely Lee would have won at Gettysburg but for Ewell’s inaction, but part of the fault also lies with Lee, who, in his courtly manner of speaking, told Ewell to attack Cemetery Hill “if practicable.” Jackson would understood that to be an order and attacked the hill that day, swept the hill clear of Yankees, and held the Union flank. Ewell heard it as a suggestion and decided it was more practicable to give his soldiers a hot meal and a night’s rest. By the time he attacked the next day the Union soldiers well reinforced and well dug in.

[circlecity]

I hope this thread gets some action. Being a civil war buff I always love a good civil war thread, and FR has had some good ones over the years. Lot’s of well studied civil war buffs on FR and the threads are always educational, lively and interesting. If you’re in to that sort of thing.