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. This inaction allowed the Union to dig in and have superb defensive positions in which they could easily move troops to and fro via their horseshoe style placement of their lines. The ANV never really had a chance at Gettysburg thereafter.
Now, one could say the Union simply would’ve retreated and taken the high ground some 30 odd miles away where they thought the big fight was going to be anyway and Gettysburg would’ve simply been a small skirmish in the bowels of Civil War history, but.... maybe they wouldn’t have retreated. We’ll never know.
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’.
I’ve been to Gettysburg many times... it’s hallowed ground, with amazing energy and the battlefield is very much like it was in July of ‘63.
For the record, the 29th Virginia Infantry, which was part of Pickett’s Division, was pulled back at the last minute by Lee and assigned the duty of defending Richmond while the rest of the ANV moved into PA. So my gg-grandpa was not at Gettysburg... but he did fight in 13 major engagement and was only 1 of 31 members of the 29th to surrender at Appomattox with Lee in April of ‘65. Original muster roll had 771 soldiers if I remember. Almost half were casualties during the Bermuda 100 campaign in May of 1864.
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.
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.
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".
Ditto. I visited Gettysburg many times as well. I preferred going in December and January when I had the park basically to myself. Can't remember the last time I was there. General Francis Channing Barlow...Barlow's Knoll...July 1st, 1863. His first wife Arabella contracted typhus while serving as an Army nurse. He later married Ellen Shaw, sister of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. I met, visited, and corresponded with a collateral relative of Shaw's. His name was Reverend Robert Shaw Sturgis Whitman. At that time he recalled having visited "cousin Nellie" as a young boy. She was a widow by then. And he took us by the house she and Barlow had once lived in.
Reverand Whitman was a WWII vet, and graciously welcomed me into his home while I was researching his family history. He showed me around his home in Lenox, and told me that his aunt Helen Whitman was married to the famous "Nuts" McAuliffe.
Another ancestor of his...can't remember if it was his great or great-great grandfather Colonel Royal Emerson Whitman, had served in a Maine unit during the Civil War, and eventually commanded Camp Grant, Arizona in 1871. Colonel Whitman had worked to get members of the Aravaipa Apaches to come to the camp. They had been driven off their land by settlers. Those that hadn't come to the fort were attacked by a group of Tucson citizens, Mexicans, and their accomplices from the Tohono O'odham tribe. The camp consisted mostly of old men, women and children. Those killed were all scalped. The children who were allowed to live, were sold into slavery in Mexico. Whitman fought hard to have the individuals who perpetrated the attack held accountable. There was a trial, but no one was ever convicted for the attack.
Whitman was a drinker, and a womanizer. He'd been busted a few times by the Army, and his personal military record at the National Archives was extremely interesting to read. During my research of newspapers, I found that he had purchased the old, wooden bridge in Washington, D.C. and had canes made out of it to sell. Long Bridge as it was called, was the bridge that Booth and Davy Harold rode over the night of Lincoln's assassination. Whitman is buried in Arlington. He was friends with Gutzon Borglum of Mount Rushmore fame, and Borglum designed Whitman's bas relief headstone.
Our gr. gr. gr. grandfather was in the 14th Tennessee Regiment from the start when it was formed in Clarksville in May 1861. His division was at Gettysburg under Archer’s Brigade and was part of Pickett’s charge. It had three color bearers shot down, one made it to the Federal’s breast works. Gettysburg’s nearly destroyed the 14th on the first day but the remaining soldier’s reformed and was part of Pickett’s charge on his left at The Angle.
He, while in the 14th, fought in the Battles of Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Shepherdstown, Ox Hill, Cedar Mountain, Manassas, Sharpsburg, Harper’s Ferry Frazier’s Farm, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Falling Waters, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg,
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It was at the Battle of Hatcher’s Run was where he was wounded in the arm(”shot all to pieces” he described in his pension application)
He was in Chimborazo Hospital No 5 recovering from his wounds when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox
He was among the handful who joined the 14th from the beginning to live to return to Montgomery County.
After the war, he would attend the Forbes Bivouac, a reunion event for the members of the !4th started in 1888 and Andrew attended until 1914.
He never took The Oath and was an “unreconstructed Rebel” to the day he died.
He had two younger brothers in the 49th Tennessee Infantry Div at Fort Donelson, one brother, Melville joined Bedford Forrest in escaping the surrender by wading a frozen creek bottom to fight again when it was reformed, along with pardoned prisoners and went south to fightin Alabama, Mississippi Georgia and surrendered in the Carolinas. Many cousins and men on my dad’s people fought in the 49th as well but research in them has hit a few road bumps.
Went to a reenactment at Gettysburg some 20 years ago. Kids and women on the battlefield. Brought home that these people fought for what they personally believed in.
Got home and read “The Killer Angels”
After this thread, it’s time to re-read.
On a side note one of the neighborhoods in my town in the peoples republic of Montgomery County had a Jeb Stuart Drive. That was renamed during Bammy’s administration.
Lee may have felt like he didn't have any other options, but that was the problem.
Fatalism sets in over the course of a war, and generals often make foolish choices because they no longer see other options.