Posted on 07/01/2010 4:15:44 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
Jul 1, 1863:
The Battle of Gettysburg begins
The largest military conflict in North American history begins this day when Union and Confederate forces collide at Gettysburg. The epic battle lasted three days and resulted in a retreat to Virginia by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
Two months prior to Gettysburg, Lee had dealt a stunning defeat to the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville. He then made plans for a Northern invasion in order to relieve pressure on war-weary Virginia and to seize the initiative from the Yankees. His army, numbering about 80,000, began moving on June 3. The Army of the Potomac, commanded by Joseph Hooker and numbering just under 100,000, began moving shortly thereafter, staying between Lee and Washington, D.C. But on June 28, frustrated by the Lincoln administration's restrictions on his autonomy as commander, Hooker resigned and was replaced by George G. Meade.
Meade took command of the Army of the Potomac as Lee's army moved into Pennsylvania. On the morning of July 1, advance units of the forces came into contact with one another just outside of Gettysburg. The sound of battle attracted other units, and by noon the conflict was raging. During the first hours of battle, Union General John Reynolds was killed, and the Yankees found that they were outnumbered. The battle lines ran around the northwestern rim of Gettysburg. The Confederates applied pressure all along the Union front, and they slowly drove the Yankees through the town.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
Absolutely correct! Because of him the Union got that good high ground Lee spent so much of his army trying to eject them from.
I can't imagine what was going through his mind as he galloped towards Gettysburg on this night 147 years ago.
Meade was a decisive thinker and rapid planner, and (people here should like this) saw his reputation suffer after the war because he (figuratively) bitch-slapped some journalists. Heh. Go George!
The matchup was just good enough (and Lee’s reputation for unexpected, often risky, and very often decisive adaptations) that Meade couldn’t bring sufficiently overwhelming force to bear, but he had the high ground. That matchup was just good enough that Lee decided to fight it out right there, before Union reinforcements could be brought up.
On what would have been day four, Meade didn’t want to blow what was obviously a victory by launching an attack, having seen how effective his own strategy had been against Lee’s three main attacks. Lee braced for it, it never came, and he had his entire surviving force slip out under cover of darkness. Meade didn’t pursue. Meade’s apparent timidity showed he wasn’t the quite enough the guy to finish the job, and Lincoln made Grant commander of the whole works. Meade remained at Grant’s side for the duration.
Even with a Lee victory at Gettysburg, would he have been able to exploit the victory there into victory for the Confederacy?
I think the argument that Vicksburg was the more strategically important of the two July 1863 Union victories is pretty compelling.
Gingrich and Forstchen, in their "Gettysburg" series, where Lee wins a decisive victory at Gettysburg, go on to paint a scenario where he fails (barely) to capture D.C., then Grant, with men from the West and the remainder of the Army of the Potomac, trap Lee between forces from Washington and the Union Army to the north. Quite plausible.
OT LS but just heard your interview on Janet Mefferd - great job from this fellow Daytonian albeit a MBA grad from WSU.
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