[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Gettysburg would have very differently had Jackson been there, he being the most brilliant flanker of the war.

[RedMonqey]

Gettysburg would have very differently had Jackson been there

Jackson had the "gravitas"(sp)that the other generals lacked to challenge Lee's fateful decision to charge the well fortified positions the Union established.

Victory on the Gettysburg battlefield was at long odds prospect even if with faithful Jackson at Lee's call and an withdrawal from the would have only prolonged the war.

Given the might of the industrialized north, the South's only hope of ending the war rested upon the political defeat of Lincoln in the upcoming election.



Lee took the gamble, lost and thus the war was essentially over...

Just my humble opinion.

[Hacksaw]

Gettysburg would have very differently had Jackson been there, he being the most brilliant flanker of the war.

JEB Stuart taking a tour of Pennsylvania while Lee needed him didn't help either. "... the absence of the cavalry rendered it impossible to obtain accurate information. ... By the route [Stuart] pursued, the Federal Army was interposed between his command and our main body, preventing any communication with him until his arrival at Carlisle. The march toward Gettysburg was conducted more slowly than it would have been had the movements of the Federal Army been known" (from Lee)