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.
If Jackson had not been shot by his own men by mistake, Lee would have more than likely listened to him.
There were several small things that if they had been different, the outcome would have been different... Like much of history.
“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.
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.
Gen Longstreet (not without his faults) had a large bullseye on his back from the 1870’s(+). Freeman, and later Dowdey’s EPIC Lee biography in 1965 picks, carries on the disdain for Longstreet. Never misses an oppt’y to beat on him. No doubt to build up the South’s much needed hero status toward Lee and find fault elsewhere. Longstreet’s joining the R Party later sealed the deal even his family considered him a traitor at that point.
Yes.
Agree wholeheartedly with all of the above.
Also, what the heck was Stuart doing, do we know?