[stainlessbanner]

One comment on the raids, Lee never sought to occupy or conquer, I believe the intent was to gain recognition of soveriengty for the Southern states.

[since 1854]

Lee tried to incorporate Maryland into the Confederacy.

[PzLdr]

I meant 'raid' as opposed to 'invasion'. I have never found any objective mentioned [either geographic or military, in the sense of bringing the Army of the Potomac to battle] related to Lee's 1863 campaign, that would cause me to characterize it as an invasion in the classic military sense.

That leads to two questions. What was its purpose? And in light of your post, how, absent the above mentioned objectives,would it achieve the goal of Southern sovereignty?

As to the purpose, I think it was twofold, as I argued: Economically, to live off the North, and spare Northern Virginia for a campaigning season; politically, to scotch the idea of sending Lee and a large portion of his Army away from his beloved Virginia.

As to the second issue, I don't believe Lee's 1863 campaign would have helped the South achieve the recognition it needed. The move to Tennessee might have, especially since a victory there would have had more far reaching repercussions than Lee's raid [absent the battle of Gettysburg]. But while Lee had one of the finest operational minds of the war, his strategic vision wasn't commensurate with it, and he missed the opportunity.

[XRdsRev]

Not true. When the Confederate Army entered Maryland in 1862, they fully believed that the men of Maryland would rise up and join the Southern Confederacy thus seperating Maryland from the rest of the Union and cutting off Washington.

[James Ewell Brown Stuart]

According to Lee, he had one goal for going into Maryland. To feed and resupply his army. Everything else was secondary.

[Non-Sequitur]

One comment on the raids, Lee never sought to occupy or conquer, I believe the intent was to gain recognition of soveriengty for the Southern states.

Try again. His goal was to feed the Army of Northern Virginia off the Northern population for a while, and to gather enough food and supplies by to maintain his army when he returned to the South. He accomplished this by stripping the countryside of everything edible and which he could use for his men and sending it South. That goal occupied his thoughts, governed his actions, and was somewhat successful. Even after his fiasco at Gettysburg he returned to Virginia with most of his looted goods. Of course, it was at the expense of leaving 7,000 wounded behind.