[James Ewell Brown Stuart]

I agree that it was a raid designed to feed his army and resupply it. It was also designed to draw the Union army after him - to relieve war torn Virginia and help the farmers.

What opportunity did he miss?

[PzLdr]

Strategic redeployment to Tennessee. The Army of the Potomac was in no shape for offensive operations after Fredericksburg, the Mud March and Chancellorsville.

The strategic center of gravity was [and remained] the west. Grant was besieging Vicksburg. When he took it, the U.S controls the Mississippi, and cuts off the Trans Mississippi from the rest of the Confederacy. By moving west, Lee could have consolidated two thirds of his Army, with the Army of Tennessee. As senior, he would have superceded Braxton Bragg as CG. His strategic options included: marching against Grant's rear [forcing him to either fight, or withdraw], feinting toward, or invading Kentucky [drawing off Union forces from Grant], moving against Grant's supply lines, and either forcing battle, or forcing withdrawal or redeployment.

Lee had one of the finest operational level minds [to use the German concept of the term] of any Civil War or American general. His strategic grasp is not as good, however.

[traviskicks]

yea I think that's why it was done, but I think it was also a mistake as it put some damper on the claim the confederacy was only about succession. I think the confederacy was only about succsession, so that's why I think this was a mistake. That said, I'm happy they lost, as the Confederacy represented Big Government much greater than the Union, as they legally enslaved a fifth of their population, hardly the definition of a free society.