As an Arizonan, and thus beside, if not above the fray, there are a few observations I would like to make about General Lee.
First and foremost, by all accounts he was a gentleman, in the truest sense of the word. As such, he stands out from both sides in the conflict in trying to maintain honor at the cusp of a more genteel age and the insane brutality of the industrial age.
He was seriously handicapped in many ways. First and foremost, his age, which also penalized much of the command staff of the Confederacy, compared to the Union command staff, who on average were far younger.
The political organization of the Confederacy, as well as the military, left much to be desired, and severely hindered Lee’s war effort. Learned, professional soldiers were still a rarity on either side, and only long after the war did W.T. Sherman found the Command School to train senior officers in the arts of war. During the war, many senior officers on both sides were eccentric, unstable, and incompetent.
A very strong argument can be made that Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg, however, can be attributed to Lee’s scholarship. Specifically, when looking at the battleground and distribution of forces, it was irresistible to Lee to see the comparison with the Napoleonic battle of Austerlitz, perhaps the most studied battle of all time, and regarded as a masterpiece of tactics and maneuver.
Despite the very determined advice of his capable subordinates, who kept their objectivity, and had little doubt that to carry out Lee’s orders would be disastrous, Lee, who was exhausted, decided to repeat history to devastating effect against the Union forces.
And Gettysburg was not Austerlitz.
Gettysburg was not Austerlitz.
Indeed it was not. A bit more like BOrodino actually.
Also, most folks do not realize that he suffered a massive heart attack just after Chancellorsville, and had not recovered when he launched the Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania a couple of weeks later. Throughout the Battle of Gettysburg, it's been documented that he was quite ill and not thinking clearly.
Specifically, when looking at the battleground and distribution of forces, it was irresistible to Lee to see the comparison with the Napoleonic battle of Austerlitz, perhaps the most studied battle of all time, and regarded as a masterpiece of tactics and maneuver.
Keep in mind too that by the time of Gettysburg, Lee had enjoyed his own successes, which paradoxically worked against him during that battle. For instance, he had seen first hand before at Gaines Mill, 2nd Bull Run, and at Chancellorsville, that his men could undertake successful frontal assaults at critical moments. He thought that they could do it again at Gettysburg, but he was wrong due to any number of reasons.