[RayChuang88]

I my humble opinion, the biggest blunder the Confederates made was the infamous Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863 against the Union positions on Cemetery Ridge. You'd think the very able Confederate commanders would have figured out the lessons of the Battle of Bunker Hill (the British lost over 1,000 soldiers in taking Breed's Hill) and NOT do a direct frontal attack on enemy position that had a major height and sight advantage over the attackers.

[central_va]

Actually, IMO Pickett’s Charge was so devastating to both sides it prevented Meade from pursuing Lee across the Potomac.

[XRdsRev]

I disagree that it was their biggest blunder of the war. Frontal assaults against enemy positions were not an uncommon tactic during the Civil War. The federals did the same thing many time (Antietam, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg). I would submit that the Confederacy’s biggest tactical military blunder was not pushing on to Washington DC after the First battle of Manassas in 1861. They were facing a disorganized and shattered Federal Army in full retreat and did not press the advantage they had. Never again did they have such an opportunity as presented itself then.

[K-Stater]

You'd think the very able Confederate commanders would have figured out the lessons of the Battle of Bunker Hill (the British lost over 1,000 soldiers in taking Breed's Hill) and NOT do a direct frontal attack on enemy position that had a major height and sight advantage over the attackers.

You's think that any commander would have figured out the lessons, especially considering how he slaughtered his own troops on the slope at Malvern Hill a little over a year before, and had massacred the Federal Troops storming is army on Marye's Heights outside of Fredericksburg the previous December.

[Joe 6-pack]

"You'd think the very able Confederate commanders would...NOT do a direct frontal attack on enemy position that had a major height and sight advantage over the attackers."

I went to Gettysburg College and spent quite a bit of my four years on the battlefield. One curious thing I noticed about the landscape is that visually, the elevation (and distance) of the Union lines do not appear quite as obvious from the area that is now Confederate Ave. One can readily envision how one might be tempted to think a massed infantry charge might shatter the union lines. Conversely, once you're over on the union side, the height advantage becomes much more apparent.