I've always thought that General Lee was one of our countries greatest tacticians, but he really blew it during the summer months of 1863. Why fight at Gettysburg? He could have easily turned south towards the capital or even an easier victory that would have been to turn west towards Pittsburgh and burn it to the ground. Thereby destroying a lot of the Union's supplies. I'm sure Sun Tszu would have recommended that.
The Confederacy coveted Pittsburgh while the Union had its eyes set on the Hornets Nest of Charlotte. Neither achieved their goals.
Although there were certainly fortifications dug to prepare Pittsburgh for a Confederate assault. The ruins of one can be found not far from where I grew up. The local garrison commander was authorized to hire “as many men as necessary” to dig them. Reportedly a lot of them did not get paid. Some of their families were still trying to collect from the Federal Government as late as the 1970’s.
Lee's strategy was to engage the enemy and destroy his army in detail.
He fought at Gettysburg because that is where his forces found the Union forces.
If he defeated Meade at Gettysburg and destroyed his army, the only thing standing between the ANV and Washington DC would have been the understrength perimeter troops.
“...A Nation Saved...”
The Civil war marks the end of the Constitution. The Nation died. It has been decomposing ever since.
Why did Lee attack at Gettysburg?
The historians argue variously that Lee underestimated the Union Army’s strength, as Jeb Stuart’s division was not in position to provide reconnaissance; or, that he was overly confident in his and his men’s ability to defeat the Union Army (due to prior success).
Longstreet, in his memoirs, and aided perhaps by hindsight, says that at a war council he recommended Lee form his army into a defensive position and allow the Yankees to exhaust themselves attacking them. He (Longstreet) argued that the Yankees would have significant forces (by extrapolating the march of Union units from various positions to the site of the battle), and would be able to reinforce the middle of their line since their line bent inward.
Longstreet, who became a Republican after the war, and as commander of police and militia forces, unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the Klan from taking over Louisiana during the reconstruction period, came to be blamed by The Lost Cause for not having his corps ready early enough on the morning of Pickett’s Charge.
The piece is written from the perspective of Pittsburgh, which makes it fresh, although its real focus is the battle. All across the north, Yankees were aroused by the advance of Lee northward, by his commandeering of supplies and his capture of blacks to send them south as slaves. Militia units and volunteers raced to Harrisburg, to be organized into a new army under the command of the Governor, should the Army of the Potomac have been defeated.
Lincoln may have started the war to preserve the Union, but had to issue the Emancipation Proclamation to sustain the support of the people of the North. Historians can debate the real cause of the war, but to the farm boys and town clerks that filled the ranks of the Union Army, the reason was obvious.
I also recommend some of the short stories of Thomas Wolfe whose father was a witness to the Gettysburg battle. Amazing tales and some humor too.
“One of the things the rest of the country may not realize is the panic that went through Pittsburgh during this time.”
Of course, “the rest of the country may not realize the panic” that all Southern citizens went through after John Brown’s raid; after all the threats from Northern newspapers, the Union congress’ early financing of war material, the Union senators’ threats from the floor of the “all the peoples, by the peoples, and for the peoples” government buildings, and Lincoln’s inaugural promise to invade if the tariffs were not paid.
The “panic” you described was overstated and irrelevant to what the Southern citizens and their government anticipated.
The armies blundered into one another by accident. Gettysburg was not a planned event, but born of the of of war...
the infowarrior
... In decades to come, "Mellon" will become one of the city’s, and country’s, most prominent names. ...
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Uh ... okay ...