Posted on 07/02/2007 4:21:52 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
1863 : The second day of battle at Gettysburg
General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia attacks General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac at both Culp's Hill and Little Round Top, but fails to move the Yankees from their positions.
On the north end of the line, or the Union's right flank, Confederates from General Richard Ewell's corps struggled up Culp's Hill, which was steep and heavily wooded, before being turned back by heavy Union fire. But the most significant action was on the south end of the Union line. General James Longstreet's corps launched an attack against the Yankees, but only after a delay that allowed additional Union troops to arrive and position themselves along Cemetery Ridge. Many people later blamed Longstreet for the Confederates' eventual defeat. Still, the Confederates had a chance to destroy the Union left flank when General Daniel Sickles moved his corps, against Meade's orders, from their position on the ridge to open ground around the Peach Orchard. This move separated Sickles' force from the rest of the Union army, and Longstreet attacked. Although the Confederates were able to take the Peach Orchard, they were repulsed by Yankee opposition at Little Round Top. Some of the fiercest fighting took place on this day, and both armies suffered heavy casualties.
Lee's army regrouped that evening and planned for one last assault against the Union center on July 3. That attack, Pickett's charge, would represent the high tide of Confederate fortunes.
You got that right! Amazing that Lee did not listen to Longstreet. Did you know that Pickett blamed Lee for the loss of his division and never forgave him?
The loss of Jackson was the loss of Lee’s tactical equal. These two on the same battlefield were one continuing disaster for the North. Had he lived, moving him to the west would have prolonged the war to the point of saving the Confederacy.
“I’ve often wondered, what the hell was General Lee thinking. Longstreet knew the attack would fail and warned Lee against it.”
Had the artillery been effective, then it very well might’ve worked. It had worked in other battles, notably for Napoleon. However, the firepower of the era, combined with the fact that the firepower was intact after the artillery barrage, doomed the effort.
The alternatives were:
- Yet another day of attacking the high ground on the edges of the Union line, notably the Round Tops and the hills on the north end of the line.
- Leaving and going back to Virginia
- Make an end-run for DC, leaving the Union Army to attack from the rear while the considerable reserves left in DC attacked the front.
The best things that Ted Turner ever did. Maybe add Turner Classic Movies to that list as well.
It’s a shame that the third movie will probably never be made.
Since we are on the topic of Civil War movies, have any of you seen Andersonville?
Yeah I saw it. Not bad.
At one point my great-great grandfather was accused of being one of the Pottowatomie Raider's.
It is especially interesting as his great-great-great grandfather was one of the largest slave owners in the western hemisphere, in the West Indies.
Does anyone have a video clip from the 1938 Gettysburg veterans reunion where there is an actual recording of a Confederate vet doing a rebel yell; it was in the Ken Burns series.
I’ve been looking for the dvd, but no luck.
If you want to introduce someone to Civil War battlefield history, that is one of the best first books to recommend.
Canton's stuff is to dry and, quite frankly, boring in its narrative manner.
And he could have bled off troops overnight, marching westward toward Chambersburg in search of better ground, and using cavalry as a rear-guard defense in the morning while Meade decided what he was going to do. It would have taken Meade the better part of the day to make a move if not two days, by all accounts.
If he'd done that, Lee could have chosen his ground and strategically arrayed himself at the base of the Blue Ridge and made the Union forces approach the Confederates uphill against entrenched firepower. He could have mounted ambushes where the mountain roads passed through narrow defiles. He could have positioned his forces in places where artillery could command every approach.
Lee already had the better leadership in his officer corps, and knew it. His mistake was in thinking that such an advantage was enough to carry the day.
That’s pretty cool.
Men were hard, then. It amazes me what they went through.
My husband and I try to get to Gettysburg at least once every three years. He asked me to marry him on Little Round Top at dawn. Couldn’t ask for a better setting. We are planning on going next year again. My gg grandfather fought there and is named on the PA monument as are all of the Pa troops that fought there. Very special place for a lot of reasons.
That is part of the series Echoes of the Blue and the Gray.
Contact the Horse Soldier in Gettysburg, they use to carry the DVD’s. We have them all here and have watched them often. I believe there were 3 VHS tapes and they combined it into 2 DVD’s. One is the 75th Gettysburg reunion when the Peace Monument was dedicated.
I’ve been really enjoying a Civil War computer game recently, and it has prodded me in to reading Foote again. I saw this thread and had to drop by. I’ll have to check the history thread in the future, it looks interesting.
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