“If only Jackson had been with Lee at Gettysburg....”
The North still had the high ground. With Jackson would Lee
have withdrawn or would it have been such a total bloodfest
none of us would be here now?
Interesting point, by the way.
The North still had the high ground.
No, they didn't hold any of the high ground on Cemetery Ridge until the evening of the First Day -- and Ewell brought up Jackson's Corps in the afternoon, coming back down from the vicinity of York, which he was ready to sack when he got the order to concentrate at Gettysburg.
Jackson would have sailed up that height as the first order of business, flanking his way up the ridge and doing whatever it took to get that high ground. Ewell boggled, and balked -- even when ordered.
And Little Round Top wasn't secured until the middle of the day on the Second Day, just a short time before Longstreet's attack jumped off. But that was another battle -- Jackson's corps wound up parked in front of Culp's Hill for the rest of the battle, and the Round Tops were at the opposite end of the ridge.