GDG- RE: Wright's Brigade

[James Cameron]

<< Notwithstanding the 'mild' debate as to where Wright's Brigade struck on 
Day
2, it is pretty much a given that he crossed the Emmitsburg road at some
point.  Yet the ER fences that in part doomed the PPT charge the next day
didn't prove an obstacle for Wright's Brigade?  Did the fences start north
of the Copse and extend as far south as the Codori house?  If so, how did
Wright negotiate the fences without undergoing the same withering fire (to
include artillery cannister) that Pickett and Kemper did?  If there indeed
was a large 'gap' in the union line, that might help define where Wright
actually penetrated.

Craig  >>

The fences along the road would certainly been something of a hindrance to 
the advance, but I think much of the current "fatal fence" business is 
largely the result of History Channel hype.  Certainly troops were a bit 
more vulnerable while crossing them, and they would cause some momentary 
disruption to an advancing line's formation, but these kind of fence lines 
were a fact of life on a CW battlefield, and the troops dealt with them. 
Wright was also, in his advance, not facing quite the same tactical 
situation the troops the next day had to go up against.

Jim Cameron