GDG- Wrights Brigade.

[Batrinque at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/5/06 8:05:16 PM Pacific Standard Time, zfry at kent.edu 
writes:

> My understanding of the event has been that the 22nd GA probably
> achieved the better part of the breakthrough, supported on the left by
> the right of the 3rd GA.  The left of the 3rd and the 48th struck Hall's
> front line and met stiff resistance from the 7th MI, 59th NY, and 69th
> PA; the evidence shows that the fighting did indeed go hand-to-hand
> there.  The remnants of Brown's battery, of course, were caught in the
> middle of the whirlwind.  After holding their own inside the Union line
> for just a brief time and finding no support anywhere on the field, the
> Georgians were forced back simply by the timely arrival of more and more
> Union troops (the counterattack of the 106th PA to the north and the
> five companies of the 13th VT to the south being the last nails in the
> coffin).
> 

If Lee's original intent (I hesitate to call it a "plan" because I think it 
lacked any real analysis or preparation) of the morning of the Third Day to 
attack with Longstreet's force of the Second plus Pickett's fresh division had 
been feasible of implementation, then the section of Union line 
penetrated/assaulted by Wright on Day Two would have been struck again.  But, with the 
substitution of the brigades under Pettigrew and Trimble for Longstreets battered Day 
Two forces, the whole Day Three attack shifted northwards against a stronger 
portion of the Union line.  One more example of the haphazard behavior of the 
ANV high command and staff at Gettysburg.

Bruce Trinque
Amston, CT