GDG- Corp size at GB

[Richard M Kadas]

Excellent point:
  I doubt if many who study GB haven't at one time wondered whether the size of the ANV's corps weren't the critical variable in the outcome of Day One.
  It seems that in general at GB the brigade and sometimes the division were both armies basic maneuver units. On both, the 2nd and 3rd day at GB the ANV's First Corps launched assaults composed of 2 divisions each. Except for Day One, was the corps used as a maneuver unit at GB? In that context, positioning, aggressiveness, as well as the greater size of the ANV's  corps seem to have contributed to the difference.  Even the administrative efficiency offered by the ANV's fewer, larger corps was unable to make up for its command staff deficiency. 
  Dick


  Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:


I Listened to Civil War Talk Radio's show from last Friday last night. The
topic was a book about the 'Commanders of the AoP'. The question was asked
by the host to the author of the book about the size of the Corps at GB.
ANV with 3 and AoP with 7 - who had the best organization? The response of
the author was that Lee had the best Corps organization because of the
larger Corps that could hit harder because of its size. Given the number of
discussions here about command decisions and communications within the two
armies during the battle of GB - I wonder if everyone would agree. The
Author pointed out that later in the war the AoP went to much larger Corps
of about 20,000 because of the greater punch they provided, instead of the
~ 10,000 Corps size at GB. I think that Hill and Ewell did not handle their
Corps very well during the battle. Whether because of their inexperience at
Corp command or other reasons is debatable. But Lee kept giving
Longstreet larger responsibility over numbers of troops



The author also sited Hancock as probably the best Corp commander of the
war. Slocum and one of the better commander as well, and Reynolds as
probably one of the top but died too soon to tell.



Char & Charlie

RV'ing the USA



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