GDG- What if Pickett's charge had worked?

Alan D. Brunelle alan.brunelle at hp.com
Wed Oct 11 12:06:30 CDT 2006


While pondering the stuff being presented in the "Corp size at GB" 
thread, one idea that struck me was: Given that Lee's style called for 
broad-stroke goals being established for his corps commanders - with the 
expectation being that the underlying commanders would determine the 
best way to accomplish his goals - what would have happened had Pickett 
& Pettigrew & Trimble's troops actually been able to pierce the Union 
lines on Cemetery Ridge? Is there any evidence of "follow on" plans by 
Lee? One must assume that he thought it *would* work, so what did he 
expect to happen after that? Certainly, he didn't expect the remaining 
troops (much, much, less than 12,000 under even the best circumstances) 
to defeat the rest of the Union army?! By 1:00pm-ish, how much did Lee 
know concerning Ewell's failed attacks? What were his expectations with 
regards to Ewell restarting his troops?

Regards,
Alan
PS. This is sort of like the Normandy Invasion question from WWII - they 
spent so much effort on plans and training for the landing, that the 
troops had significant trouble right after the landings because not much 
was planned for the actual hedgerow battles...


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