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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