GDG- What if Pickett's charge had worked?

[James Cameron]

<<And absent a
specific plan to cut off, overtake, and destroy the AOP, or even substantial
parts of it, who was going to accomplish this?>>

The fact that we do not know what the plan was, does not mean he didn't have
one.  I would expect that Lee had in his mind how the scenario would play
out if the attack succeeded in breaking the Union line.  That fact that it
did not, and the supports did not follow does not mean that Lee did not have
such a plan.  >>

<<Lee may have expected
support troops to follow the initial attack, but who actually had any such
orders?>>

True no one admits to having those orders.  But Lee claims that was part of
his plan.  And since the discussion revolves around what were Lee's
objectives, I think we have to take him at his word.


We may be splitting some semantic hairs here.  I'm sure Lee did have in mind 
how he hoped or expected things would play out.   But when is that plan a 
plan?  When Lee forms the concept in his mind, or, only when clear orders to 
implement it are given to all concerned?

What i think may have been the case was that Lee did, as you say, have a 
plan in mind.  But, I think he may have thought the planning and orders put 
in place to carry it out were more complete and effective than they actually 
were.  Supports did not follow, because the commanders of the units one 
would expect to constitute those supports had no clear orders to do so. 
Rodes for example, who wrote that his orders for the 3rd were general, and 
that he was "on the lookout" (I don't have my books handy, so it may not 
have been those exact words, but words to that effect) for a chance to 
cooperate.  That isn't the kind of order that assures timely support for an 
attacking force, or prompt exploitation of any success.  Likewise, on the 
other side of the attack, McLaws writing that he knew nothing about it until 
it was already over.

<<Any any realistic Union retreat was far more likely to be by intact, still
effective formations than a panic stricken route like First Manassas.>>

Again that is speculation.  During the planning stage, there is no way of
knowing how things would turn out.  >>

Perhaps, but also considered opinion.  The AOP of July 1863 wasn't the raw 
militia of July 1861, ready to be thrown into a panic at the cry that the 
"Black Horse Cavalry" was about to ride them down.  But, this goes back to 
my first point.  If Lee's plan depended on such a route taking place, then 
it was dependent on the best case scenario coming to pass.

Jim Cameron