GDG- Gettysburg The second day

[Alan D. Brunelle]

NPeters102 at aol.com wrote:
> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>
>
>  
> In a message dated 9/5/2006 9:52:33 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
> pennmardel at mchsi.com writes:
>
> One has  to wonder how much Lee's penchant for placing Virginians in command
> over  well-qualified personnel from other states had to do with Hill's
> selection  as corps commander (not to mention Ewell whose health was also
> marginal at  best).
>
>   
I'm not so sure that one should lump Hill & Ewell in the same bucket 
this way. Ewell has been given pretty high grades as a corps commander 
at least up until the late afternoon of the first day.

Even on the second and third days it seems to me that while one can 
question specific instances, he did seem to get 2/3rd of his troops 
fighting as well as anyone could have expected given the circumstances. 
The big question mark for me has always been his handling (or 
mishandling) of Rodes' troops - after getting partially mauled on day 
one, that division didn't seem to become too involved in the fighting later.

I've always wondered if the difference in Ewell's performance _before_ 
the late afternoon of the 1st and then afterwards was the immediate 
presence of his commanding officer (Lee) - prior to meeting up with Lee 
late on the first day he acted strongly in an independent role. Once he 
was back under the eyes of Lee, perhaps he was looking for more specific 
orders and didn't feel as comfortable making independent decisions. 

One could bring up the old "orders with discretion" argument that Lee 
gave his direct subordinates just might have made it difficult for Ewell 
on Day 2 - our topic, at least trying to get back to it...granted: wrong 
side of the battlefield...

Alan