GDG- Gettysburg The second day

[Laurence D. Schiller]

Chet - a question. I thought that the original attack as planned by 
Lee involved Hood and McLaws and that Anderson was in, at best, a 
supporting role. The attack as it actually developed was more or less 
en echelon, but how aware was Anderson of this and of, what looks to 
us now in hindsight, to be his role in continuing this attack?

Considering this was not a well planned out attack, but a quick 
revision, how much do we blame Anderson for not being on top of it? 
Or Hill for that matter? Lee bears quite a bit of blame, IMHO.

Best,

Laurie Schiller


>>Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>>
>>
>>
>   True enough, but much of Lee's proactive endeavor, it seems to me, 
>was directed towards getting Longstreet into position & c. which is 
>certainly understandable at that moment. But he seemed to keep a 
>much looser rein on the activities of his two less veteran corps 
>commanders and especially the least experience, Hill, who was the 
>middle clog in the massive assault being planned.
>  An attack in echelon is a most difficult and coordinated military 
>undertaking with many things that can go wrong even with veteran 
>commanders in charge. This level of command was all new to Hill, 
>whose corps had been roughly handled on July 1, with two of his 
>three division commanders down the third under Anderson having 
>indeed fought four battles, but largely in defensive mode. Moreover, 
>Hill's performance on the first day could be called lackluster at 
>best.
>   It seems that once the assault jumped off up the Emmittsburg Road, 
>Lee let the battle run itself instead of moving continuously up the 
>battleline making sure each brigade moved when it was suppose to and 
>making sure divisional and corps commanders were up front 
>coordinating the movement of their troops. Instead, the hammer-blows 
>of the series of brigade level assaults starting with Law's Brigade 
>and going north was simply allowed to fade away ... and what might 
>have been became what history is.
>  It just seems that Lee had more faith in both Hill and Ewell that 
>was warranted or demonstrated by their performances.
>   With regards,
>            Chet
> 
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-- 
Dr. Laurence Dana Schiller		Civil War First Person Impressions
Maitre d'Armes				William Bradshaw, Co. F 2nd WI
Head Fencing Coach			George Hammitt, Co. H 104th Ill
Department of History
Northwestern University
Commissioner, Midwest Fencing Conference
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