GDG- Gettysburg The second day

[Chet Diestel]

Esteemed GDG Member Laurie Schiller Contributes:

   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

      As with so much of what went on with Lee's planning and orders that 
second day, the records are murky at best. Indeed, we have more results than 
plans and thus have to work backwards in assessing what was done and not 
done, what was planned and not planned and even was ordered and not ordered.
    It has always seemed to me that there was at least some working concept 
of a continuous attack en echelon from Longstreet's  right flank (Hood) all 
the way around to Ewell on the left flank (Johnson). That type of attack 
made sense for it would keep the AOP from concentrating its reserves at any 
particular endangered point.
   (Totally self-serving comment: I have tried that type of attack on any 
number of computer simulations of the battle and in every case, against the 
computer or other players, it has always resulted in victory --- sometimes a 
devastating one.)
  As to what exactly Hill and Anderson knew and when did they know it, sadly 
we are left with a mixture of speculation and battlefield actions to arrive 
with at least some preliminary conclusions.
   Anderson most certainly must have been aware of the continuous attack to 
some degree for three of his five brigades (Wilcox, Perry/Lang and Wright) 
were in battle formation when the attack commenced and in perfect timing and 
echelon followed Barkesdale's Mississippians into the fight.
   The actions of those brigades spoke much more of coordination than 
spontaneous marching to the sound of the guns by three separate brigade 
commanders in the exact echelon formation that had started with Law's 
Brigade.
  But then the up-the-line attack just fades away with only part of Posey's 
Brigade and none of Malone's advancing and we are left with what is probably 
an unanswerable question: If Anderson and/or Hill knew then why in the devil 
weren't they down there giving the type of battlefield leadership that 
Longstreet and his division commanders, Hood and McLaws, demonstrated?
  Which then leaves only one of two conclusions: they were not informed 
properly by Lee. either directly or by staff, while Ewell seemingly had 
been, or it was dereliction of duty on the part of either Anderson and/or 
Hill to an astounding degree.
   With regards,
          Chet