GDG- McLaws for Corps Command?

[Smith David]

Greetings!  I've been away from the group for sometime working on a
project.  I'm responding to the second day string.

Some time ago, Glenn Tucker in "Lee and Longstreet at Gettysburg," ch 1
I think, put together a very cogent argument for why Lafayette McLaws
should have been chosen as one of Lee's new corps commanders in June?
1863.

That had me convinced for years.  But then I saw, in an article
published in one of Gary Gallagher's collections (Lee and His Army in
Confederate History), that McLaws put in what many consider to have been
a very poor performance during the battle of Chancellorsville, where he
had the responsibility of stopping/slowing the Union army while Jackson
and friends beat up on the 11th Corps and others. (John C. Oeffinger
apparently agrees in his bio of McLaws, "A Soldier's General").

Here's a quote from the preface to Gallagher's book:

"The third essay in Part II engages this topic obliquely in the course
of examining Jubal A. Early's role in the Chancellorsville campaign.
Events of May 1-4, 1863, provide an instructive example of Lee's giving
Early wide discretion and then stepping forward to take control when
Lafayette McLaws, another senior subordinate, failed in a crucial moment
at Salem Church."

If McLaws was a good choice for corps command, then maybe he picked a
very bad time to have a bad performance.

David G. Smith