GDG- The Turning Point?

[Smith, David]

Linda and Robert:
 
I'm responding to your two e-mails together to save time.
 
Linda:  Many others on this group know a lot more than I do on this
subject, but I will offer some pointers.  For a student who really wants
to make an argument about whether Gettysburg was the turning point or
not, they should consider:
1)  That some people, championed by James McPherson in his latest
*Antietam* book consider Antietam to be the true turning point of the
war because it led to the emancipation of the slaves.
2) Another group of people considers Gettysburg not to have been the
turning point, but something later, generally the fall of Atlanta.  Gary
Gallagher has an essay in The Confederate War in which he argues that
Confederate soldiers and those on the home front did not see Gettysburg
as a key turning point.  Also, I believe James McPherson (in *Battle Cry
of Freedom*) was one of the major modern scholars to point out the
confluence between Atlanta, Sheridan in the Valley, and Lincoln's
reelection in 1864.  BCoF is a big book, but a high school student might
want to look at that chapter.  There may be other sources as well.
 
Personally, though (and this get's to Robert's question), I am old
school.  I believe that Gettysburg was the turning point. I can't help
but think if Lee had won a victory in Pennsylvania, the outcome of the
war may have been different.  The South may not have "won" but they may
have been able to conclude a peace which allowed their continued
existence, which was the same thing.
 
Of course the fall of Vicksburg was also important, even more so.  But
its pretty hard to consider Gettysburg in isolation from Vicksburg and
vice versa.  Recently I saw where Edwin Pollard, editor of a Richmond
newspaper, maintained that the main reason for the campaign was to
cushion the blow from the loss of Vicksburg.  With no victory, there was
no morale cushion (like most CW newspapermen, Pollard seems to get
things right about half the time).  The war was "lost" in the West but
maybe not in the East.  With Gettysburg, Lee lost the initiative in the
East, although he tried hard in 1864 with Early's expedition.  
 
As for those who argue the war was lost before it began, this is kind of
trendy but I don't think it is true.  It helps highlight the South's
difficult logistical situational, but there were a lot of ways and
moments where people thought the South could have won the war, with
war-weariness in the North being a major contributor.  Otherwise, why
were the pictures and casualties from Cold Harbor suppressed for months?
 
You can make a debate and marshal evidence on all sides.  That's what a
debate for history day is good for.  But I think and always will the
Gettysburg campaign and battle was one of the most significant moments
in the war.
 
David