GDG- Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg

[Bill Gower]

I am going to change the subject here.  Since somebody mentioned Troy
Harman's book today, I dug mine out and started reading it again.  Although
I had read it several times before, I wanted to read it fresh again.  My
question is that Troy is claiming to be covering new ground and discussing
Lee's plan as being Cemetery Hill.  Yet I fail to see what is new about that
in the study of the battle of Gettysburg.  What author has ever claimed that
Lee's plan was not centered around Cemetery Hill.  Harman goes to great
length to try and put words in the mouths of those whom he claims believe
the affirmed event by stating that they believe that Lee's plan on the 2nd
was geared towards the Round Tops.  Maybe I am mistaken here but what
authors have ever claimed that the Round tops were central to the plan of
Lee.  In a reading of the major works like Coddington, Sears and other, it
is very apparent that Lee didn't even believe that Union troops were
situated as far South as the Round tops thanks to the scouting reports that
he received in the early hours of the 2nd.   In addition, the placement of
McLaws division perpendicular to the Emmitsburg Road facing North shows that
his plan for the 2nd was to push North along the road and drive in what he
thought was the unanchored left flank of the Union army.  At the last
moment, thanks to the forward placement of the III Corps, the plan had to be
adjusted to allow for a more southerly starting point.  The fact that the
Round tops were even attacked had more to do with misalignment, the wounding
of Hood and troops heading in the wrong direction than with Lee's plan.
Does any credible author think that the Round tops were a central part of
Lee's plan and yet Harman keeps insisting that they do?  It is very apparent
from reading the major works on Gettysburg that from the afternoon of the
1st to the afternoon of the 3rd Lee's mind was fixed on Cemetery Hill and
how he was going to take it.  He never really had any serious plans for the
flanks other than as diversions to the real plan.  So instead of putting
forth new material Harman is really just stating what others have already
stated.  The only new thing that I see in the book is the fact that he
believes that the PPT attack was actually traveling towards Zieglars Grove
instead of the Copse of Trees.  Am I missing something here?  Have I misread
the other books on Gettysburg that I have and do historians really believe
that on the 2nd the flanks were object of Lee's plan and not the center
which was Cemetery Hill?  

And I think that if somebody is going to pay $150 for a first edition of
this book they are crazy.  I like my copy of it and I am satisfied with the
$19.95 that I paid for it.

 

Bill