GDG- Leader losses

[elcarto at comcast.net]

>Surely the loss of middle-grade officers cut both ways, affecting the ANV
and the AoP equally.  If you want to make the argument that Gettysburg
occurred too soon after Chancellorsville for the ANV to recover from its
C'Ville losses, don't you also have to recognize that the ranks of the AoP
were similarly decimated at C'Ville, and the whole impact thing ends up
being a wash? - Regards, Tim

I don't think so - on the one hand, it brought (by Couch's resignation, to be sure) Hancock into Corps Command, which had a huge effect at Gettysburg; and I think that quite a few other good officers finally made their way into the command structure. And on the other, about half the AOP never pulled a trigger at Chancellorsville, and most of the heavy losses in manpower and officers was confined to the III and XI Corps.

In Lee's army, virtually every unit in the army saw major combat, and was on the attack most of the time, which is where the loss of frontline officers is (and was) the most severe.  I don't have any exact figure at hand, but the proportion of Regiments and Brigades that were under new leaders at Gettysburg was huge, and certainly much greater than in the AOP.

Rick Barber