GDG- Day 2 - What was Ewell Thinking?

[Margaret D. Blough]

John,

Even more importantly, by Early's own account, Lee let Early, in Ewell's presence, do a lot of the talking to change his plans to consolidate his line on July 2.  That's always been very disquieting to me along with Early's account of the reasoning that Early says Lee found persuasive.  Lee, at Gettysburg, seemed to be alternating without much warning from an extremely passive attitude to an extremely micromanaging attitude, overruling Longstreet's orders to McLaws in McLaws' presence.

Regards,

Margaret

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: John Baniszewski <jdbano2001 at yahoo.com> 

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> 
> 
> I would not go too hard on Ewell for his day 2 actions. After all, he was told 
> "make a demonstration against the enemy's right flank, to be turned into a full 
> scale assault, should circumstances warrant". So for a second day in a row, he 
> got an order from Lee that really put a burden upon him. He did make the 
> demonstration in the afternoon, in the form of the artillery attack in which 
> Latimer suffered so heavily. But the "should circumstances warrant" part was 
> the challenge. With his inability to communicate with Longstreet, he had no way 
> to accurately gauge "if circumstances warranted". 
> 
> Whatever fault there is, I place upon Lee. As overall army commander, it was 
> Lee's job to set up some form of control over the two corp that were to 
> cooperate, and enable their communication. He did not do that. 
> 
> I also fault Lee in allowing Ewell to remain where he was at the end of July 1. 
> Lee recognized Ewell was in an awkward position, where he could not work 
> effectively in coordination with Longstreet and Hill. Lee even gave Ewell 
> orders to move back to Seminary Ridge. But he let Ewell talk him out of it. 
> 
> John Baniszewski 
> 
> 
> John Baniszewski 
> 
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