What If Lee Had LISTENED to Longstreet at Gettysburg? | Civil War History

Comments · 403

• RI

  @richardmccutcheon5800 · 1 month ago (edited) · pinned

  I was serving in the Marines in 1988 at Quantico,  VA. I was also a reenactor with the 30th Virginia. I took part in many reenactments during those 3 years but my greatest experience was the 125th Anniversary of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, just south of the actual battlefield. There were upwards of 20,000 reenactors there, for all three days. The crowds themselves were estimated at 40,000 per day!  The second day my unit marched along with thousands to get into position for hours. We crossed a small river and took time to cooldown in that large stream. I remember, while marching the Confederate band playing lining the road as we marched off and all the ladies waving their handkerchiefs as we passed. I invited two of my brothers, from my home state of Arkansas to come join in and they made the trip and were with me. I remember looking back as we marched and in the distance could see the supply train with scores and scores of loaded wagons and the caisons bringing up the rear. Absolutely surreal. We fought the 1st two days as advertised but the third day was Picketts', illfated charge. The Union had 42 cannons along their lines. Thousands of blue clad Federal troops all along their long line. We formed up in lines of two deep with thousands of men long. 3 lines of twos for longer than one could see. Very close to the actual number of those men who actually made that charge. My two brothers were on each side of me. We stepped off. The National Guard had marked powder charges they had planted in the ground along with powder air burst during our charge. We were a couple hundred yards or more from the Federal lines when their cannons opened up. I remember just the air pressure concussions were unbelievable. I cudnt imagine that being grape shot. The powder smoke alone was so restrictive that when the Union troops opened fire , well, I looked around in the confusion and lost both my brothers. It was very disorienting, and no one was even really dieing. On that day, we were representing the 14th Tennessee,who made it farther than most. I was captured. They moved me back behind the Union lines. Now, I could watch the follow on lines of gray and butternut advance, their battle flags waving as the rest of the Confederate lines advanced through the smoke, noise and haze. An older, small, gray haired Federal turned around, came up to me and said how magnifisant my fellow Confederate soldiers marched and held to the last. After the battle, both Union and Confederate Bands played a very moving taps. Hands over hearts, knees taken by 20,000 reenactors. Thats my memory. Unbelievable these men did all that while actually being mowed down. No different than the Union troops at Fredericksburg. Those men displayed such courage that we today can just not fathom. I salute them all. Semper Fi, LtCol. Richard  "Clutch" McCutcheon, U.S.M.C. Ret.

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• SK

  @Skipper.17 · 1 month ago

  The fact that the confederacy was able to disengage and retreat on the 4th of July with not much union interference shows that it was possible for the confederacy to disengage and redeploy in a manner that Longstreet wanted.

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• LO

  @lowellwhite1603 · 1 month ago

  Remember, Sedgwick and his VI Corps was moving up from the south on the afternoon of July 2nd 1863. Any attempt to move around the Federal left would have had VI Corps hitting them in the flank and rear. Sedgwick’s men were tired from a long march but so would have been Longstreet’s from their flanking maneuver. On July 3, VI Corps was mostly in reserve on and behind the Federal left and would have been somewhat rested from their march. They had only been lightly engaged on July 2 and were available to parry any flank maneuver attempt by the ANV.

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• AN

  @andrewsilverstein6186 · 1 month ago

  Very well done as usual

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• SA

  @Samuel-o7j2f · 1 month ago

  Winlink, I&apos;m reading an account of Gettysburg written by a Union captain from the &quot;first brigade of the division of the first Corps,&quot; (Cutler&apos;s I believe). &nbsp;He said that a few years after the end of the war an investigation was launched into the quality of union gunpowder for their rifles. &nbsp;They found that some dishonest suppliers cut their gunpowder with dirt making the Union bullets weaker and fouling some rifles. &nbsp;<br><br>I was initially surprised by this, but then I remember that stuff like that has happened throughout history. &nbsp;Greed often motivates businesses to find ways to cheat, even to the death of the young men who fight their wars.

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• HA

  @HaloHiFi1 · 1 month ago

  How&apos;s about Lee listening and getting out of Dodge after Day 1?

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• GO

  @googalacticgoo · 6 days ago

  Its not a cowardly retreat, but a calculated redeployment in which the men are not dying of thirst before bullets hit them

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• TO

  @tominiowa2513 · 1 month ago

  Anyone else notice how similar Pickett&apos;s Charge and the British assault on the German lines at the Battle of the Somme were, including an ineffective artillery barrage and soldiers walking across open ground towards a dug in enemy?

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• DJ

  @DJ-bh1ju · 1 month ago (edited)

  As a long time ACW reenactor, I&apos;ve sat around hundreds of late night camp fires listening to hundreds of conversations (usually bolstered with alcohol) that &quot;what if&quot; almost every facet of the ACW.<br>If Lee had disengaged and moved south and east, it would have quickly put him between Meade and Washington, forcing Meade&apos;s hand. However, Meade still had a Corps or two in reserve and Lee would have been strung out and vulnerable.

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• DO

  @douglyons2678 · 1 month ago

  What if Lee had listened to Longstreet? &nbsp;Lee would have bled his army to death at a different location.

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• RA

  @ramankavalchuk2415 · 1 month ago

  The only chance to avoid devastating defeat for the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was the flanking maneuvre suggested by Gen. James Longstreet.

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• TA

  @taunt6185 · 1 month ago

  Thanks!

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