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June 28, 1863 - "The whole Yankee army is comin' this way..."
Posted on 6/28/23 at 7:58 pm
Posted on 6/28/23 at 7:58 pm
On the night of June 28, 1863, Lt. General James Longstreet - commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's First Army Corps - received a visitor who claimed to have information of a most urgent nature. The man's name was Henry T. Harrison, a spy on the Confederate Army's payroll, and he claimed to have the position of the Union Army of the Potomac. In a plot twist that turned the Confederate army's entire Pennsylvania campaign on its head, Harrison claimed that the Army of the Potomac was not only no longer in Virginia, it was in northern Maryland moving quickly in their general direction.
Longstreet, who had employed Harrison in the past, judged his information to be genuine and traveled to Robert E. Lee's headquarters near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to inform his commanding general. Harrison recited the same report he gave to Longstreet before being dismissed. Lee was skeptical, unwilling to believe that JEB Stuart, his always reliable cavalry commander, would leave him in the dark about enemy movements. However, Lee was not one to discount such a report simply because it came from an unusual source. Orders went out that evening to the army to halt the march northwards and begin concentrating in the Gettysburg-Cashtown area in anticipation of a major action to be fought in the very near future.
And thus the wheels of fortune were set in motion to bring two large armies to Gettysburg....160 years ago today.
Longstreet, who had employed Harrison in the past, judged his information to be genuine and traveled to Robert E. Lee's headquarters near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to inform his commanding general. Harrison recited the same report he gave to Longstreet before being dismissed. Lee was skeptical, unwilling to believe that JEB Stuart, his always reliable cavalry commander, would leave him in the dark about enemy movements. However, Lee was not one to discount such a report simply because it came from an unusual source. Orders went out that evening to the army to halt the march northwards and begin concentrating in the Gettysburg-Cashtown area in anticipation of a major action to be fought in the very near future.
And thus the wheels of fortune were set in motion to bring two large armies to Gettysburg....160 years ago today.
7
Posted on 6/28/23 at 8:13 pm to RollTide1987
A battle Lee probably should never have fought. Once the Yankees were entrenched on the high ground in numbers it was folly to do what they did.
Posted on 6/28/23 at 8:26 pm to RollTide1987
quote:
JEB
Never trust a guy named Jeb.
Posted on 6/28/23 at 8:27 pm to antibarner
Should have sacked Harrisburg and kept wreaking havoc in the North, foraging off the farms and cities.
Posted on 6/28/23 at 9:34 pm to antibarner
True, but the rebs had a chance to take the high ground. They failed to act. I think the letter from Lee said- “take the high ground, if practical” or something like that. The general, AP Hill maybe, failed to act and let the Yankees take it.
Posted on 6/28/23 at 9:40 pm to SloaneRanger
quote:
Should have sacked Harrisburg and kept wreaking havoc in the North, foraging off the farms and cities.
What Sherman accomplished in Georgia 18 months later is not so easily replicated, and should not be attempted by lesser field commanders.
Posted on 6/28/23 at 9:46 pm to Bestbank Tiger
quote:
Never trust a guy named Jeb.
Actually, his name was James. James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart.
Posted on 6/28/23 at 9:51 pm to partyboy1930
quote:
The general, AP Hill maybe, failed to act and let the Yankees take it.
It was General Ewell. "Jackson would have taken that hill"
Posted on 6/28/23 at 10:04 pm to RollTide1987
I just recently rewatched Gettysburg the 4hr version. Great movie if you are interested in the battle. I have visited the battlefield several times and highly recommend it to anyone interested in such things.
Posted on 6/28/23 at 10:22 pm to Chromdome35
quote:
I just recently rewatched Gettysburg the 4hr version.
Posted on 6/28/23 at 10:28 pm to RollTide1987
Lee should’ve just fricking scorched earth PA
Posted on 6/28/23 at 10:29 pm to RollTide1987
Lee had the shits
Posted on 6/29/23 at 10:43 am to SloaneRanger
quote:More in the Federal wheelhouse.
Should have sacked Harrisburg and kept wreaking havoc in the North,
Posted on 6/29/23 at 10:55 am to thelawnwranglers
quote:
Lee had the shits
True fact. He was in miserable condition the whole time up there.
Posted on 6/29/23 at 11:13 am to antibarner
quote:
A battle Lee probably should never have fought. Once the Yankees were entrenched on the high ground in numbers it was folly to do what they did.
I have no problem with day 1, days 2 and 3 were poor generalship from an otherwise outstanding general.
Reading the accounts it sounds to me like he was tired (poor health included) and almost just wanted it over one way or the other.
A strategic maneuver like what the north did to the south in the overland campaign could’ve produced a very different result, but with Vicksburg days away from falling the walls were in fact caving in for the confederacy even if Pickett never crosses that field.
Posted on 6/29/23 at 12:04 pm to tide06
quote:
A strategic maneuver like what the north did to the south in the overland campaign could’ve produced a very different result,
But the south had no ability to hold and retain any strategic gains it made in the north. This is very different than north attacking Vicksburg knowing control over the river would never revert back to the south once taken.
Without any ability to permanently control or disrupt the northern war machine, Lee taking his army north of Potomac was primarily an attempt to shock and terrorize the north into a negotiated settlement . . . and it failed. Lee miscalculated northern sentiment in Maryland and northern resolved in general. His actions almost certainly had the opposite of his intended effect and hardened it. It also likely paved the way for a harsher reconstruction and the actions Sherman took to end the war in Georgia.
Lee was tasked with winning a war by not losing it. He had incredible success with the army of northern Virginia in Virginia, and maybe would have been better served fighting the whole war on a defensive footing and blood letting the north into a settlement. We will never know, but what he did do is experience two of his bloodiest battles in Maryland and Pennsylvania in successive years. That decision to go north (twice!) stands as a major strategic blunder.
Posted on 6/29/23 at 12:29 pm to ned nederlander
quote:
But the south had no ability to hold and retain any strategic gains it made in the north.
I don’t think this is as important for the south as it was for the north because the south did not seek to conquer the north, only to break the north’s will to conquer them.
If Lee sits north of DC while Meade protects the capital he can force Meade to attack him on his own ground while he sends units north to destroy Philadelphia, Baltimore and possibly even NYC.
If those cities burn the north likely seeks peace IMO because Meades supply lines are cut whereas Lee is living off the land and didn’t have munitions to call up anyway.
This post was edited on 6/29/23 at 12:31 pm
Posted on 6/29/23 at 8:27 pm to RollTide1987
The confederacy never stood a chance. They didn't want to diversify their economy to become more industrial like the North. Only a tiny portion of the Deep South population were slave owners, and the rest were either slaves or poor whites who didn't do shite.
This post was edited on 6/29/23 at 8:29 pm
Posted on 6/29/23 at 9:03 pm to tide06
quote:
If Lee sits north of DC while Meade protects the capital he can force Meade to attack him on his own ground while he sends units north to destroy Philadelphia, Baltimore and possibly even NYC.
If those cities burn the north likely seeks peace IMO because Meades supply lines are cut whereas Lee is living off the land and didn’t have munitions to call up anyway.
New York in 1860 had a million people. Philadelphia 600,000. Baltimore 250,000.
Lee took about 60,000 people to sharpsburg and 80,000 to Gettysburg. Those cities aren’t Terminus, and they were never being put to the torch by the army of northern Virginia.
Look at how much flesh Lee extracted from the north before it got Richmond. The only city of consequence the south had a chance at was DC, and if they had taken it after the first battle of bull run who knows.
But Lee and the South underestimated northern resolve and bought into its own mystique of having better soldiers. Northerners are a stubborn, scrapple eating bunch with recent memories of British armies torching their cities. The south never stood a chance moving north in the civil war. It simple angered the population and filled the north with a resolve to exact the type of total victory and unconditional surrender we wouldn’t see again until WWII.
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