What could the South have done at G'burg to win it?

Never should have gone north in the first place

Realistically? Never fight it.


I mean, if they don't fight it they can continue on with guerrilla raids and stuff like that and find more favorable grounds, perhaps.

The rebellion is most always doomed before the might and backing of an empire though. Just prolonging the inevitable

Not have accidentally killed Stonewall Jackson just before.

Kept Stuart from galavanting off on a raid and had him keep close tabs on the Union Army. Avoid the encounter battle on the first day, which both sides blundered into without knowing the other army's whereabaouts. Threaten Harrisburg, make a feint toward Philadelphia, collect all the rations and supplies you can, and withdraw back into Maryland.

Pros: Keep your army intact, make the Union look inept, destabilize Pennsylvania and by extension the Lincoln administration.

Cons: Lincoln fires another general and brings Grant east even sooner.

Effect on the war: Not much. Vicksburg still falls, the South is still cut in half, Sherman still runs amuck in Georgia and South Carolina, and Lee still surrenders in late spring or early summer of 1865 to keep his army from starving.

The only possible way this might swing in the South's favor is if the NY draft riots turn into an open, sustained insurrection. In our timeline, troops fresh from the Gettysburg battlefield put down the riot. They can't do that if they're chasing Lee around the countryside.

Not much. The fates were against him. Lee, like Sisera, fought the stars in their courses.

Possibly withdraw towards DC, pick and defend favorable ground to receive the inevitable Federal attacks. Create another Fredericksburg if possible.

This of course assumes another Federal catastrophe would cause the Federals to offer favorable terms. They would most likely have simply sent another army, and another, and another until the inevitable laws of attrition played out.

Probably nothing really, Lee had stubbornly decided he was going to end it at Gettysburg one way or the other. IMO.

Not going up the middle

1) Realized without Jackson the endeavor was destined for failure.

2) Captured the high ground an Cemetery Hill

3) Listened to Longstreet and withdrew to find ground more suited for making the Union army attack.

I always found it odd that Lee claimed he sided with the Confederacy because he felt the need to defend his home state, yet he had no issue with invading Maryland and Pennsylvania