(07-11-2014 11:42 AM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  The was was going to be won in the west.

A point too often overlooked. While Gettysburg was going on, Vicksburg was falling. Unless Lee had been able to get all the way to DC and capture Lincoln, the loss of Vicksburg would trump any confederate victory at Gettysburg.

I've always thought that the better opportunity for Lee ended at Antietam/Sharpsburg the prior year. At that point, the confederacy still had enough of the west to be a reasonable country. And thanks to McClellan's usual ace intelligence, he didn't have a clue where Lee was until somebody left his battle plan behind with three cigars. And Lee was close enough to DC to pose a serious threat.

There's always this idea that a confederate win in a battle on union soil would have induced Europe to intervene, but I think the Europeans were totally happy to be hands off this one.