(07-10-2014 01:29 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(07-10-2014 01:22 PM)john01992 Wrote:  

(07-10-2014 12:58 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(07-10-2014 11:50 AM)Phillip26r Wrote:  It's an odd thing, being considered great. What does that mean? If it means getting men to buy into your cause and being effective in completing a mission, then I think Washington and even N.B. Forrest have to be included.

To include Lee means to gloss over his order for Pickett's charge. To me, that is one of the biggest blunders in military history.

If it had worked, the charge, the war would have been over. It's only a blunder because it didn't pan out.

it didn't pan out because it was a terrible idea. this isn't risk where it comes down to the role of dice and random chance of something going wrong.

Why was it a terrible idea?

At no point before or since did the South have that kind of strength and that kind of firepower at the same place. If the attack had been successful the Army of the Potomac would have disintegrated and Washington would have fallen in a few weeks. Besides, the Army of Northern Virginia was on one hell of winning streak.

The risks were high, but so was the reward.

Frontal assaults are generally a bad idea. When you add the fact that as usual the ANV was out-manned and outgunned to the scales then it does seem like Lee was having a very bad day.

Historians believe in general that he should have reenforced Longstreet's and Ewell's forces on either side and attempted to do a double envelopment around Little Roundtop and Culp's Hill respectively. There was very little threat of Meade ordering a reverse Pickett's Charge to the ANV's center and it would have pulled AOP forces to the extreme ends of their lines to prevent an envelopment.

Once they lost one of their two "anchor" spots, Meade would have been forced to pull back from Cemetery Ridge or risk losing a significant portion of the AOP in a route to both or either side.

Either way that would have left the AOP largely intact if in a weakened state. Using a boxing analogy; Lee was going for a knockout punch, when he should have been trying to damage his opponent's arm so he couldn't fight.