Lee's biggest mistake was attacking uphill against entrenched enemies at Gettysburg. General Longstreet tried to dissuade him, pointing out it would be far better to leave and go around the union army to take up a position atop a hill closer to Washington, and let the union army beat itself to death attacking them. Longstreet even told Lee that his scouts had identified such a hill. But Lee would have none of it. Thus the disastrous charge which the southern historians, incapable of blaming Lee, called "Pickett's Charge." Lee should have remembered the recent battle at Fredericksburg, where the union suffered defeat attacking entrenched Confederates up a hill.
Day 1: Henry Heth runs into John Buford, who does an absolutely masterful defense in depth, delaying the massing Army of Virginia just long enough for the Union Army to arrive and claim the high ground by the skin of their teeth. The high rate of fire provide by Union cavalry breechloaders and Spencers figures signficantly here. I believe Dick Ewell has been unfairly slandered for not taking Cemetery Ridge at the end of that day.
Day 2: The Army of Northern Virginia had just been reorganized after the death of Jackson, effectively fixing something that weren't broke. The well oiled machine has been jumbled up.
The irrepressible Dan Sickles later claimed credit for winning the battle, I believe he had a case. Arriving on Cemetery Ridge, he sends the Sharps-rifle armed 1st US Sharpshooters forward to scout out Seminary Ridge, skilled marksmen all, able to fire nine aimed shots per minute, they collide with arriving Alabama troops and commence a twenty-minute slaughter before withdrawing, blunting the Confederate momentum. Sickles then famously advances to the Emmitsburg Pike road, occupying the Wheat Field and the Peach Orchard.
The Confederate troops arriving on the field were pumped, they were used to winning and the sense was this was the battle that could win the war. I believe that had their been a single well-defined Union line along Cemetery Ridge, the Rebs may have waited until more troops arrived, formed up, and broke that line. Instead, arriving Confederate units are thrown piecemeal into the meat grinders of the Wheat Field and Peach Orchard. They come within an ace of winning anyway, taking the ground and forming to take an undefended section of ridge. In another nick-of-time event, Hancock throws in the veteran 1st Minnesota. They attack against 4 to 1 odds, suffering 80% casualties in 20 minutes, the few still on their feet retire in good order, carrying captured Confederate colors, the gap in the Union line now closed up behind them.
In yet ANOTHER nick-of-time event, Union General Gouveneur K Warren realizes Little Round Top needs to be fortified, right away, artillery and infantry are rushed in, including the famous Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine. Mostly forgotten in the action that follows I think is the role of 15 US Sharpshooters stationed in a pile of boulders off the Union left flank between the Round Tops. Woodlands today but open ground at the time. Fifteen guys times nine rounds a minute equals 135 aimed rounds a minute poured into the flank of the Alabama troops assaulting Little Round Top. Cut the Sharpshooters some slack and make it 100 rounds a minute, still translate to Confederates getting knocked down like flies. Maybe this explains why they broke before Chamberlain's final heroic bayonet charge.
Day 3: General Lee is suffering from a severe bout of dysentery, his mobility is limited. The situation in the Confederate Army is dangerously chaotic, communication between recently jumbled and reorganized Corps not nearly what it should be, but Lee still has 50,000 effectives on hand, so he devises a plan to use most all of them, all at once.
Pressure is to be applied all along the Union line, tying the Union forces in place. A massive cannonade on a scale far beyond anything yet in the war is planned to batter and disorganize the Union center. JEB Stuart is dispatched with 2,000 of his legendary Untouchables to make a far end run around the Union right flank and come in against the Union center from the rear in conjunction with Pickett's 12,000 fresh troops attacking that same section of the line from the front.
We all know what happened, everything went FUBAR for the Confederates, the general movement against the ends of the Union lines never happened, allowing the Union troops the freedom to concentrate in the center. Spencer rifles again, in the hands of Michigan Cavalry skirmishers, repeatedly stall Stuart's Cavalry, still Union cavalry leaders,wishing to avoid a career-ending defeat hesitate to block Stuarts advance. Then Custer arrives, the right lunatic in exactly the right time and place, takes command of 500 Michigan Wolverines, and charges headlong into four times his number of Confederates, loses three horses in rapid succession, and shatters the Confederate formation.
So it all came down to just 12,000 Confederate Infantry, less than a quarter of the available manpower on hand, assaulting a still-intact Union line. That was never supposed to have happened.
JMHO
