Where did Lee want to fight?

[bankerpapaw]

General Lee apparently didn't want to be drawn into battle at Gettysburg. General Meade was making defensive positions at Pipe Creek. Just where did Lee want to fight?

[5fish]

This is the Question I have always wanted to know myself. It looks like he wanted to reach Harrisburg before he engaged the AoP. Once he reached Harrisburg I do not know what his plan was or if the was a spot on the map where he wanted to engage the AoP.

Knowing Lee plans everything. He must have study maps of the area and had a clue where around the Harrisburg area he wanted to engage the AoP. Knowing Lee kept his plans always close to his vest. He seems he never clued in Longstreet, Hill, Ewell, or his staff to what his plans to where and when he wanted to engaged the AoP.

I hope someone on this board can clue me in to where to look to find out...

[milhistbuff1]

From harrisburg you turn east, go down the coast... cut the rail and telegraph links into Washington. It was how Wm the Conqueror took london, lopping off its supply arteries

[ole]

From harrisburg you turn east, go down the coast... cut the rail and telegraph links into Washington. It was how Wm the Conqueror took london, lopping off its supply arteries.

Meanwhile lose your army shortly before the rail and telegraph links are restored.

ole

[milhistbuff1]

thats a bit of a leap. politicians get desperate, causes meade to do something rash, like attack. Silence the pressure from behind... Besides doing that strategy allows you to utilize maneuver choose your own ground.

[Baggage Handler #2]

Originally Posted by milhistbuff1

thats a bit of a leap. politicians get desperate, causes meade to do something rash, like attack. Silence the pressure from behind... Besides doing that strategy allows you to utilize maneuver choose your own ground.

That actually makes a lot of sense.

[milhistbuff1]

If Jackson was leading the second invasion, thats what would have happened... Lee never had the guts necessary to take moves to end the war besides surrender. He just sought to evict the AOP, not end the war...

[matthew mckeon]

I've got to disagreed with you, milhistbuff1. Lee was extraordinarily aggressive and sought to destroy the AoP, and made two full scale invasions of the North.

[milhistbuff1]

yes, but he then chose to remain at ground that was poorly suited for the battle that would destroy the AOP. Antietam he had insufficient room to maneuver and cut the AOP off... At Gburg he failed to concentrate fast enough to make a decisive strike and prevent meade from holding on to the high ground.

Additionally Lee's tactics were inappropriate. Lee followed Napoleon's later campaign strategies of brute strength, which cost the south its manpower unnecessarily. The earlier napoleonic campaigns were done with a surfeit of men and achieved great strategic aims through maneuver and indirect battle tactics. Lee failed on the latter point.

Malverne Hill, Gettysburg, the Wilderness (anderson's attack) were all direct assaults with insufficient prepwork.

Look up the Ulm maneuver and Napoleon's Italian Campaign in Basil Liddell Hart's book Strategy you'll see what I mean.

See Bevin Alexander's Robert E. Lee's Civil War on the other points.

[Freddy]

Lee wanted to defeat the AoP on Northern soil. The place of the battle was supposed to be of Lee's own choosing where victory would be likely. Gettysburg was not the place that Lee had invisioned for his victory over the AoP, but Lee was forced to fight there as circumstances led to the clash. Longstreet wanted to fight a defensive battle instead of an offensive battle that Lee sought. Lee should have listened to Longstreet and made the Federals attack the ANV. Perhaps then Lee could have won by inflicting a severe blow to the AoP. Then he would be able to find another place to defeat a weary AoP. Instead Lee almost destroyed the ANV at Gettysburg and reduced it to a retreating army.