Civil War History - "What if..." DiscussionsWhat if they had attacked instead of digging in...? What if he was in charge of the army instead...? Did you ever have a "What if..." question, and you weren't sure where to post it? Here's the place to ask these speculative questions!
If you know about The Overland Campaign, you know of a place called North Anna and the ingenues trap Gen. Lee set for Gen. Grant and the AoP. The trap was never set by Gen. Lee for he became ill.
There are many other questions about that day but that is for another Thread.
What if Lee had not become ill and was able to set his trap and thrown both Anderson's and Ewell's corps against Hancock's crop that May morning.
Gen. Grant may have become just another one of Lee's victim's in history instead of the savior of the union.
Cold Harbor would have never happen.
Last edited by 5fish; 01-20-2008 at 10:59 AM.
Reason: spelling
Can I get a refresher on this trap? It's not ringing a bell for some reason.
__________________ "In mortal combat, a man may and will become so infuriated by the din and dangers of a bloody fight that his heart will turn to stone and his every de sire [be] for blood."
John Hadley, 7th Indiana after the battle at Port Republic
Basically Lee is in a 'V' with the point of the 'V' facing Grant. He's in a 'V' to prevent getting outflanked. The long and the short of it is that the point of the 'V' is virtually impregnable, so the Union goes grasping out on the flanks, but look what that does, it splits the Army of the Potomac. Lee has interior lines in the 'V' and can take most of one side of the 'V' and stick it on the other to overwhelm that half of the army, which also would be trapped against the river.
I've read that the point of the inverted "v" is actually the weakest point of a defensive line primarily because the legs of the "v" cannot bring to bear maximum concentrated fire power -- a self imposed exposure to enfilading fire.
If true, I suppose the object is to hope the advancing army is expected to take the path of least resistance and flow around the point.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
The Apex of the confederate V is pointed to a ford of the river (one of the few, where the South (confederate) Bank of the North Anna is higher than its North (Union) side.
Still, even when Grant realizes the danger of his positions, he does not pull back, he merely orders Hancock to entrench until Meade can rush reinforcements up to the danger point. Even in the face of real dangers, it was difficult to make Grant retreat.
Some believe, that North Anna was the last, best, chance for Lee to gain a significant strategic victory i.e., stopping the Union invasion in its tracks and perhaps forcing Grant to retreat.
North Anna was Lee's last chance to take the initiative from Grant but his health failed him that day. The time was short from the time he devised his trap until he became to sick to lead attack the next morning.
I have never got a good answer to why Ewell, Hill, Anderson could not have lead the attack against Hancock's corp. With Lee sick it should have fell upon Ewell to take command of the army but I have found nothing on what was happening that day except the attack never happen.
I must believe Ewell and the other corp generals knew what Lee was going to do but no one took any action and Grant avoided a disaster.
Lee was supposingly crying out from his sick bed "they must attack" but no one pick up the ball and led the attack that day, instead just inaction.
I haved seen it argued (I do not know it as a fact) that Lee made his plan, with himself in direct command of it, because he felt his higher commanders due to heavy losses in his officer corps and could not completely trust their ardor or competence as much as he once had.
Apparently, Lee's relapse occurred before he had fully developed his plan and/or before he had disseminated it
to his commanders.
Very few subordinate commanders are confident enough to implement a major plan made by someone else.
Grant did bite, both Hancock and Warren walked right into the trap. It was only Lee's illness and for whatever reason Lee's subordinates inaction that saved Grant on the Mat day.
From the morning until the mid afternoon hours both Hancock and Warren were open to attack. Once they realized the trap they were in they both entrenched and the withdrew a few days later.
North Anna is the motivation behind the Cold Harbor fiasco. Grant realized he had missed a bullet at North Anna and could not believe Lee did not attack his divided army. He thought he had for better words taken the fight out of the AoNV by then and thought one more hard push and the AoNV would collapse. He did know Lee had been ill.
At Cold Harbor, due the AoNv inaction Grant thought a major assault and the AoNV would collapse and the war would be over. As we know the AoNV still had alot of fight left in it so Grant's wrong interpretation of the events at North Anna led to the assault at Cold Harbor and the great loss of life.
If Lee had been able to set his trap he would probably have done major damage to Grant's army. However, unless he could have completely destroyed Grant's army, I don't believe Grant would have retreated. As long as Grant could get reinforcements he would have kept going no matter how many men he lost.
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Lee/Grant--North Anna, What if? 
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