The non expert bookworm
We have too many non expert, untrained militarily, bookworms attempting to win one for the Confederacy, nearly 150 years after the Confederate trained West Pointers, were unable to perform the bookworm magic.
As said, rolling barrages were of a different era. Besides, WWI artillery shells used smokeless powder and not blackpowder. A fact a bookworm would not know. It was too difficult with a heavy barrage, as the Confederate July 3 Barrage was, to see very much after the artillery firing began. How much experience has the "what if" person have with black powder?
Another problem is the Confederate artillery was abysmal and even behind Civil War times. At Gettysburg, the Confederate artillery totally lacked percussion shells. With the exploding shells the Confederate artilley used, they exploded in the air, blocking out the area attacked even more. The Union artillery's percussion shells exploded when they hit the ground or object. One Confederate artillery officer, later noted in his book on Gettysburg, the terrible effect of a Union percussion shell that hit a Confederate cannon and carriage. Confederate artillery was unable to do the same at Gettysburg.
Once the exploding shells burst in the air, it was impossible for each crew to know where their shell was going. Too many artillery pieces, were in one small area, firing black powder charges and exploding, to know precisely where their particular shells were hitting. Plus there was no radio communication or forward observers telling the artillery units where the shells were going.
We know from writings of the Union officers in the barrage that many of the Confederate artillery shells were far too long. One officer with the reserve Union artillery noted that the Confederate barrage was so long, his unit, in the rear, was getting struck. There was one famously unknown Union artillery unit, that was totally unharmed by the barrage. All the shells went over their heads and exploded in their rear. When the barrage ended, a total of some 39 cannon, in one location, as I recall, opened fire on Pickett's Charge. A complete surprise to Confederates and the dumbfounded artillery.
If Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and E. P. Alexander, officers, former U.S. Officers, West Point Graduates, experienced in battle couldn't come up with a better artillery barrage, why do some, with no military experience, especially in artillery, know more than these Confederates?
How these non expert bookworms have come up with more ways, how these Confederate army experts could have won, is truly amazing. I guess they are expert in one thing. "We don't want our side to lose this Civil War, all over again." They sure are expert in that.