New Map May Explain Lee's Decisions

[Shadow9216]

http://www.thestate.com/2013/06/28/2839165/new-map-may-explain-lees-decisions.html
For some reason, it won't let me copy/paste a quote, so the link is above. Basically, it applied GIS mapping to determine Lee's sight lines, and found that he couldn't see how many Federal troops he was facing. I'm guessing that means "how many were emplaced at given positions" rather than how many in total...
The map can be found here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histo...-Second-Look-at-the-Battle-of-Gettysburg.html

 

[kevikens]

I don't know, but if he got up into the seminary cupola on the ridge he should have had a pretty good view of Cemetery Ridge. Did he use that observation post on 7/2 and 7/3 ?

 

[Union_Buff]

A very interesting article and links - thanks for posting them Shadow

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

I have read the slight ridge on which part of the Emmitsburg Road follows (and which Sickles valued so much on July 2) gave Lee a distorted view of where the left flank of the Union army really was. I believe some of the topography (the same ridge?) also masked some of the Union batteries on July 3, sparing them from any attention during the massive bombardment before Pickett's Charge. It's good to see GIS being used to help clarify these things.

Now if only GIS could be used to determine just where the hell Sam Johnston and John Clarke rode on the morning of July 2 scouting for Lee because there is no way they missed so many Union troops if they actually climbed Little Round Top.

 

[Shadow9216]

Now if only GIS could be used to determine just where the hell Sam Johnston and John Clarke rode on the morning of July 2 scouting for Lee because there is no way they missed so many Union troops if they actually climbed Little Round Top.

My theory is they met a couple of young ladies and spent the morning hours in romantic dalliance; being good Southern gentlemen, and not wishing to besmirch the young ladies' reputations, they carried that secret to their grave. Such was their notion of honor that they never revealed their whereabouts, or the failure of their mission, regardless of the consequences.

 

[rpkennedy]

I don't know, but if he got up into the seminary cupola on the ridge he should have had a pretty good view of Cemetery Ridge. Did he use that observation post on 7/2 and 7/3 ?

There is no indication that he ever used the seminary's cupola during the battle.

R

 

[rpkennedy]

I have read the slight ridge on which part of the Emmitsburg Road follows (and which Sickles valued so much on July 2) gave Lee a distorted view of where the left flank of the Union army really was. I believe some of the topography (the same ridge?) also masked some of the Union batteries on July 3, sparing them from any attention during the massive bombardment before Pickett's Charge. It's good to see GIS being used to help clarify these things.

Now if only GIS could be used to determine just where the hell Sam Johnston and John Clarke rode on the morning of July 2 scouting for Lee because there is no way they missed so many Union troops if they actually climbed Little Round Top.

There are several small hills further to the south and it is likely that they rode too far south thinking that the were on the Round Tops.

R

 

[wilber6150]

I always thought that Lee acted as if the Union had a lot less men then he faced in reality..Could explain why he thought the center would be a hollow shell after all the fighting on the flanks

 

[kevikens]

RP Kennedy: well the, that explains it. Lee's failure to go up there to the cupola and look around at what he was facing was a failure of proper reconnaissance and therefore a blunder of epic proportions leading to Confederate defeat. Had he gone upstairs and seen what the Yanks had in store for Pickett he would have re-evaluated his whole strategy and calculated accordingly. Imagine that, the South lost the battle, maybe the whole war, just because he didn't climb those stairs and look out the window. The Almighty works in mysterious ways.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

Lee's failure to go up there to the cupola and look around at what he was facing was a failure of proper reconnaissance and therefore a blunder of epic proportions leading to Confederate defeat. Had he gone upstairs and seen what the Yanks had in store for Pickett he would have re-evaluated his whole strategy and calculated accordingly. Imagine that, the South lost the battle, maybe the whole war, just because he didn't climb those stairs and look out the window.

I wonder how much that was simply an oversight that didn't occur to him and how much it had to do with Lee's health? Perhaps at some point he saw it, but didn't feel he was up for the climb? Of course, he could have sent a staff officer.

Even one-legged Ewell reported climbed a cupola in Gettysburg at one point to observe the Union lines.

 

[Rob9641]

I wonder how much that was simply an oversight that didn't occur to him and how much it had to do with Lee's health? Perhaps at some point he saw it, but didn't feel he was up for the climb? Of course, he could have sent a staff officer.

Even one-legged Ewell reported climbed a cupola in Gettysburg at one point to observe the Union lines.

Lee could have sent someone and I'll bet he did, but the terrain is such that it would not have given him all that great a view of what was going on behind the Round Tops, Culp's Hill, and even most of Cemetery Ridge. I've been up in that cupola.