What If

clebeurne

Retired User
Joined
May 18, 2019
what if the 150 cannons that fired on cemetary ridge for 3 hrs. or so had fired on cemetary hill so if they missed[ as they did firing on the cemetary hill center] they would've till enfiladed the union line heading on down too culps hill?
 
I don't think the geometry works for that, and I suspect there are range issues too. ca. 160 guns take up a lot of horizontal real estate, and the range of ACW cannons wasn't really high enough to let them stack "vertically".
 
I don't think the geometry works for that, and I suspect there are range issues too. ca. 160 guns take up a lot of horizontal real estate, and the range of ACW cannons wasn't really high enough to let them stack "vertically".
believe it was what porter alexander said should have been done instead of what was actually done. via lees orders
 
believe it was what porter alexander said should have been done instead of what was actually done. via lees orders

Well, maybe it was possible then, at least in terms of geometry and space.

Thinking about it in terms of what's going to happen, the tricky thing would probably be what it's in service of. I suppose it's possible that it would be the prelude to an assault on Cemetery Hill, in which case perhaps the CS brigades that hadn't been properly launched on day two would be the main attack force - those at least should be able to fight on day three - and Pickett's men would in that case be basically conducting the opening part of the echelon attack, the part expected to face the hardest situation.
 
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