by Jeffrey Schaffer

Created on: September 11, 2009

On July 3, 1863 General Robert E. Lee had fought fiercely for the past two days trying to dislodge the Union Army from the town of Gettysburg. Though he had done severe damage to the Union Army, he hadn't yet driven it from the field. He needed a decisive victory to cause the Army of the Potomac to retreat towards Washington and to inflict deep humiliation upon the Lincoln administration. This is why he ordered Generals Pickett, Trimble and Pettigrew to attempt to break the Union center and drive them off the field.

The decision to move north and invade Pennsylvania occurred while the Confederate bastion of Vicksburg was under siege in Mississippi. If Vicksburg fell, the Confederacy would be cut in half and would suffer a major blow in its war for independence. General Lee hoped that if he could inflict a significant defeat to the Union Army in the north and threaten Washington, Baltimore or Philadelphia, the United States would be demoralized to the point of negotiating a peaceful settlement. While the South lacked the same manufacturing and economic strength as the North, it did have the advantage of fighting for its independence while the North was divided on how and if the Union should be preserved.

Therefore on July 3, General Lee made the decision to try for a final blow. The plan itself was fundamentally sound: a massed artillery barrage, followed with a quick infantry assault and supported by a cavalry assault on the rear. With a professional army such as the French or Prussian, this could have worked well. A sudden massed artillery barrage would disrupt the enemy's defensive artillery and force it to withdraw. In theory, the three divisions should have been aligned as three columns, with the first division moving out immediately after the barrage lifts. When the first division reached about 300 yards, it would spit into two, taking up flanking positions to lay down cover fire. Then the second division would come up and launch a bayonet charge to break up the enemy infantry, while the third division came in as reinforcement to exploit the break. This, combined with a major cavalry assault at the rear, could have easily thrown the enemy into a panic and caused parts of the Northern Army to withdraw in haste.

Unfortunately for the Confederacy, theirs was not a professional army, but largely a conscript army that lacked full scale logistical support. In addition, the general in charge of the assault, Lieutenant General James Longstreet, was pessimistic about

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