Quote:
Originally Posted by mwruckman
We in the Union were very lucky his own boys gunned him down by accident during the Battle of the Wilderness. He was quite a handful at places like Antietam (Sharpsburg to you southerns), Harper's Ferry and places like Manasas. Just imagine if he instead of John Bell Hood and Longstreet had been calling the shots the day the Grey tried to take the Roundtops! There may never have been a need for Pickett's Charge.
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Had Jackson lived it would have been he rather than Ewell commanding the force which led the march from Virginia into Pennsylvania, targeting the state capitol, Harrisburg. It would have then been Jackson's command who descended upon the Federal right north of Gettysburg, and Jackson with the discretionary orders from Lee to "..take that hill, if practicable, referencing Cemetery Hill where the Union 1st and 11th Corps were making their stand. It is impossible to imagine Stonewall not having a go at it and if he had been successful, there never would have been a need for Longstreet to be attacking the next day.
If we postulate the first day unfolding as it actually did, then the next day it still would have been Longstreet leading any attack on the Federal left, Jackson's Corps would have been at the other end of the battlefield.
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