Robert Lees Decisions at Gettysburg - Essay Example

Robert E. Lee’s decisions at Gettysburg The battle which took place for a period of three consecutive days (from 1stto 3rd July, 1863) erupted as a result of General Robert Lee attempting to invade the North in a bid to ease pressure off Virginia’s farms at the growing season. This is considered to be the largest Civil War that has ever been fought in America (James, 51), having left the biggest number of casualties as compared to all the other civil wars that had ever been fought in America. It resulted into the loss of lives of 23,000 Confederate soldiers, a number which represented a third of the entire army. The war involved about 170,000 men. Upon losing the battle, the General led the remaining group back to Virginia, in the process bringing the war to a halt and concluded by sealing the Union victory. Despite the defeat, Lee’s still believes they would have won the battle if only they were united. He makes this clear through his letter to the President of the Confederate States, “….we must expect reverses, even defeats. They are send to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies and to prevent falling into greater disasters. Our people only have to be true and united, to bear manfully the misfortune incident to war, and all will come right in the end.” (General Robert, 8th August, 1863). The losing of the battle at Gettysburg had nothing concerning the decisions he made but instead, it was enabled by the failure of the subordinates not only failing to follow his directives but also acting contrary to them. This is seen when the Cavalry, Generals Ewell and Longstreet end up failing General Lee by failing to act in unison with him. Much about these is as discussed in the successive paragraphs. For a number of weeks, General Lee had not received any feedback from his cavalry. This posed a challenge since the General went ahead to make decisions without having much knowledge on the magnitude and strength of the enemy. This, in other words, shows how the subordinates (Cavalry) contributed in the defeat of General Lee’s Army. General Lee knew the importance a good standing ground as far the winning of any battle is concerned. He figured out a large hill which was referred to as Little Round Top. He ordered one of General Ewell, who he trusted as a Division Commander to go take the hill but instead, the commander let him down. The hill was only having about 1,000 Union soldiers (James, 36), a far much smaller number as compared to the group that was under Ewell (over 20,000 men). This depicts how easy it would have been to take over the hill but instead, Ewell was too cautious and instead, waited for General Longstreet from Northern Virginia to give him a hand. At night is when Longstreet arrived and at this time the Union Soldiers had received support and as a result, they were entrenched on the hill’s top part. This made it difficult for Lee to take the hill and an attempt of the same in the following day resulted in Lee losing thousands of his men including his able commander, General Hood. Had Ewell taken Lee’s orders, they would have been the leaders before the nightfall, (James, 28). This in essence means that the result of the battle would have otherwise been different. The last day’s decision is considered to be the most brilliant of all the ideas he made at Gettysburg but yet, ended up immaturely due to the same reason that had made the idea of the previous day not going through; the subordinate – this time round being General James Longstreet. Before the war at Gettysburg, they had a good understanding of each other and in fact, Longstreet was Lee’s advisor. This ended up to be a totally different story after the battle. He (Lee) schemed on bombarding the center of the union by use of heavy artillery strikes so as to weaken it so that to make them almost unable to attack his group. Not being aware of the impending disappointment, he entrusted this idea to General Longstreet from the North, not knowing that the general could eventually not be able to order the attack the appropriate time (Shaara 318-319). The time he gave the order to the about 15,000 men, it was already too late since the shock caused by the artillery bombardment had ceased and at that time, the Union had looked for more reinforcement. General Longstreet had been ordered to launch the attack at six o’clock in the morning but instead, he delayed and did the same late in the evening at four o’clock; ten hours from the scheduled time. The main reason of General’s Longstreet’s action was because of the existing conflict between him at the General Lee concerning the mechanism they were to employ in order to win the battle. Each one of them had his own suggestion and the end of the day, there was no clear consensus on whose idea to execute. According to Lee, the use of the employment of the long-range artillery would help them win. However, the same does not hold true with Longstreet, he views this as an outdated strategy. It is with respect to his reasoning that he ended up not launching the scheduled attack accordingly as seen in the preceding paragraph. According to him, there was a better way of defeating their antagonists; using rifles. Longstreet argues that one man armed with a good riffle can kill a minimum of three enemies. In a nutshell, Longstreet views General Lee as a traditional Soldier and views himself as a modern one with knowledge as far as technology is concerned. On the other hand, Lee believes that his tactics were good enough to make them win the battle since they have been employed in the past and borne fruits. Longstreet had earlier on taken part in some battles but none of them was of the magnitude of the one at Gettysburg. Some of the battles he had participated in include Chapultapec (he ended up being wounded in this battle), Vera Cruz and Churbusco. Despite him knowing that none of these battles could be compared to Gettysburg’s he still proved to be stubborn with his rigid stand by failing to honor General Lee’s orders and in turn trying to implement his, which at the end of the day still did not come with any success. For instance, on the last day of the battle, after failing to execute Lee’s command, he had his troops under Major General George Picket attacking the Union Centre only to end up being disappointed by the outcome. The occurrence of all the events that took place in the war is what led to his resignation after a short while after the battle (slightly more than a month). He wrote the letter to the president of the Confederate States registering his wish to resign on 8th August, 1863. In his letter, Lee points out that it is easy for individuals to point fingers at those who fail to fulfill their expectations. He goes ahead to justify his resignation by stating that if a military commander is not performing according to the people’s expectations; the only remedy is to get rid of him. As it is clear in his letter, his action was not as a result of an overnight decision, he had given it a substantial amount of time. Despite him knowing that Longstreet together with others were his main undoing, he avoids to mention anything about them as he writes to the president. He does not blame anyone for defeat but instead, he takes whole blame upon himself. In a nutshell, irony is what can be associated with the other characters who took part in the war, staring with General Longstreet. This comes out clearly when he refuses to do as instructed by Lee and yet he did not have any better plan. In addition to this, it is Lee who takes up the blame when in reality; it is supposed to be Longstreet’s. Conclusion Despite the criticisms put forth by the various historians pertaining General Lee’s decisions with respect to the defeat in the battle, it is quite clear the General’s idea were quite far-sighted. His main undoing was the people he was working and this has been clearly portrayed as his men, whom he considers to be trustworthy, disappoint him one after the other. In other words, the losing of the battle was favored by Lee’s subordinates and not his decisions. Despite the defeat having been contributed by other persons, General Longstreet plays a major role. This is due to his rebellious way of acting. For instance, General Longstreet’s failure to execute the order at the appropriate time ends up costing the entire troop (Shaara 148-149). Had he given his support to General Lee, they would have perhaps won the battle since the mechanism he (Lee) had planned to employ in the cause of the battle has history; it had been used in the past several times and it had proved to bear fruits. Works Cited General Robert E. Lee’s Letter of Resignation to Jefferson Davis, Camp Orange, August 8, 1863 James Longstreet (2012). From Manassas to Appomattox. BoD – Books on Demand. Michael Shaara (2004). The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War. New York: Modern Library Read More