American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

I'm going through Freeman's Lee's Lieutenants for about the 6th or 7th time. Seems like I have to do this every 10 years or so. I enjoy the series immensely and avidly recount the fortunes of the ANV through his eyes as a historian. But on occasion I run across portions of his story that leave me scratching my head.

One such is found in Volume III where he describes the morning actions of July 1st. Even when I make allowance for the fact that Freeman was writing almost exclusively from the C.S.A. viewpoint, he comes up, in my opinion, extremely short in any mention of Buford's delaying action against Heth's Division. In fact, he doesn't mention Buford's cavalry by name or even hint that Heth was forced to deploy across the Cashtown Road because of him. So what was going on in Freeman's mind? He wrote the work and published it in 1947, having full access, presumably, to the Official Records and a whole wealth of material covering that portion of the Gettysburg battle. Nor does he make clear the sacrificial charge of the 1st Minnesota on July 2nd as an element of the lack of success on Longstreet's far left. Was he so enmeshed within the C.S.A. side of things that he simply underscored the import of what happened, or did he intentionally leave out these actions in favor of some bias?

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General Jos. C. Meyer, ACWGC
Union Army Chief of Staff
Commander, Army of the Shenandoah
Commander, Army of the Tennessee
(2011-2014 UA CoA/GinC)

Freeman was definitely writing from a southern viewpoint, but he was blinded by always putting the sun in his face. On the other hand, he did entertain a lot of folks, didn't he?

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Your Obedient Servant,
Lt Gen Dwight McBride
Ist Division/1st Brigade
V Corps/AOP/USA

For some, history and heritage are so loaded with contraindications of their beliefs that they just ignore them when they don't fit.

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Lt. Gen. Steve Sober, ACWGC
UA Cabinet Secretary
1/4/V AotP