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I would like to make clear at this point that General Lee does not subscribe to the loose talk that one Confederate can whip ten Union men! How did McLaws end up facing such long odds? Well, it was an intelligence failure & the seemingly logical (and utterly wrong) decisions which flowed from that intelligence failure.
I like seeing the board in both 2D and 3D. One of the benefits of 3D is you can spot the flags of your opponents, and if they're distinctive enough, then you can begin to fit together a picture of the force you're up against, even with FOW and even before your forces come to contact. Rebel troops on the south side of the Rappahannock, in Ewell's Corps, saw the Iron Brigade flags, which obviously meant I Corps. We saw the Emerald flags of the Irish Brigade, and the pale green flags of the Philadelphia Brigade. We also saw Vermont flags of 3XX units, all heading onto the map on the Falmouth Rd.
Now, General Lee knew there were two Vermont brigades in the AOP at Gettysburg; Grant's in the VI Corps, and Stannard's, newly attached to I Corps who of course IRL got around the flank of Kemper's Brigade during Pickett's Charge. However, General Lee knew that Stannard's regiments were large by mid-war standards, 600-700 men. The units on the Falmouth Rd were therefore incorrectly identified as Grant's men of the VI Corps, rather than Stannard's men of the I Corps. If General Lee had thought a little harder, he would have checked that the large NC regiments in Daniel's and Pettigrew's Brigades, for example, were split into wings, and if that had been done for the ANV, there was a decent chance that had also been done for the AOP.
For a good portion of the morning, Lee therefore believed that the VI Corps, along with the I and II, were in the south of the map. From our scenario briefing, we knew there were five Federal infantry Corps on the field. V Corps, we knew was opposite Wilcox at Tinpot Run. If the I, II, and VI Corps were in the south of the map, this left a final Union infantry corps, by a process of elimination, Sickles' III Corps, in the north of the map. If you reckon on 15,000 men per Union infantry corps, not terrible odds for McLaws, especially with the Hazel River as an obstacle.
As Ewell pursued the Federals in the south of the map, a Vermont unit from Stannard's Brigade was left as a sacrificial rearguard & we knew then, given we had contacted no other VI Corps units, that a mistake had been made & we did not know where the VI Corps was after all. So where was it?
Now, Lee believed that massing two thirds of the ANV and striking one of the Union flanks was sure to draw a reaction. It did - cavalry from Meade and some of the Pennsylvania Reserves went to safeguard the flanks of the retreating I and II Corps. But Lee believed the Union response was sure to be of a different order of magnitude and at least one Union Corps would have be sent to help Reynolds. Plus, if Reynolds was retreating, and leaving rearguard units to their fate, then he must surely be retreating towards reinforcements (we know all about the Iron Brigade in this game now, but Caldwell's Division had also suffered significant losses) in order to ensure his stand would be successful when it eventually came to be made.
Where were those reinforcements likely to come from? Well, in Lee's mind at this point, it had to be Sedgwick's VI Corps, who might easily have been part of the centre of the Union army, and who might easily either have been racing towards Morrisville, or having their route to the Rappahannock cleared by Sykes' Division of US Regulars. But as we now know, the Union had other ideas.
But enough about Lee's logic, or the lack thereof. At times, you do just need to take your hat off to your opponents - I think a lot of players would have panicked at the spectre of 40,000 screaming Rebs overwhelming a portion of their army, but Walt, Jim, and Robert kept a cool head and did not panic & that showed a good deal of moral courage, I think.
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Major General TW Marshall
ACWGC President 2022 - 2025
Commanding Officer, 2nd (Gator Alley) Division, Stewart's Corps, Army of Tennessee
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