New and Noteworthy---19 Critical Decisions That Defined The Pennsylvania Campaign

Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Gettysburg Campaign, Matt Spruill, University of Tennessee Press, 27 photographs, 10 maps, 3 diagrams, appendices, notes, bibliography, index, 224 pp,2011, $24.95

Former Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide, Matt Spruill presents 19 major strategic, operational and tactical decisions that had a significant impact on the 1863 Pennsylvania Campaign. These decisions '. . . had they not been made would have dramatically changed the character of the battle and the decisions that followed would have been different. The difference would have been such magnitudde as to change the sequence and course of events of the Battle of Gettysburg. " [xii]

Before the Battle
1. Lee’s decision to take the Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania
2. Lee’s reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia during late May
3. Hooker’s reorganization of the Army of the Potomac’s artillery in late May
4. Lee’s ambigious orders to Stuart that allows him to take the cavalry astray

July 1

5. Buford chooses to contest the advance of the Army of Northern Virginia
6. Reynolds chooses to reinforce Buford’s cavalry division
7. Ewell with Rodes chooses to attack immediately on arriving near Gettysburg
8. Ewell with Johnson chooses not to attack Culp’s Hill
9. Meade chooses to move forward to Gettysburg

July 2

10. Lee choose to continue the offensive and attack the Federals left
11. Longstreet chooses to countermarch to avoid detection by the Federal left
12. Sickles chooses to advance to the Emittsburg Road
13. Longstreet choose advance en echelon northeast
14. Law sends his brigade to capture the artillery on Devil’s Den/Houck’s Ridge
15. Benning sends his brigade towards Devil’s Den and not Little Round Top
16. Geary holds Greene's brigade on Culp’s Hill while sending two brigades to the Federal left

July 3

17. Slocum and Williams assault the Confederate left at 4:30a
18. Lee orders Longstreet to coordinate an assault of the Federal center

July 4

19. Lee conducts full retreat from Pennsylvania