The libtrads, dems and the left after LSU

Not so much a grand gesture as it was desparation. Lee had no illusions that the South could win the war. The Pennsylvania campaign was essentially a massive guerrilla campaign aimed at taking away the North's (read: civilians) will to fight. Until Lee moved north, the war was an abstract idea for anyone living north of Harrisburg. Even in the south, until the fighting began, no one had a real idea of the horrors of war. Fact:some residents of Manassas actually packed picnic lunches and watched the First Battle of Bull Run from nearby hills, like it was a freakin' football game or something. Lee thought by putting these horrors literally on the north's doorstep, it would create an anti-war sentiment that might stop the fighting before the south had been bled dry and had no choice but to surrender.

Now this, I'll grant, was an epic blunder. Longstreet argued strongly against it, but Lee had become married to his strategy and wouldn't let go.
I've always felt - not to make an excuse for Lee - that Gettysburg was actually lost when Jackson was killed at Chancellorsville. He certainly would have moved had it been he and not Ewell who got the order to take Cemetary Hill on the first day, and that position became the stronghold around which the Federals built their whole defense.

 

OK, not sure what you're trying to tell me, but that's just gross. Don't care for the bloody Trump head either.