Tom...

1,500 isn't much, but Robert E. Lee never let inferior numbers get in the way of planning an attack. If he could get the right forces to the right place at the right time, he believed he had a fighting chance to win. I have often argued that Lee had a definite plan for the attack on July 3, but that it wasn't properly carried out. Had it been carried out, the Union re-enforcements would not have been so readily available and there would have been Confederate re-enforcemnts at the breakthrough point. I have also never found out what Lee's plan specifically was, and none of his Lieutenants ever went into detail about what Lee was thinking.

I don't think Lee was a stupid or foolish man. I don't believe he was sick and could not effectively lead his troops. Why then did he order the charge at all? What was he thinking? He had to see what was in front of him and that if he attacked the center of the line, it could easily be re-enforced from the wings. Any attack would have to account for that. I believe he thought his best fighting chance was in the center of the line, with his best available troops; and that the Union troops would break first.

The whole plan was not to have the Wilcox Brigade win the day with a last minute charge into the gap in the line. There should have been a lot more of Pickett's and Pettigrew's men at the wall with them. I think the combined forces could have broken the Union position. What happened after that, who knows...The way the Union troops were responding to Confederate attacks during the three days, it's not unreasonable to assume that could have regrouped and fought their way back. Aside from that, I do believe the 1,500 (or 1,000) could have made a significant dent in the Union position. All you have to do is to get the enemy to start running to win a battle. At the point where Armistead fell, the line was broken and Union soldiers were running. Re-enforcemnts were not immediately coming up- regiments balked at moving into the gap. Given enough time the hole was filled. But if 2 more Rebel brigades were moving through the gap at that particular moment...

I think that Lee would have liked his chances for that. It's sort of like a championship basketball game where a team trails an equally-tallented opponent by one point with 5 seconds left...their All-American center has the ball under the opponent's basket and is triple-teamed...he fakes, turns, and shoots...

If you had asked that team's coach before the game, would he be satisfied to have a chance to win it all based on that one play...what would he say?

This, of course, is just my opinion. And I could be wrong.
Isn't this fun...and none of us had to die for errors in judgement and lapses in command.

John