Tom

Thank You, You are exactly correct.

No, I don't foresee how the Union 1st Corp could have acted any better, even if Reynolds had survived. It is hard to determine what actual impact his death really had. Yet in order to create superheroes, our history has concentrated on such events, to the detriment of other things, which actually played more significant parts. Also, as you point out, it was a foregone conclusion that with the collapse of the Union 11th Corp, that the 1st Corp could not hold it's position. Perrin's brigade assault did in fact indirectly aid the Union cause of that day. Again strange ironic things happen in war and in life in general.

This is why I contend that our hindsight of history is not always 20/20. Often our historical understandings are misguided by previous historians interpretations that sometimes are flawed. Certainly Gen. Reynolds death, and the role the Union 1st Corp played, were significant events. But it wasn’t the decisive event that lead to and caused the collapse of the Union defenses on Seminary Ridge on July 1st 1863. And that decisive event is not properly interpreted at the Gettysburg National Military Park in my opinion.