Did Robert E. Lee make the correct decisions at Gettysburg or could he Essay

Did Robert E. Lee make the correct decisions at Gettysburg or could he have employed a different strategy - Essay Example The war involved about 170,000 men. Upon losing the battle, the General led the remaining group back to Virginia, in the process bringing the war to a halt and concluded by sealing the Union victory. Despite the defeat, Lee’s still believes they would have won the battle if only they were united. He makes this clear through his letter to the President of the Confederate States, â€Å"†¦.we must expect reverses, even defeats. They are send to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies and to prevent falling into greater disasters. Our people only have to be true and united, to bear manfully the misfortune incident to war, and all will come right in the end.† (General Robert, 8th August, 1863). The losing of the battle at Gettysburg had nothing concerning the decisions he made but instead, it was enabled by the failure of the subordinates not only failing to follow his directives but also acting contrary to them. This is seen when the Cavalry, Generals Ewell and Longstreet end up failing General Lee by failing to act in unison with him. Much about these is as discussed in the successive paragraphs. For a number of weeks, General Lee had not received any feedback from his cavalry. This posed a challenge since the General went ahead to make decisions without having much knowledge on the magnitude and strength of the enemy. This, in other words, shows how the subordinates (Cavalry) contributed in the defeat of General Lee’s Army. General Lee knew the importance a good standing ground as far the winning of any battle is concerned. He figured out a large hill which was referred to as Little Round Top. He ordered one of General Ewell, who he trusted as a Division Commander to go take the hill but instead, the commander let him down. The hill was only having about 1,000 Union soldiers (James, 36), a far much smaller number as compared to the group that was under Ewell (over 20,000 men). This depicts how easy it would have been