[tjg]

It's not a controversial position to anyone that's read anything about that battle in particular, or the War of Northern Agression in general.

Lee freely admitted at the time, and maintatained in later years it was a huge mistake. Longstreet was agast when Lee informed him of his plan and didn't want to participate.

A frontal attack, over open ground, uphill, in broad daylight, to the center of a superior force. It was nuts. Lee knew it, but his genius was knowing what unexpected actions he could get away with.

His genius took a vacation at Gettysburg. It happens.

[Non-Sequitur]

A frontal attack, over open ground, uphill, in broad daylight, to the center of a superior force. It was nuts. Lee knew it, but his genius was knowing what unexpected actions he could get away with.

Sure it was nuts. It was also a tactic that Lee had tried in the past, at Malvern Hill in 1862, and had seen the Union try at Fredericksburg seven months prior. Lee saw the results, yet sent Pickett out to be massacred anyway. Lee was a good general but one who did not learn from his mistakes. He was not the best general of the war, or even the best southern general of the war. Jackson probably deserves both those titles. I would put Lee a distant third, behind Jackson and Grant and a little ahead of Sherman.