Last Chance for Victory: The Battle of Gettysburg

Last Chance for Victory is the next entry in The Gamers’ Line of Battle series (LoB) which simulates the Battle of Gettysburg. It is the second game in the series, following the well received None But Heroes about the Battle of Antietam.

The story of Gettysburg is well known or, I should say, the popular rendition of the battle is well known and has certainly been simulated multiple times.

As is usually the case with stripped down, accepted versions of complex events, this narrative misses much flavor and a deeper understanding of what went on. It’s the ‘auto-tour’ version of a much more involved event.

Many things are simply not brought out, or put into proper context, in the affirmed version of the battle:

1) Lee arrived on the field and tried to get his footing when Ewell (on his own initiative) ordered Rodes and Early to attack. Lee wasted no time in ordering Hill to attack with Heth and Pender to support Ewell’s Corps. In the commonly held view, Lee arrived and simply dithered while events unfolded outside his control.

2) There were several opportunities that afternoon and evening to advance and take Cemetery and/or Culp’s Hills. These were missed… but not, as commonly assumed, because one or more leaders were staring at their navels confused or indecisive. What happened and why?

3) Ewell made a clear headed decision his men were in no condition to take the hill that evening. He was the commander on the spot. Since then historians and armchair generals everywhere have questioned that decision, the game allows you to see who was right. Ewell was of the opinion that he could only do it if 3rd Corps supported him. That support was ordered by Lee (using 3rd Corps’ artillery) but was not implemented by the army’s chief of artillery. Would that have allowed the attack to work? What was the relative condition of the Union defenders and the potential attacking troops anyway?