For all of the attention devoted to the events of July 3, 1863, the final day of the battle of Gettysburg, there is a case to be made that it was the results of the fighting of July 2 that proved decisive to the outcome of the clash. Most critics of James Longstreet focus on his actions during that day; we’ve had a lot of ink spilled about what happen at Little Round Top, and whether it was important; there have been those who have claimed that an emphasis on the fighting along the Union left obscures the equally important fighting that took place on the Union right, especially the assault upon Culp’s Hill, an area rendered more vulnerable because of the dispatching of Union forces to shore up the Union left.
What do you believe was more important: the outcome of the fighting on the Union right or the Union left? Why?
Crossroads 