iirc the dream wasn’t to secure Gettysburg, it was to destroy the Army of the Potomac.
It wasn’t as easy a call as it sounds now that we know the disposition of both armies. Longstreet’s assessment was more accurate about how much the rate of fire had increased the lethality of the kill zone over the past decades, and Lee should have listened to him. I suspect Lee was mostly guided by his sense of how it would impact the morale of each army - because that was crucial to which army would break first. He might also have overestimated the effectiveness of his artillery. Turns out he was wrong.
iirc the dream wasn’t to secure Gettysburg, it was to destroy the Army of the Potomac.
It wasn’t as easy a call as it sounds now that we know the disposition of both armies. Longstreet’s assessment was more accurate about how much the rate of fire had increased the lethality of the kill zone over the past decades, and Lee should have listened to him. I suspect Lee was mostly guided by his sense of how it would impact the morale of each army - because that was crucial to which army would break first. He might also have overestimated the effectiveness of his artillery. Turns out he was wrong.