What would Lee do next?

5fish

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Lets go back to July 1863, Lee has just won the Battle of Gettysburg and Meade has retreat to his fall back position at Pipe Creek.

What would Lee do next? He has exhausted his army for victory but he did not achieve his goal of destroying the AoP only forcing it to retreat with heavy loses.

The AoP is still between him and Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia and still has some fight left in it while lee's army is hurting and far from home.

What are Lee's options?

Lee could follow the AoP and bring on another Battle.

Lee could head toward Harrisburg, PA.

Lee could retire back to VA.

If Lee had won at Gettysburg what would he have achieved and what would he have done next?
 

5fish

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I think he should threaten Harrisburg if his army can live of the land. if he could head towards Philadelphia and New York...
 

diane

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I think he'd get crushed if he tried threatening New York! But - Sherman was not into capturing any major Southern cities when he made his march through Georgia. He didn't need to. Neither did Lee. If Lee could scare the devil out of the Northerners by showing that even if his army could not hold the territory (Sherman couldn't either) they could wreak havoc and terrorize the place, helping themselves to whatever they wanted. Do you propose Lee's March through Pennsylvania or Ohio? I think he had something like that in mind!
 
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