.JOURNAL OFTIIE CHURCHILL CKNTER AND ... - Winston Churchill

IF LEE HAD NOT WONTHE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURGBY WINSTON S. CHURCHILLTHE quaint conceit ofimagining what wouldhave happened if some importantor unimportant event hadsetded itself differently has becomeso fashionable that I am encouragedto enter upon an absurd speculation.What would have happenedif Lee had not won the Battleof Gettysburg?Once a great victory is won it dominates not onlythe future but the past. All the chains of consequenceclink out as if they never could stop. The hopes that wereshattered, the passions that were quelled, the sacrificesdiat were ineffectual are all swept out of the land of reality.Still it may amuse an idle hour, and perhaps serve as acorrective to undue complacency, if at this moment in thetwentieth century—so rich in assurance and prosperity, socalm and buoyant—we meditate for a spell upon the debtwe owe to diose Confederate soldiers who by a deathlessfeat of arms broke the Union front at Gettysburg and laidopen a fair future to the world.It always amuses historians and philosophers topick out the tiny things, the sharp agate points, on whichthe ponderous balance of destiny turns; and certainly thedetails of the famous Confederate victory of Gettysburgfurnish a fertile theme. There can be at this date no conceivabledoubt that Pickett's charge would have been defeatedif Stuart with his encircling cavalry had not arrivedin the rear of the Union position at the supreme moment.Stuart might have been arrested in his decisive swoop ifany one of twenty commonplace incidents had occurred.If, for instance, General Meade had organized his lines ofcommunication with posts for defence against raids, or ifhe had used his cavalry to scout upon his flanks, he wouldhave received a timely warning. If General Warren hadonly thought of sending a battalion to hold Little RoundTop the rapid advance of the masses of Confederate cavalrymust have been detected. If only President Davis's letterto General Lee, captured by Captain Dahlgren, revealingthe Confederacy plans had reached Meade a few hoursearlier, he might have escaped Lee's clutches.Anything, we repeat, might have prevented Lee'smagnificent combinations from synchronizing and, if so,Pickett's repulse was sure. Gettysburg would have been agreat Northern victory. It mighthave well been a final victory. Leemight, indeed, have made a successfulretreat from the field. TheConfederacy, with its skilful generalsand fierce armies, mighthave another year, or even two,but once defeated decisively atGettysburg, its doom was inevitable.The fall of Vicksburg, which happened only twodays after Lee's immortal triumph, would in itself byopening the Mississippi to the river fleets of the Union,have cut the Secessionist States almost in half. Withoutwishing to dogmatize, we feel we are on solid ground insaying that the Southern States could not have survivedthe loss of a great battle in Pennsylvania and the almost simultaneousbursting open of the Mississippi.HOWEVER, all went well. Once again by the narrowestof margins the compulsive pinch of mili-. tary genius and soldierly valor produced a perfectresult. The panic which engulfed the whole left ofMeade's massive army has never been made a reproachagainst the Yankee troops. Everyone knows they werestout fellows. But defeat is defeat, and rout is ruin. Threedays only were required after the cannon at Gettysburghad ceased to thunder before General Lee fixed his headquartersin Washington. We need not here dwell upon theludicrous features of the hurried flight to New York of allthe politicians, place hunters, contractors, sentimentalistsand their retinues, which was so successfully accomplished.It is more agreeable to remember how Lincoln,'greatly falling with a falling State,' preserved the poiseand dignity of a nation. Never did his rugged yet sublimecommon sense render a finer service to his countrymen.He was never greater than in the hour of fatal defeat.But, of course, there is no doubt whatever thatthe mere military victory which Lee gained at Gettysburgwould not by itself have altered the history of the world.The loss of Washington would not have affected the immensenumerical preponderance of the Union States. Theadvanced situation of their capital and its fall would haveexposed them to a grave injury, would no doubt have considerablyprolonged the war; but standing by itself thismilitary episode, dazzling though it may be, could notFINEST HOUR 103 / 28