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Podcast: History Unplugged Podcast
Episode: Did the South Lose the Entire Civil War Because One General Got Lost at the Battle of Gettysburg?
Description: Did the Confederacy lose the entire Civil War on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 because one of their generals showed up late to a battle site? That’s a very simple answer to a very complicated question, but as early as the 1870s, former Confederate generals like Jubal Early offered such an explanation, laying the war’s loss at the feet of Lt. General James Longstreet, who was hours late to a battle because of faulty intelligence delivered to him by Captain Samuel Johnston. Longstreet’s countermarch and Samuel Johnston’s morning reconnaissance are two of t...