“ [156] that has been written since of that battle, has lessened the conviction that, had General Lee's orders been promptly and cordially executed, Meade's center on the third day would have been penetrated and the Union army overwhelmingly defeated.” （Gordon's Reminiscences of the Civil War, p. 160.)
Was the invasion of Pennsylvania a great mistake? So thought the Count de Paris in his able review of the campaign. But General Lee never thought it a mistake. In 1864, the next year, he said to General Heth: ‘If I could do so—unfortunately, I cannot— I would again cross the Potomac and invade Pennsylvania. I believe it to be the true policy, nothwithstanding the failure of last year.’ For the Confederacy, Gettysburg deferred for one year at least the advance on the Confederate capital, and by so much prolonged the hope of independence.
