Welcome to Gettysburg
The battle of Gettysburg took place from the 1st through the 3rd of July, 1863. At a cost of some 45,000 casualties
divided equally between the two sides it brought to an end the second Confederate invasion of the North, and was the only
unambiguous defeat of the Army of Northern Virginia until the very end of the war. The "high-water mark" of the Confederacy,
it marked a turning point in the Civil War -- although to just what extent became clear only some considerable time after
the battle.
What are our Purposes here?
Gettysburg can be read as the failure of a superb leader, Robert E. Lee and a team of exceptionally able subordinate
commanders; on the other side, the Army of the Potomac -- fractious, torn by internal rivalries and a history of defeats at
the hands of a smaller but more agile enemy -- succeeded. Why? Within that broad question there will be many others that
will arise: what enables some lower level leaders to make the right choice for the entire organization? How should
members of a management team cope with vehement dissent from the chief's concept of operations? How should a leader judge
when and how to exploit success? Many other themes will occur to the group during the ride.
