Tsouras'
Gettysburg leaves a LOT to be desired. Nine chapters of brave and glorious Johnny Rebs kicking the retreating butts of weak and cowardly Billy Yanks until...Epilogue. With no details at all, you see Longstreet surrendering the AoNV simply because they were caught in flank and Lee was kind enough to drop dead. Hack writing.
As of the late morning, the rains started. By late afternoon, it was a torrential downpour with very high winds and serious flooding. Neither side was in a position to attack for days after that.
Not to mention that I, III, and XI Corps were little more than remnants in terms of being able to fight in any form other than in defense.
With Meade, Reynolds, and Hancock gone or out of action, indeed Sedgwick would be the obvious and immediate choice. In addition, he seems to have been one of the few senior corps commanders not to have been too deeply damaged by the McClellan-inspired dog-eat-dog politics of the AotP.
As an army commander assuming command in mid-battle, any commander would bee either very reckless or very cautious. Certainly for Sedgwick the choice would be to be the latter.
Agreed. Easiest decision to make, and Sedgwick as a total newbie might even draw less fire from Lincoln for not "catching" Lee.
Nope. Sherman wouldn't take that job on a solid gold platter. His hatred of Washington was almost pathological, and the farther he could stay away from the cesspool of vipers, the better.
Grant didn't have the trust in Thomas that he did in Sherman. He and Sherman had been in the war together since Shiloh, while Thomas he inherited following Chickamauga. He also wanted to keep as an AotP commander a general from inside that army, to "promote from within".
IOTL, Grant arrived at AotP headquarters to find Meade (ITTL Sedgwick) fully expecting to be relieved. In fact, MEADE believed that Sherman was on his way to replace him. Grant himself had only brought along Sheridan to replace Pleasanton, but he had not made a decision one way or the other whether to fire Meade and replace him with one of the AotP's corps commanders (of whom at that point he knew virtually nothing). Meade's presentation to Grant of the circumstances in the East, including his famous statement: "The problems of this army will not be solved just by the replacement of a few corps commanders!", so pleased Grant by its (and Meade's) professionalism [1] that he immediately decided that Meade would stay, much to Meade's surprise (and delight
).
So, ITTL, the question would be what would Sedgwick do in Meade's place? Assuming OTL events prior to Grant's arrival, if Sedgwick performs as Meade did, how would Sedgwick handle, say, the Overland Campaign?
Which Meade himself carried out (under Grant), with ruthless efficiency.