usertron2020
Donor
I think it is disengenious (1) to presume that Lee would do Meade the favor of attacking him. Pipe Creek was as strong a position as Lee's line at Fredericksburg, if not more so. (2) Though Lee attacked strong positions at OTL Gettysburg, and if his blood was up, no one could dissuade him from attacking, so I suppose anything is possible. (3)
1) If you are going to accuse someone of being disingenuous, then spell it right! Otherwise, it looks euphuistic.
2) More so. At least at Fredericksburg there was the remote possibility of flanking the enemy's far left. At Pipe Creek, it would be head on or nothing.
3) Exactly. Every battle he'd ever fought left him in command of the field. Only Malvern Hill was a disaster based on concentrated firepower, and Antietam a battle that left his enemy very badly bloodied and only the result of McClellan's intelligence gift.
Add on yet another victory with a "Little Gettysburg", the first Confederate victory on Union soil, and his appetite for battle could well become insatiable.
Also, the taking of Cemetery Hill would have been extremely costly, if not impossible, by direct assault. Howard was able to squeeze together a hundred guns on the Hill. Any attack would have been Malvern Hill all over again. Jackson would have seen this, and gone after Culp's instead, forcing the abandonment of Cemetary.
I've never seen where anyone ever suggested the striking point on Day 1 be anywhere but Culps Hill. You are quite right.