Interactive Timeline: Confederates Win at Gettysburg

[Wakie]

Here are some suggestions ....

*Battle of Gettysburg, Ewell does not delay in his assault of Cemetery Hill and easily takes it (preventing it from becoming a rallying point for the I and XI Union Corps).  This one event allows Longstreet to seize the round tops and win the Battle.  This gives Confederate forces a direct line to assault either Philadelphia or Washington DC.

*Ronald Reagan is killed by Hinckley's bullet

*Ted Kennedy rescues Mary Jo Kopechne

*Hillary Clinton dies in childbirth

*Frank Wills goes for a cup of coffee and doesn't catch the Watergate burglars

*Barack Obama gets the flu and cannot speak at the 2004 Democratic Convention

[Wakie]

Philadelphia makes more sense.  Washington was heavily fortified.  Lee's entire goal in going North was to get the Union to capitulate by bringing the war "home" (not entirely unlike what Sherman did later).

If Lee sacks Philadelphia he (A) can convince the British to officially recognize the Confederacy and possibly intervene and (B) it will exacerbate the draft riots in NYC.