I am writing a 15-20pg term paper on how the Confederacy could have defeated the North at Gettysburg.
My thesis: Had there not been any hindrances for Gen. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia, the Confederates would have most likely won the battle and quite possibly coerced the North into capitulation with a truce. The list of poor circumstances for Lee include the death of Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson, Gen. JEB Stuart’s absence for the first two days of battle, Gen. Ewell’s missed opportunity to attack a retreating Union army up Culp’s Hill, the surprise placement of Gen. Sickles’ men in Devil’s Den, the poor coordination and timing of assaults, and the massive failure of Pickett’s charge.
After speaking with my professor, I realize that the majority of my sources will be secondary with the girth of my analysis weighing the views of various leading historians on the topic. My main issue right now is finding pertinent primary sources to help support or argue against my thesis. As far as the primary sources go, I am working with the battle accounts of both Meade and Lee as well as a letter from Lee to Jefferson Davis that undermines the failure of the South invasion. While these are interesting, they provide a very limited amount of material to work with. Any advice or referrals to types of/specific primary sources would be greatly appreciated.
For my secondary sources, I am using a variety of online scholarly sources and have only one solid book thus far, Battle Cry of Freedom by J. McPherson. As books generally look better than online sources, any recommendations here would be appreciated as well.
I hope this post didn't violate Questions/Homework rule and thanks for yalls help!
Regarding the Cemetary/Culp's Hill debate, I think one of the better sources you could poke through is Col. Wainwright's diary; it's considered one of the best diaries of the period. He was the chief of artillery for the Union I Corps, which had been pushed off Seminary Ridge, through the town, and onto the heights south of town on the first day. As I recall, Col. Wainwright expected to be collected up and spend the rest of the war at Andersonville if the Confederates followed up on them.
I heard this from a lecturer, so I wouldn't know exactly where to find the source, but Winfield Scott Hancock of Union II Corps also believed that if the Confederates had pursued within an hour of breaking the Union line north of town, they would have swept away the Union off the heights to the south.
https://youtu.be/SVuxPkdWEeg?t=1860
Here's the relevant section of the lecture.
Gen. Early, commanding a division in Ewell's Corps, filed a report retrospectively advocating an immediate pursuit of retreating Union troops through the town and onto the heights, but was prevented from doing so because of false reports of a large flanking force coming up the York road on the Confederate left.
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/or/R12744460
Richard Ewell had a different perspective, though, and you can read his report on the role of II Corps in the PA campaign here
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/or/R12744440
This illustrates the basic problems of the fog of war; an officer is acutely aware of the sorry state of his own troops, but good intelligence practices demand one assume the enemy is at full strength. It's possible both sides overestimates their opponents' strength.
My concern is that you've locked yourself into a thesis before you've necessarily examined all the evidence, and might unwittingly subject your work to confirmation bias. Be sure to at least address arguments against your individual points of contention.
You may also want to look at Edward Porter Alexander's memoir Fighting for the Confederacy to see his recommendations for how the battle at Gettysburg might have been more successfully prosecuted.
Fortunately, the Battle of Gettysburg might be the most written about thing to ever happen in the United States, so there are tons of secondary sources. Check out:
General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse by Joseph T. Glatthaar
Pickett's Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg by Earl J Hess
Pfanz's Gettysburg trilogy
Gary W Gallagher's Lee and His Army in Confederate History
Last Chance for Victory by Scott Bowden
and a million others.