Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 341 of our Civil War Podcast.

My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

As y'all recall, we used the last show to talk about the morning of Thursday, July 2,

1863, and Robert E. Lee's decision to renew the battle of the previous day.

When Lee awoke on the morning of the second, he was determined to attack those people

across the way, and the sooner the better he would have thought before the Federal Army

had time to fully concentrate.

But before he could pitch into the enemy, indeed before he could actually develop a plan

of attack for the day ahead, Lee had to first find out exactly what kind of position the

enemy had taken up.

Here again, Lee would regret the absence of Jeb Stewart, his most trusted and reliable

intelligence gatherer.

Since Stewart wouldn't arrive until later in the day on July 2, Lee was forced that

morning to rely on several staff and other officers to perform reconnaissance duty.

They set out that morning following Lee's instructions to both carefully examine the terrain

and also fix the locations of the Federal formations.

Lee knew that the enemy right was well positioned on the high ground southeast of town, that

is, on Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill, so his main area of interest was the Union Left.

To find out exactly where the Union Left was positioned, Lee sent out one of his engineers,

...