• Our schedule for the staff ride is included below for your reference.  Monday 27 March and Friday 31 March are travel days. Tuesday 28 March you should use to gather situational awareness by going to the visitor center and traveling around the battlefield to gather information about the actions there (late June to mid November 1863).  The Icebreaker Social goes at 1800 on Tuesday at the Firemen's Pavilion at the Gettysburg Recreation Park (a 12 minute walk from the hotel).  Our schedule for Day 1 (Weds 29 March and Day 2 (Thurs 30 March) are shown below.  

• We'll talk a lot about understanding leader's intent. In the last update, you may recall reading about advice given to Abraham Lincoln by the Governor of New Jersey, an Ambassador, and a Supreme Court Justice.   Many wanted to see the return of George McClellan to command of the Army of the Potomac. Read an excerpt of Lincoln's intent given to McClellan when he was last in command (November of 1862).  McClellan of course was replaced by Ambrose Burnside who commanded at Fredericksburg.  He was then replaced by Joe Hooker who commanded at Chancellorsville.
• Think about all that a bit.  How about that piece about the question of time, which cannot and must not be ignored.  We'll talk a lot about "time, space, and logistics" -- three related concepts that apply to operations and planning. The advice given by Simon Cameron to Lincoln (received at 8:40 PM on 29 June 1863) demands "action by Meade to-morrow."   If you'd like to do some research yourself, you may want to skim through the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion.

We look forward to discussing all this at Gettysburg!