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Lafayette McLaws was a division commander in James Longstreet's
I Corps. At about 5 PM on 2 July, his division engaged Daniel Sickles'
III Corps in the Peach Orchard. Longstreet held up McLaws' division to allow John B. Hood's men to sweep through on the right, permitting an en echelon attack on Cemetery Ridge.
After Stonewall Jackson's
death, McLaws was the senior major general in the Army of Northern
Virginia, and theoretically slated to take over a corps after Robert E. Lee's
reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia. Because of Lee's
concern about his ability to handle a corps, McLaws, a Georgian, was
passed over in favor of A. P. Hill and Richard Ewell, both Virginians. |
