Thermopylae for Health Care

American Spectator ^ | 1/7/2010 | Quin Hillyer

[mkboyce]

Conservatives want Thermopylae. Congressional Republican leaders instead imitate the Confederate defense of Atlanta -- the one that led a local editor to write that General Joseph E. Johnston's reputation had "grown with every backward step."

[Sherman Logan]

The defense of Northwest Georgia, on the other hand, showed that Johnston was adept at putting up a united front, seizing excellent defensive positions in well-drilled fashion -- and then retreating time after time in perfect order, saving his army for a "later" that never came while inflicting only glancing damage on his enemy as the Yankees gobbled up territory like a horde of Pac-Men… until Atlanta and eventually the whole of Georgia fell to the onslaught.

Given that Johnston's replacement, Hood, quickly destroyed the Confederate Army by launching aggressive attacks he couldn't win, Johnston doesn't look so bad in retrospect.

Johnston kept a force in being that had at least some possibility of turning the tables if Sherman made a serious mistake, admittedly something that wasn't very likely. Hood destroyed his own army, ending any possibility of effective defense.

[Adder]

Right on the mark!

I am emailing this to my Senator and to as many other Republicans I can, including McConnel.

FIGHT DAMMIT!

[Adder]

That may be because Johnston gave up the best defensive gounds to a very surprised Sherman.

[rockrr]

Not much of a teaser but I followed the link and read an excellent article. Thanks...

[Joe 6-pack]

The postwar relationship between Johnston and Sherman is fascinating in it’s own right...the men never lost their mutual respect for one another. Johnston served as a pall bearer at Sherman’s funeral, refusing to wear a hat in cold wet weather, and from which he contracted the illness leading to his own death some months later.