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To: Verginius Rufus

In terms of numbers, the Civil War was primarily a war of skirmishes and small-scale engagements, most of which are ignored or relegated to footnotes. By and large skirmishes were fought under commanders who knew what they were doing and wanted their men to live to fight another day. What dominates Civil War “history” are the big, bloody battles fought under the commands of West Pointers. These big affairs produced long casualty lists although they were often inconclusive. I’ve not run numbers but I’d guess that more than half of the battle casualties for both sides resulted from fewer than five per cent of the engagements.

In my bailiwick there were several skirmish-sized battles than no one who lives away knows about.


12 posted on 08/22/2010 10:55:03 AM PDT by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: jay1949

You should check out the Battle of Franklin. Over 60,000 soldiers fought, over 8,500 casualties, including 5 confederate generals, all in a 1.5 x 2 mile area. All in all, a disaster for the south, and a battle that is often overlooked in the history books.


21 posted on 08/22/2010 5:49:25 PM PDT by Grammy
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