Posted on 06/17/2011 3:29:43 PM PDT by BigReb555
Fifty years had passed since the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1st- 3rd, 1863.
(Excerpt) Read more at huntingtonnews.net ...
Sherman and Grant thought very very poorly of blacks as soldiers and would not let any fight in their armies. But yet blacks served in other parts of the union armies (albeit they had to buy their own uniforms and were paid less).
Numerous blacks served in the Southern armies too, regardless of what a few folks may have thought about it. Many southern generals (like Lee) were in favor of having blacks in the southern armies. Get over it.
I have seen photos of these old veterans at various reunions and I think “boy they look old”. Then I realize I am now about the same age as they were then.
I served in Viet Nam in 1965 to 1966, it has been about 45 years. I wonder if we will have a 50 year reunion? I wonder if we will look as old?
Taken as a whole, actual combat deaths for either side cannot be compared to the much greater death toll attributed to disease etc. But in combat causalities, the North suffered many more than the South.
The NRA of today was birthed in 1871 as a direct response to faults which arose during the civil war. In that war, as a whole, the superior marksmanship of the average Confederate troops (more rural) was far superior to those of the Union Army. (more urban)
In battles of the western campaigns, the rural western army troops of both sides were much more evenly matched as to having a lifelong familiarity with firearms and being accurate with same, and the causality ratios reflected this.
The NRA’s purpose was to correct that acknowledged accuracy imbalance of the civil war, to encourage and teach marksmanship for all American civilians, especially the young.
http://www.nrahq.org/history.asp
I didn't know this, but frankly it doesn't surprise me one bit.
...that place they had for them, was it in the front?
I’m sure cva will regale us with a made up answer to an equally made up assertion. Or maybe BigReb555 would like to take a whack at it.
Major reason had little to do with shooting skill.
To win, the South had only to avoid losing. They therefore, especially after Gettysburg when most of the casualties occurred, normally fought on the defensive from behind fortifications. When Lee first took command, his troops called him Granny Lee because he was always making them dig in. It is to be expected that assaulting fortifications will be more costly than defending them, that's the whole point of digging in.
Due to the more constricted terrain, there was less room for maneuver on the eastern front, and much more trench warfare than in the west.
Many exceptions, of course, to these generalities.
ping
Apparently true of Sherman. Not true of Grant.
One case I'm familiar with was the Battle of the Crater, where a black regiment had been specially trained to lead the attack after the detonation of the mine. In an early case of political correctness, the black unit was replaced at the last moment by an untrained white unit, which bungled the operation and turned it from a likely great Union victory into a major Union defeat.
Three of the 17 regiments that blocked Confederate escape at Appamatox Courthouse were black.
From March 1864 on, Grant was General in Chief, so all troops, including all black troops, were under his command.
He may or may not have thought poorly of them, but he was certainly willing to let them fight for him.
Grant, as President, fought more effectively for the rights of blacks and freedmen than any president of the 19th century.
Just finished a biography of Richard Gatling.
If Union supply officers had been a little more imaginative, they could have had 50 or 100 Gatling guns in the line on Cemetery Ridge.
Could have ended the war right there.
You are incorrect. Sherman had many in his army, as did Grant. Grant also depended on black soldiers in his army to act as guides as he cut off Vicksburg. A black division figured prominently at the Battle of the Crater. Sherman depended on Black soldiers as he cut across Georgia, and in his linkup to the Atlantic Coast.
Of all the ‘Black Confederates’ at Gettysburg, apparently they all fit in a single tent.
When counting casualties, keep in mind that Lee frequently didn’t turn in correct casualty reports. The south couldn’t stand the truth. His whole army was nearly gone already at Appomattox Courthouse. Some he had shot for desertion, and then didn’t report the number he had shot.
An image of the painting is here:
http://jessicajewettonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-does-civil-war-mean-to-me.html
It’s the only one I found when I googled it, and the site doesn’t give any details.
Too bad the JACKASS party didn’t learn from their mistake,.
Here you go:
http://www.lloydgarrison.com/wargallery.htm
There are two of J. Chamberlain and ghosts.
Hang all secessionist JACKASSES!
“When counting casualties, keep in mind that Lee frequently didn’t turn in correct casualty reports. The south couldn’t stand the truth. His whole army was nearly gone already at Appomattox Courthouse. Some he had shot for desertion, and then didn’t report the number he had shot.”
Excuse me, but do you have provenance for those statements?
So called desertions in the Confederate Army should not be confused with same in the Union. Many Confederate soldiers would simply go AWOL, go home and put in, or harvest a crop, to keep their families from starving, then return to their units to fight again. This was widely known and understood by most Confederate commanders, executing such men was not good strategy, killing a man willing to fight, made for one less soldier in battle.
IIRC, President Lincoln pardoned very few men condemned to death for desertion. But President Davis pardoned the majority of deserters when pertinent facts and extenuating circumstances were made known, and except in extreme cases, very seldom approved their death sentences.
The South of necessity had always mostly fought defensive battles up to Gettysburg. When Lee against advice from all his subordinate officers, got his nose wide and PO, attacked a superior enemy in defensive positions. The battle cry of the Union troops at Gettysburg was “Fredericksburg” from battle of same name where they suffered huge losses when situation was the reverse.
The actual trench warfare you reference did not come into being until last months of the war around Petersburg, VA.
I think the best defensive Confederate General was Joe Johnston, where in the Hundred Days Battle in Georgia he so skillfully frustrated Sherman’s advance on Atlanta. But after much back stabbing politics, President Davis relieved and replaced him with General Hood. Who immediately went out in front of Atlanta, attacked Sherman in a series of battles, and was soundly defeated for his efforts.
Hood in1864, IMO, totally destroyed the Confederate Army of Tennessee, when against all advice, stupidly attacked a much superior foe who was in very strong defensive positions at the Battle of Franklin TN.
Thank you. So, it’s called “Chamberlain.”
http://www.lloydgarrison.com/wargallery.htm
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