Posted on 07/13/2012 2:14:55 PM PDT by BigReb555
There is 1 battle that comes to mind..
The Last Trench
by Louis Beam
General Early says that the Union Army was a primary source of tactical munitions, but he also supports your point. Rations of course were another matter. The Confederates were all too often forced to live off the land and plundered Union stores. BTW, I got carried away on this thread. Nathan Bedford Forrest was an incredibly strong and inspiring tactical leader and a great strategist. Given more support and better commanders, western operations could well have gone the Confederate way with Forrest as the cutting edge.
He clearly seemed to have a better appreciation of the biog picture than the commanders under which he served. E.G., Had Hood permitted him to go after Schofield as he was withdrawing from Franklin, the Battle of Nashville could have gone the other way ... maybe. Hood delayed him too long, and he was beaten back.
Happy Birthday to him!
“They were like the Japanese naval aviators in World War II. Once the experienced ones got killed, there was no one to replace them.”
People forget what a meat grinder the CW was. A historic turning point in warfare that pitched closely spaced, massed formation against modern weapons, cartridge repeaters, etc. European Generals studied our CW and came up with strategies that resulted in the trench warfare of WWI.
Evolving to modern times we have widely spaced, but highly mobile forces like the Conf. Cav of old that can converge and disperse rapidly, mitigating the effect of modern weapon systems and superior number opposition forces.
I had a Nigerian coworker that borrowed many of my books on the CW. He was the president of the local Zumunta Assn, a cultural exchange thing with Nigeria. He had a local black female techer ask him about who he admired most from our history. When he included NBF she became outraged! He calmly told her the thruth about his history. She didn’t believe it. Typical...
Lee wasn't at his best that 1st day, either. Vicious case of dysentery. A.P. Hill was a charismatic commander, but it's my impression that he was much too impetuous and liable to go off half-cocked, screwing up Lee's well laid plans ... and this wasn't the first time either. His over-aggressiveness goes back to First Manassas and then his service under Jackson.
He also seemed quite careless of casualties, which Lee always thought to minimize by maneuver rather than direct assault.
Have you been to the battlefield?
I have had the privilege of riding horseback over the entire battlefields of Shiloh, Ft. Donelson, Chickamauga, Stones River, Kennesaw Mountain, and Gettysburg to name a few and several that are not included in the Military Park System..Britton's Lane, Middleburg, Hatchie Bridge, Corinth, Brice's Crossroads, Harrisburg...I also was able to cover Gettysburg and experience it as a member of a six horse artillery hitch. It gives one quite a perspective about the terrain and the battle.
At dusk on the anniversary of the great battle, 21,000 luminaria line the roads to symbolize the casualties of the day. But I envy your horseback look at these battlegrounds. One really understands so much more that way.
What is your re-enactment unit?
Thanks for the GREAT POST. Read my comments if you like on Fort Pillow. Thanks again for the post.
Of course it would have been absurd, but no more absurd than the idea of an unknown artillery officer gaining control of France, and then most of Europe. History is full of such absurdities. As a Yankee, I’m glad that Forrest’s qualities were not recognized until late in the war, and I shudder to think of what may have happened had it been otherwise.
I’m not one who believes that the two nations would have lived peacefully thereafter on the continent had the Confederacy succeeded in maintaining its independence. There is no evidence of it. I think much of Harry Turtledove’s alternate history has a lot of merit.
Don’t forget, Lee ordered infantgry charges against fortified positions on the high ground. He made all the same mistakes at Gettysburg that Burnside made at Fredericksburg, and, for once, Lee was not fighting a fool. Meade was a capable commander, maybe the first one that Lee ever encountered.
Now Professor, don't knock the Frogs so close to Bastille Day ... besides they did yeoman work in our Revolution at great expense to themselves. De Grasse was a fighting admiral, too. Unfortunately he had his cul handed to him later in the West Indies. My favorite revolutionary Divine Intervention was the mysterious ground fog that allowed the Americans to escape from Washington Heights!
In re Gettysburg ... you'll make it! Unfortunately, the town is a tourist trap and now there's an occult something or other going on with ghost tours, ghostbusters, apparitions reported,, etc. etc. So, maybe you're onto something!
While nowhere as pristine as Antietam, amazingly much of the battlefield remains as it was. I believe Lee's original plan was to fight a defensive battle ... Ewell wanted to base it at Cashtown ... he certainly wasn't 100% physically at the time. A.P. Hill spent an inordinate amount of time on sick leave and he was mighty touchy about the prerogatives of his command. Tactically brilliant, but perhaps not quite as much a collaborative commander as he might have been. BTW, I cannot tell you how valuable I find Jubal Early's memoirs. Not only a capable commander, he seems to be a dead reliable report writer who admits his own mistakes ... no self-aggrandizement and lots of detail.
If you are into the Revolution
Professor, it has always secretly worried me that had I been around, I might have been a Tory!
Have you ever read Destruction and Reconstruction by Richard Taylor? A great read!
Recently I saw a show in which they demonstrated that only about half the available command was in the actual assault. Based on reports of the day, it seems that many of Pickett's command slipped back when they were held up at the fence, which of course should have been sapped the night before. They based this on the number of casualties reported ... which should have been far greater if they had all attacked. A sad calculation indeed.
So it's all the more amazing that those who actually made the charge, made it to the Union lines. No matter what side one happens to favor, this was a tragedy.
Special interest.
I’ve been there. Looked down from Cemetery Ridge, and looked up from the field that the Rebs had to cross to get there.
Marse Robert faced his first competent general in Meade at Gettysburg, and didn’t fare well.
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