The FReeper Foxhole Enjoys a Lazy Sunday and A Few WBTS Facts - May 22nd, 2005

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[w_over_w]

Attempt the old dream of "the tactical defensive, the strategic offensive." Better yet, go with Robert Edward Lee when he asked Davis to sue for peace after the Seven Days. (The letter survives.) Ask the English to mediate. A Cease Fire in Place was possible, with relaxation of the Blockade. (I don't know this for sure, naturally.) Promise to come back into the Union, send Congressmen back, pull Lincoln's plug. Keep the Republic.

I see your point about imagination being "unavoidably delicious". Clearly nobody can subscribe to a monolithic scheme of causation. When asked outright, "who won the war", Shelby Foote's response, "I can tell you who lost." He further stated that it was the robber barons of late in the century who "won". What was gained that could not have been gained without a war. Truly on the face of it the North won. But at what price? I digress.

I guess I asked the question regarding a "Forrest Presidency" because while Forrest might have been brilliant in allocating resources and strategies against a preponderance in men and economic industry of the North, the South never had the transportation system that could evolve a command or logistical system adequate to do the job.

Politically, the South was so distracted unto desperation by internal strife that there was never any wisdom from a congress or even public virtue among the people.

I begin to understand why Lee saw that the full and total annihilation of the Army of the Potomac could "possibly" bring a negotiation for peace and then perhaps a more willing Europe could have intervened.

I think we all would agree that a N.B. Forrest never relied on "laws of successful" war. He never worked things out by rule. I have yet to read anywhere (so please correct me if I'm wrong) his quoting a Napoleon or Frederick. While others worked out problems of an ideal character on a blackboard, Forrest "split in two and charged both ways". It helps when you're a natural genius. He was born to be a soldier.

[w_over_w]

Wear your California warm weather clothes. It's hot in June and there is little shade on some of those open battlefields.

Uhhh . . . mam'. . . you're talkin to a Texan and a LSU boy. I'm quite familiar with the "unforgiving" Southern Summers.

But THANKS anyway MOM! ;^)

I haven't forgotten about your Sis, so I'll be talking to you later about that.

[Valin]

OH OH! I MAY of learned something. gulp

[snippy_about_it]

oooh. I like it. I should make it a thread.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Thanks for checking in. We were starting to wonder. Thought you must be getting loads of overtime. I guess you are, in a way. Enjoy the little one, sounds like fun!

[snippy_about_it]

He was born to be a soldier.

Amen.

[Valin]

Feel free!

[snippy_about_it]

...you're talkin to a Texan and a LSU boy

Yes, but you're also a man. I find those types often need 'reminding'. ;-)

[Iris7]

Agree in every particular. As for Forrest, he never reached his full extension. One cannot say where events would have become too much for him.

The Confederacy's political and logistic problems do seem impossible to me also. The technological and productive edge of the North was too great. The new mass media was nearly completely a Northern monopoly - hearts and minds, and all that. A very powerful weapon in it's day.

Maybe the Confederacy could have won in 1850, certainly in 1835, but not in 1861. Perhaps if the Southerners had been more like William Clarke Quantrill instead of like Jefferson Davis, though that would be an unpleasant scenario indeed.

[PhilDragoo]

1864 Battle of North Anna River VA (Totopotamy River, Haw's Shop, Hanovertown)

My great-great-grandfather "Preacher" Samuel did not serve in the Civil War but his two brothers John Nelson and Belteshazzar did, the latter being killed on the North Anna River in Virginia May 25, 1864. Belteshazzar was named after his grandfather and great grandfather, the latter my great to the fifth for whom the DAR erected this monument:

Monument erected by the D.A.R. near Ripley, Ohio honoring Belteshazzar
Dragoo--an early settler of Brown County and a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
"To commemorate the first settlement in Brown County, 0. made by Belteshazzar Dragoo in 1794."
They provided a photocopy of a 1774 pay sheet from Ft. Pitt listing Belteshazzar Dragoo.
There's room on the top stone for Michael Moore's still-beating heart if he wants to keep it up.

A Revolution in Military Affairs

Hell needed Japanese translators so my father joined with the crew of Sara finding applicants.

[snippy_about_it]

There's room on the top stone for Michael Moore's still-beating heart if he wants to keep it up.

I wouldn't put it on top of your ancestor's monument. I'd just throw it to the coyotes.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[Professional Engineer]

Hell needed Japanese translators so my father joined with the crew of Sara finding applicants.

Inferno recruiter bump!

[Humal]

"I wouldn't put it (Michael Moore's heart) on top of your ancestor's monument. I'd just throw it to the coyotes"

Ditto! Putting it on the monument would desecrate an honorable man's memorial.