Posted on 06/17/2011 3:29:43 PM PDT by BigReb555
If it had been up to many Southern generals like Virginians Lee and George Thomas, there would have been no secession at all. My disdain is for the secessionist politicians.
If it had been up to many Southern generals like Virginians Lee and George Thomas, there would have been no secession at all. My disdain is for the secessionist politicians.
Old Joe certainly was more effective than Hood. However, his skillful maneuvers always ended in retreats, not surprisingly since he was usually outnumbered 2 to 1.
Over the entire campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta in which he so skillfully fought Sherman, he retreated every time. Hood, OTOH, attacked and was quickly clobbered.
The only difference in the outcome was how long it took. A purely defensive strategy can never defeat the enemy militarily, although it can wear him down until he gives up and goes home, which was the sole CSA hope in the last two years of the war.
A lot of people trash the decision by Lee and Davis to invade the north in the Gettysburg campaign. I don't. After the failure of hopes for foreign intervention, it was the only realistic hope for winning southern independence.
Lee never really wanted to fight at Gettysburg and in another location he very well might have won.
Even at Gettysburg itself, the fate of the battle and of the South hung in the scales at least half a dozen times, and could easily have come down on the other side.
Had Lee been able to put together a victory as complete as Chancellorsville or Second Bull Run, which he came very close to doing, he could have marched on and probably occupied Washington. Whether this would have ended the war is anybody's guess. Certainly the CSA did not have the military potential to overwhelm the Union in purely military terms, but Union morale and confidence might have crumbled to point they would have accepted southern independence.
IOW, Lee's second invasion of the North was the moral equivalent of Hood's battles for Atlanta, though much better managed. A last desperate gamble for victory chosen over the certainty of slow but well-managed defeat.
Grant was widely considered and called a butcher at the time and since because of the high casualties his troops suffered.
It is therefore interesting to learn that of all the major generals of the war, the one with the highest casualty rate for troops under his command was ... R. E. Lee.
Grant, I believe, came in second.
Grant was widely considered and called a butcher at the time and since because of the high casualties his troops suffered.
It is therefore interesting to learn that of all the major generals of the war, the one with the highest casualty rate for troops under his command was ... R. E. Lee.
Grant, I believe, came in second.
That is sweet
Sherman was unapologetic in his racism and dislike of black soldiers and never allowed them to be part of his army as soldiers. In 1863 he said that "I cannot bring myself to trust Negroes with arms..."
When the war ended the North planned a gaudy two day parade called the Grand Review in DC. Meade's army of the Potomac would march the first day, and Sherman's army of Georgie and Army of the Tennessee would star on the next day. Grant commander in chief of all the armies of th United States oversaw the planning.
Only one "army" was not invited. They were the men of the United States Colored Troops. The reason that the hundreds of black troops were not allowed to march was because Grant specifically ordered them to stay away. Sherman had told Grant that if black trrops marched in any proximity to his army, he would pull his soldiers out of the ranks in protest. Grant agreed. Grant reorganized the black troops into the 25th corps and shipped them off to Texas just days before the Grand Review.
Sherman did not believe that black men deserved to wear blue uniforms. When a subordinate said, "They [black soldiers] can stop a bullet as well as a white man, " Sherman replied, "A sandbag is better." Contrast this with the Confederate Army, which paid black Confederates the same wages, gave them free uniforms and rations, and allowed them to march side by side with the rest of the Confederate Army, even if this was not authorized by the CSA government, which did not approve black regiments until the end of the war.
In 1862 Dr. Lewis Steiner, chief inspector of the US Army Sanitation Commission was an eyewitness to the occupation of Frederick, Maryland by Stonewall Jackson's army. He wrote that, "Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in this number. They were clad in all kinds of uniforms, no only cast of or captured United States uniforms, but in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier that those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the Negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabres, bowie-knives, dirks, etc....and were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy Army."
Captain Freemantle, a British observer attached to Lee's army at Gettysburg wrote about a case regarding a black southern soldier and Yankee prisoners during the Gettysburg campaign: "This little episode of a Southern slave leading a white Yankee soldier through a Northern village, alone and of his own accord, would not have been gratifying to an abolitionist....Nor would the sympathizers Both in England and in the North feel encouraged if they could hear the language of detestation and contempt with witch the numerous Negroes with Southern armies speak of the liberators." Many blacks, slave and free served in CSA army in many positions. Henry Brown (SC) and James Clarke (GA) were free men and fifers in the CSA army. Charles Lutz was a free man of color from Louisiana. He participated in all the major VA battles, was a POW after Fredericksburg, was exchanged and wounded at Gettysburg, was a POW again and later exchanged and finally furloughed. Levy Carnine was a slave who served with three different master during the war, and became a local here for his efforts in getting mail through Yankee lines. Jean Baptiste Pierre-Auguste (free man of color) fought at Vicksburg and was paroled.
Gus Brown (colored) from Richmond said that "The Yankees didn't beat us, we wuz starved out!....I am a Confederate veteran."
James Gill (colored) of Arkansas said that "...all dem good times ceasted atter a while when de War come and de Yankees started all dere debbilment [devilment]. Us was Confederates all de while...but de Yankees, dey didn't know dat we was Confederates....When de Yankees ud come dey would ax [ask] my mammy, 'Aunt Mary, is you seen any Se-cesh [secessionists] today'? and mammy, sheud say, 'Naw-suh' eben iffen she had seen some of us mens, but when any our sojers ud come and ay, 'Aundt Mary, is you seen any Yankees 'round here recent?' she ud allus [always] tell dem de truf."
Tome Mc Alpin (colored) from Alabama said that "...dere ain't never been nobody afightin' lak our 'Federates [Confederates] done, but dey ain't never had a chance. Dere was jes' too many of dem blue coats for us to lick....Our 'Federates was de bes' fightin' men dat ever were. Dere warn't nobody lak our 'Federates."
(Quotes from Alpin, Gill and Brown taken from Slave Narratives).
Ping to post #47 :-)
A Pair of walkie talkies would have had the same result for the Confederates. Lack of Communication was key to their loss. If Lee had known his cannon shells were mostly falling behind the Union main lines, or if only he knew Jeb Stuart was not going to complete his attack on the other side of Culps Hill, Pickets charge may have never happened and tens of thousands may have lived to fight another battle closer to Washington.
Putting Gatling guns into the line required sending an order to the factory in Cincinnati.
Indeed, the Google-fu is strong in you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.