Posted on 07/20/2020 5:14:08 AM PDT by C19fan
The 157th anniversary of the assault on Battery Wagner led by the Massachusetts 54th was two days ago. I must admit I was watching clips and the soundtrack from the movie to give me some hope during these troubled times.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
I liked it when the snarling Union soldier belted out, “Give ‘em Hell, 54!” as the regiment marched through the sands to sudden hurrahing, and death awaited at the other end of a beach.
The movie had a lot of brief moments like that really packed a punch. One of my favorite was when the 54th is marching through the SC town and all the slave children run out to greet them.
Their courage was great but the generals were fools and threw their lives away with frontal assaults against a fortified position. It seems that lesson was not learned until World War 1.
Their courage was great but the generals were fools and threw their lives away with frontal assaults against a fortified position. It seems that lesson was not learned until World War 1.
______________________________________________
If you had time for a siege, then you could capture with little to no casualties. But if a fort, city, or any position for that matter had to be taken on a timetable, then massed infantry assaults were the only way. There were no tanks, no bombers, and relatively primitive artillery.
The irony is that same soldier, earlier in the film, had been insulting the soldiers of the 54th Mass.
Frontal assaults were futile against fortified positions. The American military payed a bitter price to learn that lesson. Sadly the European military learned nothing from the American Civil War which they derided as a “fight between two mobs”. The 9,000,000 dead between 1914-1945 was a testimony to that hubris and ignorance.
How many countless battles wasted lives on that same tactic?
I can think of at least 6 or 7 off the top of my head.
Suicidal to do such a thing and the Generals who could give a rip about the lives of the men they are entrusted to lead.
Yep. Lots of touching moments in that movie. I like the scene between Gould (Matthew Broderick) and Tripp (Denzel Washington) talking about the state of racial affairs:
“It stinks, I suppose.”
“Stinks bad...and we all covered up in it...I mean there ain’t nobody clean...be nice to get clean”
“How do we do that?”
“By ante up and kick in, sir.”
Earlier, Gould asked Tripp to carry the flag into battle. He demured. After Gould is shot in battle, an inspired Tripp “kicks in” and picks up the flag and briefly rallies the troops.
I let that slide. Apparently they had to make that compromise to find a good beach location to shoot the scenes.
Don't fight the current war like the last war. Which is why we need to handle these riots differently, not police lines but small groups of non descript ninja LEO's work their way into the riots and whisk way the trouble makers before anyone even knows what hit them.
Only way to get there now is by boat. Not too far away from Fort Sumter.
Here’s how modern Clymers honor them;
It was a waste of good men. Besides, the Union Army troops would end up laying siege and bombarded the fort for the next two months until September when the Confederates abandoned it.
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.