Posted on 07/03/2019 10:02:55 AM PDT by Perseverando
I cannot in good conscience argue with that logic. Could you provide more information on this writing? I would like to read this.
The defensive, entrench, and wait for the enemy to attack methodology had worked wonders for the ANV up to that point. I think they should have continued it.
Lee’s offensive moves in the past up to that point had been covered heavily by the fog of war. He was blatant and not even trying to hide where he was going to attack on July 2nd and 3rd. Dumb moves kill people and cost you battles.
Well stated and very accurate.
The battle of Franklin was supposed to be the worst in that war.
They really mowed em down.
The battle of Franklin was fought at night which was rarity in the Civil War. It was brutal for sure. Hood was a good division commander but sucked as a corp commander. Too much morphine for all the injuries is my theory.
A CW brigade commander can lose an entire regiment if a few minutes if they are not paying attention or getting good intel.
In 1963, when I was nine years old, I spent ten days at Gettysburg for the Centennial celebration. At that time the phrase, used to describe Gettysburg (for the record books) was not, “turning point of the War”. It was widely known as: the “High-water mark of the Confederacy”.
Ditto. I visited Gettysburg many times as well. I preferred going in December and January when I had the park basically to myself. Can't remember the last time I was there. General Francis Channing Barlow...Barlow's Knoll...July 1st, 1863. His first wife Arabella contracted typhus while serving as an Army nurse. He later married Ellen Shaw, sister of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. I met, visited, and corresponded with a collateral relative of Shaw's. His name was Reverend Robert Shaw Sturgis Whitman. At that time he recalled having visited "cousin Nellie" as a young boy. She was a widow by then. And he took us by the house she and Barlow had once lived in.
Reverand Whitman was a WWII vet, and graciously welcomed me into his home while I was researching his family history. He showed me around his home in Lenox, and told me that his aunt Helen Whitman was married to the famous "Nuts" McAuliffe.
Another ancestor of his...can't remember if it was his great or great-great grandfather Colonel Royal Emerson Whitman, had served in a Maine unit during the Civil War, and eventually commanded Camp Grant, Arizona in 1871. Colonel Whitman had worked to get members of the Aravaipa Apaches to come to the camp. They had been driven off their land by settlers. Those that hadn't come to the fort were attacked by a group of Tucson citizens, Mexicans, and their accomplices from the Tohono O'odham tribe. The camp consisted mostly of old men, women and children. Those killed were all scalped. The children who were allowed to live, were sold into slavery in Mexico. Whitman fought hard to have the individuals who perpetrated the attack held accountable. There was a trial, but no one was ever convicted for the attack.
Whitman was a drinker, and a womanizer. He'd been busted a few times by the Army, and his personal military record at the National Archives was extremely interesting to read. During my research of newspapers, I found that he had purchased the old, wooden bridge in Washington, D.C. and had canes made out of it to sell. Long Bridge as it was called, was the bridge that Booth and Davy Harold rode over the night of Lincoln's assassination. Whitman is buried in Arlington. He was friends with Gutzon Borglum of Mount Rushmore fame, and Borglum designed Whitman's bas relief headstone.
I have a great, great uncle who died there. Also, the leg of another.
Cold Harbor was not fun for the Green Mountain folk that day.
A small foot note in history was what happened right after Pickett’s Charge. Gen. Alexander, Lee’s artillery commander, informed Gen. Lee that he was without any ammo to fend off a Union counter attack. The reserve artillery ammo wagon train was almost an hour away because of a bureaucratic screw up. For almost an hour a huge opportunity was lost to the unaware Union forces. It was said that during this hour was the only time that Lee actually “lost his cool” composure. If he moved his artillery the Union would know he had no ammo, so he had to wait it out.
It is hot in New England today. I cannot imagine being on the top, or bottom, of that hill in wool uniforms getting shot at.
They would have found Vermont so nice in the summer, they would have stopped, and settled down. End of war. Ha ha.
Thank BG John Buford, whose dismounted cavalry stand delayed the Confederates just long enough for Reynolds' Corps to arrive.
What is left out is that Union leaders wisely saw the TERRAIN and effectively utilized it to their advantage, something they failed to do in the past.
Our gr. gr. gr. grandfather was in the 14th Tennessee Regiment from the start when it was formed in Clarksville in May 1861. His division was at Gettysburg under Archer’s Brigade and was part of Pickett’s charge. It had three color bearers shot down, one made it to the Federal’s breast works. Gettysburg’s nearly destroyed the 14th on the first day but the remaining soldier’s reformed and was part of Pickett’s charge on his left at The Angle.
He, while in the 14th, fought in the Battles of Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Shepherdstown, Ox Hill, Cedar Mountain, Manassas, Sharpsburg, Harper’s Ferry Frazier’s Farm, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Falling Waters, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg,
,
It was at the Battle of Hatcher’s Run was where he was wounded in the arm(”shot all to pieces” he described in his pension application)
He was in Chimborazo Hospital No 5 recovering from his wounds when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox
He was among the handful who joined the 14th from the beginning to live to return to Montgomery County.
After the war, he would attend the Forbes Bivouac, a reunion event for the members of the !4th started in 1888 and Andrew attended until 1914.
He never took The Oath and was an “unreconstructed Rebel” to the day he died.
He had two younger brothers in the 49th Tennessee Infantry Div at Fort Donelson, one brother, Melville joined Bedford Forrest in escaping the surrender by wading a frozen creek bottom to fight again when it was reformed, along with pardoned prisoners and went south to fightin Alabama, Mississippi Georgia and surrendered in the Carolinas. Many cousins and men on my dad’s people fought in the 49th as well but research in them has hit a few road bumps.
Thanks ct!
https://ironbrigader.com/2015/06/22/general-john-bufords-report-cavalrys-action-gettysburg/
great stories, thanks for sharing!
Very interesting connection to Robert Gould Shaw. The Rev sounds like a fascinating guy.
Beat me to it.
Taking Vicksburg was more of a turning point than Gettysburg IMO.
Grant and Sherman unleashed and coming east for the big sweep.
He was an awesome man. Sadly he passed in 2010, but I cherish the opportunity to have met him in person a few times, and to have corresponded with him for several years.
awesome story! Imagine the stories he had... do you have any diaries or journals?
Are you referring to the Battle of Hatcher’s run that took place at the end of March in 1865?
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.