Lamh Foistenach Abu!
Posted on 04/14/2010 3:35:44 PM PDT by ConservativeHideout
In the fall of 2003 my wife and I decide to visit the battlefield at Gettysburg. Being a civil war junkie, it was a must on my to-do list of historic civil war sites to see before I left this world. I must say it turned out to be one of the greatest experiences of my life. We did all the things that tourists do; snapped a few family pictures, visited all the historic museums, and toured the key points of interest on the battlefield. As the day drifted towards sunset we made our last two stops. The first was at a placed called Seminary Ridge. It was from Seminary Ridge that General Lee and Longstreet on July 3, 1863 staged 13,000 confederate soldiers just inside the tree line. After two days of intense fighting, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had pressed the Union forces to the brink of breaking. It was clear that Lee’s incursion into Pennsylvania was a success. He had bloodied the nose of the Union army on their own turf and the moral of his men was high. His second in command, General Longstreet had surveyed the battlefield and felt that the Army of Northern Virginia had accomplished its goals and it was now time to redeploy. Lee on the other hand did not share the same sentiments.
Lee felt that the Union army under the command of General Meade was on the verge of breaking and that the gains that the Confederate forces had made in the previous two days of fighting would be for not if they withdrew from the battlefield and redeployed. He wanted a decisive victory by smashing the Union army and driving them completely from the battlefield. Longstreet pleaded with his commander to reconsider. He had surveyed the position of the Federals and knew that they were entrenched and reinforced; he could see the Union artillery that would cut his men to pieces. Lee’s mind was made up. He tried to convince Longstreet that the confederate artillery would take out the Union artillery long before his men would begin the one mile march across an open wheat field towards the Union lines. His tunnel vision clouded his judgment and he gave the order to Longstreet to assemble the men the following day for a final push at the Union center. Longstreet reluctantly agreed.
As I scanned the wheat field, the first thought that came to mind was; Lee what were you thinking? Even an amateur civil war enthusiast like myself could see this was not an advance towards victory, but a march towards certain destruction. The field was wide open with very few land features to protect any force. As I gazed across it I could see where the Union center was located and noticed it was slightly higher. The Union held the high ground. I couldn’t help but wonder if the apprehension I was feeling at that moment was the same apprehension that Longstreet experienced on that hot July day in 1863. Arrogance I thought; pure arrogance.
Pickett’s charge would go down in American history as one of the greatest military blunders of all time. Longstreet’s fears of a brutal defeat became the harsh reality for the Army of Northern Virginia on that day. The Confederate artillery fired its cannons on the Union’s artillery position for hours yielding only minimal results. When the guns finally fell silent, 13,000 Confederate soldiers gallantly marched across the open wheat field only to be slaughtered by a reinforced Union center. The confederates did manage breach the Union lines at section known as the high-water mark on Cemetery Ridge, but by then the battle was already lost for Lee. As the confederates were mowed down by Union guns, soldiers from the Union army chanted Fredericksburg over and over as their rallying cry. Seven months earlier at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Union soldiers were mowed down during a frontal assault against Confederate positions by an entrenched Confederate force. The Union suffered heavy losses at Fredericksburg and never forgot the sting of that defeat.
This was also the last place we visited. The high-water mark was the precise place and moment in time when the Confederacy was at its height of power. It was at this place where a battle of wills and clash ideologies took place. Within the blink of an eye it was gone and so was the Confederacy. The sun was already set and dusk was beginning to blanket the area. I got out of my car and walked to the stone marker that signified the area where the confederates broke through. As I quietly stood gazing across the wheat field I realized that I was standing in the place that changed the course of America forever. The magnitude of the moment overwhelmed me. It was indeed a humbling experience.
Read more about the Battle of Gettysburg.
As I look back on that day and try to understand why Lee decided to ignore Longstreet, I can’t help but relate this experience to the current Democrat/Progressive charge that is going to take place from now until November.
You see the Progressives have made significant gains in pushing forward their liberty stealing agenda, but it has cost them a great deal in party and political creditability with the American people. Their leader, President Obama pressed forward with his and their agenda even after there were strong signs that the opposition was beginning to regroup and reinforce their own position. These signs could be found in the stunning Scott Brown win, the poll numbers, and the Virginia and New Jersey governor elections. Some seasoned Democratic strategists who have seen this political folly play out before called for the party to regroup and fall back. They have surveyed the political landscape and like Longstreet see a great danger for their party on the horizon. But they too are being ignored by a leader with a progressive tunnel vision that has clouded his judgment. This healthcare bill that was rammed through congress and signed into law signaled to the opposition that this is a leader that is going to press forward no matter what the cost. It has become a rallying cry for the opposition, much like Fredericksburg was the rallying cry for Union forces at Gettysburg. The healthcare law is a sting that conservatives will not forget any time soon. The President has decided to lead his fellow progressives on a modern day political version of Pickett’s charge and in the end might result in the destruction of the Democratic Party.
Many of us in the upcoming months will see this come to pass as this President will push ahead with his radical agenda and force his troops to press forward. His party will try our wills, but we must and will hold the line. He will march into this political battle with a weary party across a changed political landscape and face a force that is reinforced and reinvigorated. Come November the Democrats will reach their high-water mark and for a moment will be at the height of their power. But it will only last for a moment. On the Wednesday morning following the election the Democratic Party will no longer be a force to reckon with in terms of political influence. They will have been soundly defeated by their own arrogance. It will once again be a time when this nation will change forever. And in the years to come, people will look back at this coming November and say, “What were the Democrats thinking?”
Liberty forever, freedom for all.
Interesting. The had mused about the very same thing a few times.
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
"The bravest feat ever performed on a battlefield.."
Lee felt ... that the gains that the Confederate forces had made in the previous two days of fighting would be for not.
That would be morale and naught respectively.
They know it is coming.
The Progressive Caucus has removed their page from the house.gov website and then they did a deep scrub on the WayBack Machine. There are no longer traces of the web pages.
But I posted the list I had copied from their site on 2-20-2010. It can be seen here: Congressional Progressive Caucus (Missing) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2491052/posts
Remember! November is coming! November is coming! November is coming!
I am still thinking they have a plan. A Reichstag fire, they already gave Obama his 80,000 man domestic army to deploy when this happens.
Because unlike in Lee’s case, there is no force that will stop them.
Mrs Dog and I visited Gettysburg in Oct. ‘08 and sprang for the one on one guided tour. It was money well spent. What was not included in the tour was a tour and an explanation of the battle of Kulp’s Hill. Kulp’s was pivotal in the outcome of the victory of the North. We have visited many historic sites, but none has affected us to the extent as did Gettysburg.
While we were on Kulp’s Hill, I picked up some nuts from the ground, brought them home and planted them. It gives me great pleasure to say that I have in my back yard some trees that came from nuts from the Gettysburg battlefield, a place where so many souls perished in such hellish conditions. sd
That’s my fear as well. Everything they’ve tried in terms of discrediting us has failed. They have, instead, discredited the MSM. A Reichstag type event is about all they have left.
More than the damage to the Democratic brand name, I often wonder what the African Americans are thinking, walking so lock in step and being 100% associated w/ this half-black charlatan marxist???
He has so damage the African-American “brand” name (for lack of a better word!) and sabotaged the future political aspirations of African Americans that I believe if there is any hope of another black politician being elected for a very long time it’ll only happen as a
Republican and with ONLY thoroughly conservative credentials.
Great post, thank you.
I'll bet half our current adult population can not explain the historic meaning of Reichstag fire. We need to educate them ahead of the events. Letters to the editor (if you can get them printed) may help. Calls to talk radio too, though for the most part that is preaching to the choir. Warning of it is like shining a light on cockroaches; they'll have to scurry for cover which may disrupt their planning.
I’m a Pennsylvanian who had great grandfathers in the Civil War. I can’t even drive through Gettysburg without getting choked up.
There’s another field in Pennsylvania that really says something to me. It’s the field in Shanksville where a plane crashed after brave Americans refused to allow Islamic terrorists to use it as a weapon of mass destruction. And then there’s the Liberty Bell, Valley Forge, and Independence Hall. It all just gives you shivers.
How many of these sacred spots has Obama visited? I’ll bet none of them.
You’re welcome.
When I visited that point on the battlefield many years ago I wept at Lee’s foolishness. It was suicide. No army in history could have taken that position after a march of a mile over open ground under fire.
Indeed, but, yo homie, you feel him.
No offense---cause you're a good poster and have been here a while, but your comments remind me of General Gates and Lee who constantly were backbiting against George Washington when they should have been fighting the British.
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