Posted on 07/02/2008 6:08:10 AM PDT by mware
And after the War it was The Unites States IS.
....It made us an IS."
Shelby Foote
What a fortunate name for an artist to have, Mort Artist (in German).
That may have been Anderson, Hill and Lee's view, but probably not Longstreet's. He was not happy with the way the Second Day went at all, obviously, and saw the writing on the wall.
Was it Shelby Foote who said that like the Japanese after Midway there was no more victory, just different degrees of losing?
I think it was Foote.
I think the main thing is that Lee would never command a force of over 70,000 effectives again as he did the day Gettysburg began, while Meade ended the battle with 70,000 effectives and his successor - thanks to the victory at Gettysburg and the increased enlistments it inspired - would spend the rest of the war outnumbering Lee almost 2 to 1.
He was the only one who came home from his family.
Two died at The Battle of Wilderness (they fought against each other in that battle), another died at Andersonville.
What a horrible loss.
“Thanks for posting this. I went to Gettysburg a couple of years ago and it was one of the most moving experiences of my life. If every American were required to make one “patriotic pilgramage” in their lifetime, I would nominate Gettysburg as the destination.”
I had the same experience. It’s hallowed ground.
Happy Birthday!
Bowden & Ward: Last Chance for Victory c2001
My point here is only this: it was a very close thing. Except for some critical mistakes, the victory was Lee's and the world today would be a much different place.
The painting is entitled Chamberlain’s Charge by Mort
Kunstler.
But would it? Lee wins and then what? He's hundreds of miles behind Union lines with tens of thousands of casualties to care for and having shot off most of his ammunition. So he goes back to Virginia, what else can he do? In the mean time the Army of the Potomac is still intact, Grant still takes Vicksburg, Lincoln still calls him east in the fall. Spring comes and Grant still moves South, Sherman still goes after Atlanta, and at the end of the day the South still loses.
Had Lee won at Gettysburg then we'd be talking about the upcoming 145th anniversary of Vicksburg, and Gettysburg would be just another Chancellorsville.
I stand corrected.
Lots of IF and IF ONLY's, in that battle.
Actually, I was too lazy to go down stairs and check my
book of his paintings. Have a Good 4TH of July.
A shorter work could be written about Meade's failure to press his advantage in victory and defeat Lee's forces in detail.
Even if Lee had been victorious, he could not have ended the war that day or secured "inevitable" Confederate victory - but if Meade had capitalized on his success and destroyed the Army of Northern Virginia within hours of the fall of Vicksburg, he could have ended the war.
Thanks for this thread. Very interesting.
My kids were at the “At High Tide” reenactment at Gettysburg this past weekend. My teenage son was tremendously proud to march in the ranks carrying an Enfield as his ancestors once did.
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