Posted on 02/28/2016 5:31:58 AM PST by C19fan
I went to the most famous battlefield in Western History, and had a surprise. Not a good one.
It is a stomp, well off the path, to get to Cannae.
The main train lines in Italy run up and down the coasts. Going inland, particularly in southeast Italy, is somewhat more episodic. My train had two cars. At the fourth stop, “Battle”, I got off.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
:’)
What, we don’t have all books on line and searchable yet?
This is a scandal.
Yeah, it sucks. ;’)
I don’t think that Hannival staged an orderly withdrawal “without trained troops.” I would think that after crossing the Alps 2 years earlier and rampaging up and down the Italian peninsula they would have been pretty well trained. After all, how was he going to add on new recruits? The amazing thing was maintaining discipline and morale with a large group of different tribal peoples with different languages. Anyone know how many languages Hannibal spoke? One can gain some sense of his difficulty by watching Lawrence of Arabia. You can see the hostility between the tribes at the beginning, and again at the end when the tribes are arguing over who was going to run what in Damascus. Fortunately for Lawrence, they all spoke Arabic and he was an accomplished linguist.
Regarding battle tactics, I was reminded of some research I did on a historical novel I hope to finish writing. I visited the site of the Battle of the Cowpens in South Carolina. This was a critical battle in bringing about the end of the American Revolution. I think that the southern role in fighting this war is seriously under recognized in teaching about that period. At any rate, there was aging General Daniel Morgan, facing nasty Banastre Tarleton (Blood Ban, killer of surrendered troops). He had a contingent of trained Colonial troops, but also a large number of “overmountain men” who had come from the west (Kentucky, Tennessee) to help fight the British. Morgan, knowing that these raw troops would not have the experience and discipline to hold the line placed them in front and said that after firing 2 or 3 shots they could retire to the rear and circle around to the sides. The British were then faced with the hardened Colonials. Over 600 British were captured and British losses over all were around 5 to 1. Here is a fascinating link, and while there you might also click the link to the crossing of the river Dan which ultimately led to the Yorktown defeat.
http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/Cowpens1.html
Macedonia conquered the Romans? I think not.
Hannibal probably enjoyed a considerable advantage in troop quality. The Carthaginians relied heavily on mercenaries.His men were largely professionals, while Roman Army was still a short service citizen militia. Prior to Cannae, Hannibal had already inflicted two heavy losses on the Romans. The Romans kept raising new legions, but these men were probably not well trained.
As the Second Punic War dragged on, the Romans found themselves for the first time in possession of a large, long-service army. This was a big step in the professionalization of the Roman Army, which would be largely completed in the next century with the wars in Greece and Spain. In the early and middle Republic, the Roman Army was not yet the wonder of the world that it would become.
I visited Cowpens National Battlefield and visited with the historian. He had put green squares on maps of the states designating battles in the Revolution.
Turns out, there were more revolutionary battles in SC than any other state.
When I first read about the Theban Sacred Band I thought “What, they had boyfriends and girlfriends fighting side by side?” I was young and naive.
heh heh
And not many of all those samurai themed movies and shows in recent years has portrayed ‘shodu’.
The Romans followed the Macedonians in the conquest of Greece, obviously.
Thanks, interesting.
Of course, everyone knows about the strong left flank Schwartzkopf threw at Saddam.
Later, I found out his original plan was indeed a double envelopment with a Marine amphibious assault forming the right flank. Late in the game, however, they figured out they just didn't need the hazards of an amphibious landing to crush Saddam's army like a bunch of grapes.
The single flanking move was high speed, and the start time was determined by the effectiveness of the air bombardment. It would have gotten to the desired spot and bagged the whole Iraqi army if the commander had run at night as he’d been ordered.
Are you referring to the 24th Inf. Div.?
I was in Eagle Troop 2nd ACR. We kept having to stop..
I think the “minarets” on the St. Louis Cathedral are fake—maybe to appeal to the local culture. The building is no longer a Roman Catholic house of worship and is used as an auditorium, but I don’t believe it was ever used as a mosque. Incidentally, it’s named after the French crusader king Louis IX.
What I read attributes the halts to waiting for fuel and other units to catch up. Not true?
There is a lot of similarity between St Peter's in Rome and the Dome on the Rock also. I once read a theory that Islam was a Roman Catholic creation to keep non-Catholic Christianity out of the Holy Land.
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