Posted on 06/03/2018 4:42:36 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
Following General Grant's instructions, General George Meade orders three Corps of his Army of the Potomac to attack the lines of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia near a crossroads named Cold Harbor. The attack is a failure, about 7000 Union soldiers are killed, wounded or captured within a short time. For the three days of combat around Cold Harbor, the Army of the Potomac has lost between 13 - 14 thousand men as casualties. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia has lost between 4500-5000 men.
Even with those odds Lee could not afford the losses.
true. Grant could replace the losses. Lee could not do that.
true. Grant could replace the losses. Lee could not do that.
So much history on the DC to Richmond corridor.
I never pass Chickahominy River without thinking of that bloody battle and wondering how many dead are still lost in the marshes.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/july/battle-chickahominy.htm
Nevertheless, Grant was, IMHO, the one, non de script, nobody of a man who came along in just the right place, at just the right time in our history to save the nation.
“Even with those odds Lee could not afford the losses.”
Correct. The South could not maintain their rate of losses.
The North could maintain their rate of losses.
Lee needed a military, economic, or political “something” to change the trajectory.
That “something” did not happen resulting in the disaster at Appomattox.
Agree. Grant’s God given gifts were his ability to conceive military strategy and his relentlessness in pressing forward no matter what. He was an honest man and, no doubt, a much better President than his contemporaries could comprehend. He was a Great American.
Those drafted in the North could pay someone to take their place.
Not one word of thanks from BLM and obama?
And the meat grinder war rolled on with no end in sight.
That was also permitted in the Confederate draft. Also you avoided being drafted into the Confederate Army if you owned 20 or more slaves.
And how many times has God blessed this country with just the right man at just the right time? Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Pershing, Patton, Reagan, and maybe now Trump?
TR’s Father paid a substitute but he did so unwillingly. TR’s Mother was from Georgia and could not stand the idea of her husband fighting her family.
It may have been the reason Roosevelt was so anxious to prove himself in battle.
In his memoirs, Grant said that ordering the assault at Cold Harbor was the worst mistake he ever made.
He accepted responsibility for his mistakes, then pressed on with getting the job done.
Allowing those large slaveholders to miss the draft probably caused a lot of resentment but it was probably necessary both economically and militarily.
Either that or he had the resources the Confederates never had, and in the end that vast resource pool made the difference. Not taking anything away from Grant, just providing cold hard facts that eventually tilted the war to the Army of the Potomac.
The leadership in the Confederacy believe that it was a necessary action. It did cause considerable grumbling with the rank and file of the Confederate Army.
Trump for certain.
Freeman’s book Lee’s Lieutenants is instructive. Lee grew short of officers. That was a huge element in the post-Gettysburg decline.
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