Posted on 06/03/2019 5:19:21 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
Union General George Meade launches 3 corps of his Army of the Potomac against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s works near Cold Harbor. Meade’s assault is a failure. Over 7000 Union casualties and not one foot of ground gained. Lieutenant General Grant, in ordering Meade to make the attack, called it the worst mistake he ever made.
I’m not saying either one was genius. I think the whole think was a terrible waste of American lives that could of been avoided.
The British were trying to run an empire, and they were spread a bit thin. Their arrogance may have occasionally bit them in the @$$, but it is a large part of why they were so successful at building that empire.
Yeah, I hear everyone died at Massada. Am willing to bet they killed more than their number of Romans first.
The people who don't have the choice about the dying are the defenders. The Attackers could just leave and save their own lives, but the Defenders do not have that option.
Then all things considered it was really stupid of Davis to start the war then, wasn't it?
Fully agree.
Once the warships were sent, the war was began.
Exactly. Grant knew he could wear Lee down through sheer attrition. Lee knew it too.
McClellen ran, as the Democratic President candidate, on a plank that called for a negotiated end to the war. He did not believe that crushing the Confederacy was the way to end the war. I agree, he also lacked the killer instinct that proved necessary in the end to win.
You learn a lot from board wargaming.
Bombarding a fort into rubble is a pretty good indication of intent. Are you saying Davis had no control over that?
Lincoln decided to have a war, and Davis simply played the hand he had been dealt by Lincoln.
The ever popular "We were so stupid we fell right into Lincoln's trap" defense. Doesn't say a whole lot about the intellect of those running the Confederacy, does it?
A plank that McClellan himself had repudiated. And even had McClellan won he would not have taken office until March 1865. What president would surrender to the opposition when they were within a hairs-breadth of winning the war?
Not after Lincoln sent warships to force his will on them. Davis could not back down in the face of military assault. His government would have been over right then and there.
The ever popular "We were so stupid we fell right into Lincoln's trap" defense. Doesn't say a whole lot about the intellect of those running the Confederacy, does it?
They made the mistake of believing what Lincoln said. Had they looked into his past history in his campaigns for office, they would have realized this guy was a masterful liar on the sneaky bastard scale of Bill Clinton.
Their spies also told them Lincoln was serious. Nobody had any idea he was going to send secret orders to a Lieutenant to deliberately paralyze the war mission.
He only repudiated that plank after Sherman captured Atlanta.
So instead he started a war which killed it. It just took four years for the body to hit the floor.
They made the mistake of believing what Lincoln said. Had they looked into his past history in his campaigns for office, they would have realized this guy was a masterful liar on the sneaky bastard scale of Bill Clinton.
They made the decision post war to go all revisionist and try and pin the blame on Lincoln. It has obviously worked on some people.
Which happened two days after he took the nomination. How brave of him. </sarcasm>
The fact is the Valandigham faction wrote the peace plank into the platform McClellan went into the convention opposed to a negotiate peace and he never wavered in his position. He ran on a promise to continue the war.
Had he not done this. Had he instead sent nothing but a supply ship, nobody could claim that he sent a belligerent force. The trouble is, Lincoln did in fact send a belligerent force.
you mean a supply ship like the Star of the west
davis only had all the control over whether war would come and how it would be waged. He didn’t have quite as much control over when he would surrender.
Only the weak-minded. ;'}
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