Meade knew what he was doing. Washington was rather quickly one of the best fortified cities in the world; West Point has always been on top of things in military engineering. As close as Washington and Richmond appear on a map, all of the generals of north and south were aware of the carnage at Waterloo and several battles since where cavalry charges against fortified lines with ‘modern’ arms led to horrific casualties and just how effective dug-in fortifications could be against an infantry charge.
Welcome to the Canteen, RedStateRocker...thanks for adding more information for our road trip.