Posted on 09/17/2020 3:01:58 AM PDT by nathanbedford
September 17, 1862, the last hour of the bloodiest day in American military history, Lee knew that his beleaguered line must at last give way to overwhelming odds and the Army of Northern Virginia verged on destruction and, with it, destruction of the Confederacy itself.
Through one of history's oddist twists Lee's orders dividing his army had been discovered by common soldier in an open field days before wrapped around three cigars. The normally slothful McClellan was for once animated by the knowledge that Lee's army could be destroyed piecemeal. Lee drew up his army along Antietam Creek near the village of Sharpsburg Maryland to defend itself while he awaited the remnants of his army to come to his aid and rebalance, at least in part, the overwhelming material and numerical advantage of the Yankees.
Shelby Foote in his first volume of Civil War narrative describes the forced march of AP Hill from Harpers Ferry to Sharpsburg:
Jacket off because of the heat, [AP Hill] rode in his bright red battle shirt alongside the panting troops, prodding laggards with the point of his saber. Beyond this, he had no dealings with stragglers, but left them winded by the roadside, depending on them to catch up in time if they could. Not many could, apparently; for he began the march with about 5000 men and ended with barely 3000.
Here was the decisive moment and Lee knew that all would soon be lost. Shelby Foote describes one of the most dramatic scenes of the war:
Observing a column moving up from the south west along the ridge line, Lee called to an artillery lieutenant on the way to the front with a section of guns: "what troops are those?" The lieutenant offered him his telescope. "Can't use it," Lee said, holding up a bandaged hand. The lieutenant trained and focus the telescope. "They are flying the United States flag," he reported. Lee pointed to the right, where another distant column was approaching from the southwest nearly perpendicular to the first and repeated the question. The lieutenant swung the glass in that direction, peered intently, and announced: "they are flying the Virginia and Confederate flags." Lee suppressed his elation, although the words refilled his one hope for deliverance from defeat. "It is AP Hill from Harpers Ferry," he said calmly.
As Shelby Foote wrote about AP Hill, "as was his custom, he struck hard." And so the Army of Northern Virginia was spared, but the North kept the field enabling Lincoln to claim victory and to issue his Emancipation Proclamation thus recasting the whole character of the war.
My great-grandfather was there 158 years ago today.
The bottom line is you are pure bunk. How have you avoid socialism for all these years? Why aren’t you out riding with antifa?
Everything that I have written is the truth. But you the truth is bunk. You are bunk.
Captain Jack Aubrey: "How have you I avoided socialism insanity for all these years?
Why aren’t you I out riding with antifa Confederate ghosts?
Captain Jack Aubrey: "Everything that I have written is a mockery of the truth.
But you to me the truth is bunk. You are I am bunk."
There... fixed it for you, yes, you're welcome.
You're a Democrat and the nature of Democrats is to project your own mental malfunctions onto political opponents.
Sorry if the truth hurts you, FRiend.
woodpusher: Your quotes are anonymous, unsourced, or fake news.BroJoeK: Nonsense.
Precisely.
Other than that...
Like any Democrat, sir, you love to lie, live to lie, lie to live.Other than that...
Like your idol Joe Biden, you exhibit senile dementia.
Other than that...
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