Today marks the start of the 150th anniversary.
There are facts and quizzes all over the internet.
I love it!
Syl
Any American Civil war buffs here?
by PYRAMIDSCHEME 26 Replies latest jw friends
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PYRAMIDSCHEME
Snowbird: Regarding Picketts charge, Lee blew it when he wouldnt listen to Longstreet, it cost Pickett his division and Lee the battle.
Hey Stonewall! I have a theory: Gettysburg was a huge blunder for Lee...I think if Stonewall had been alive he would have talked Lee out of going north in the first place. Jackson was the only General who could sway Lee when it came to tactics.
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lil princess
come on, isnt CIVIL WAR an oxymoron?
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JeffT
Pyramidscheme
The theory that Longstreet tried to talk Lee out of the attack is based almost entirely on letters that Longstreet wrote after the war. In other words, it might have been some self serving 20/20 hindsight. On the other hand, Longstreet was the third best general in the war (the first two being Lee and Jackson) and it is possible that he and Lee did indeed have that argument, but only where no one else could hear it, which would have been in character. An interesting bit of historical "what if?"
I personally think that Jackson would have gone North if ordered, but if he had been there he would have kicked the Federal troops off the high ground at the end of the first day, something Dick Ewell, his placement, could have and should have done.
In the end, I'm not sure it would have made a difference. The North simply had more men and resources than the South.
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snowbird
Snowbird: Regarding Picketts charge, Lee blew it when he wouldnt listen to Longstreet, it cost Pickett his division and Lee the battle.
It is said that Pickett was never the same afterwards.
That's understandable.
There is something about Robert E. Lee that reminds me of Charles T. Russell.
Syl
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JeffT
Pickett was something of a dandy before the war, he ranked dead last in his class at West Point. Their are conflicting reports of his attitude toward Lee and the war. Some biographers have him saying of Lee "that man destroyed my division." Another story is that when asked why the charge failed, he said "I always thought the Yankees had something to do with it."
This is the kind of stuff that makes studying history interesting to me.
sidenote: he played a major role in the 1859 "Pig War" in Washington Territory. I wrote a short story about it here: http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/fiction/pigwar.aspx
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snowbird
Jeff, that is a well-written report.
The German Kaiser who arbitrated the dispute would have been Wilhelm II.
Interesting that he sided with the United States.
Will have to look a little deeper into that.
Thanks.
Syl