Civil War Thread

[Buck]

The south starts at the Rappahannock River, I’ve always contended.

Rural Maryland may disagree.

The South starts at the intersection of the Black Horse Pike and Blackwood-Clementon Road in Blackwood, NJ.

 

[Batman]

Battle Hymn of the Republic, played on a gift shop toy harmonica, at the Illinois Monument in Vicksburg.
The monument is an acoustical wonder.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

When Civil War II starts, I'll be betting on the side with the guns.

I just hope I'm sitting in a Ladbrokes in Strangeways when the festivities kick off.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I just finished "Gettysburg: The Tide Turns," an oral history book written by Bruce Chadwick.

Pickett's Charge has to be one of the most f-upped things about a war that had a lot of f-upped things (Cold Harbor, Fredericksburg, The Crater, to mention a few). Longstreet tried to stop it for hours; Porter Alexander (Confederate head of artillery) knew it had no chance, as did Trimble, Kemper, Garnett, and every other Confederate general involved except Lee, whose ego sent thousands of men to their graves.

"General, I have no division." One of the most memorable quotes of the entire war.

"He had my division massacred at Gettysburg," Pickett to John Mosby, after they met with Lee in Richmond shortly before Lee's death in 1870.

Pickett may have been a dandy and a f-up (Five Forks was a disaster) but he spoke the truth about Robert E. Lee's awful generalship at Gettysburg.

How did this thread ever go dormant for eight years, with as many history geeks as there are on this site?

 

[cyclingwriter2]

I just finished "Gettysburg: The Tide Turns," an oral history book written by Bruce Chadwick.

Pickett's Charge has to be one of the most f-upped things about a war that had a lot of f-upped things (Cold Harbor, Fredericksburg, The Crater, to mention a few). Longstreet tried to stop it for hours; Porter Alexander (Confederate head of artillery) knew it had no chance, as did Trimble, Kemper, Garnett, and every other Confederate general involved except Lee, whose ego sent thousands of men to their graves.

"General, I have no division." One of the most memorable quotes of the entire war.

"He had my division massacred at Gettysburg," Pickett to John Mosby, after they met with Lee in Richmond shortly before Lee's death in 1870.

Pickett may have been a dandy and a f-up (Five Forks was a disaster) but he spoke the truth about Robert E. Lee's awful generalship at Gettysburg.

How did this thread ever go dormant for eight years, with as many history geeks as there are on this site?

Just read a Gettysburg book (can't remember the exact title), but it really delved into what many of the field officers were thinking as well.

It's always interesting how many officers on the Union side were thinking, "how are we going to screw this up and lose."