The book KILLER ANGELS is epic…. The 4 hours plus movie…so good… such good actors
I love that book. Really puts you there. John Buford holding the high ground on the first day won the battle.
The best scene? When Lee tells Pickett( I think ) to tske his men and Pickett says in essence I have men left😢
It’s like several books I have read … bought it, let it rest then stumbled into it
Me too.
I’m not a HUGE fan of DANCES WITH WOLVES, but the scene at the beginning of the amputee hospital is unwatchable for me… horrible pain
Yes most of the generals knew each other. Arlington on Lee's family farm for spite
I take a bunch of 7th graders every year to DC… Arlington is a favorite
God bless you. I was there once when we were out east transporting one of my kids from Fort Jackson to Fort Lee. Went to Richmond and followed Lee's retreat to Appomattox and visited it. Beautiful country and you could get a feel of the topography of the battle.
Not just McClellan. There was a procession of horrible generals starting with Scott, McDowell (then McClellan) Burnside, Hooker, and Halleck. In my opinion Burnside was the worst with his Battle of Fredericksburg disaster. All those guys planned for weeks, then went into a big battle and usually lost because Lee had time to plan, move troops into place, and steer the battle toward his chosen topography. Grant was different. He believed in having a battle on Monday. Win, lose or draw, he went back into battle on Wednesday. He was a badass.
McClellan ranked very high at West Point and was a very capable General as far as organization and training an army. He was very meticulous at planning but was not a good battlefield general. Grant was not ranked very high at West Point but was relentless. Even after a defeat, he wouldn’t retreat North but regrouped and kept on pressing South unlike previous Northern Generals. The North had superiority in manpower and material and he used it to his advantage.
Yep, McClellan would not engage.
Yeah, the South could win or tie.
Grant said that the only order he regretted, was the Union charge at Cold Harbor. The rifled barrel and mercury caps of the civil war musket essentially ended the linear advance over open ground against a dug in defensive line. Lee and Longstreet understood this, and they wanted the Union army to come to them. When Lee went on the offensive with his march into Pennsylvania, his open field attacks at Gettysburg failed just like the Union Army's at Fredericksburg. The South fought well, but there were no miracles.
Not an expert on this but Grant made his bones in the west, where manuver and initiative were better rewarded.
Or Antietam. The battle started in a cornfield by a church, progressed to a sunken road, and ended on a stone bridge. The cornfield, sunken road, church, and stone bridge (with bullet marks) are still there to this day.
From what I've read the entire philosophy of Grant and Sherman was leaps and bounds more modern in terms of warfare compared to their predecessors and it was what won the Western theater and later the war. They wanted mobile armies and didn't hesitate. They were superior tacticians to any of their predecessors and most of the Southern generals. Prior to that the Union was sluggish army that was only effective when they were entrenched in a defensive position and Lee and Jackson made them look stupid repeatedly.
There is a football analogy in there somewhere… McClellan’s gift was training and organization skills… but not game management… like a coach who recruits great but can’t win…. But the next guy can☺️☺️☺️
Chernows book is excellent. The first half is Grants early years up until Appomattox. The second half of the book is his presidency and the reconstruction years. That was bloody difficult, but he did some good work there.
It’s pretty crazy. 4% of the US population of time died in someway tied to the war.
I kind of wonder how the war might’ve changed if Jackson had not died. He was pretty important to Lee.
One of my ancestors was wounded fighting for the Union at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Poor man died a few days later. Sure it wasn't a pleasant death given the medical technology (or lack thereof) of the time. One of many unfortunately. As General Sherman correctly said "War is Hell".
