Tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of the start of the battle of Gettysburg. I have a peculiar association with this battle. I am interested in military history in general but especially Napoleonic and Civil War history. Of all the battles to latch onto, Gettysburg is the one.
I am not an expert as I perceive them, but I have my share of background on the battle. I have read Hansen, Catton and Foote on the battle, among tertiary sources. I served as a chaperone for a tour. I have read Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, the Comte de Paris history and The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. I have seen an original of the Bacheldor map, considered the best made from the original battlefield. I have read the West Point Atlas of American Wars, numerous regimental histories and thick tomes on individual aspects of the battle- Pickett's charge, the second day's fighting on the Union left. I have walked over the battlefield 5 times, once in January to get the elevations of various parts of the field. I designed a wargame on the battle that was accepted by two different companies for publication (they both went out of business- so much for the stability of the board wargaming industry).
I say all this to show my peculiar interest in the battle and the campaign. I am going to say why here in a minute, but I want to call attention to a terrible piece of writing from Foxnews here. This item is simplistic and hyperbolic. Words like chokehold, epic, invincible legions and hickory hard defense are part of this turgid, histrionic narrative. A couple of brief reality checks. The desire to carry the war into Northern territory was in part an effort to end the war, but just as much an attempt to relieve Virginia farms of devastation, and to supply his own army. The battle began not as some epic plan but when Heth's division came into Gettysburg on June 30 and asked for 5000 pairs of shoes. Given that the division had hardly more than 5000 men it is a measure of the state of Confederate equipment.
Lee's army certainly had become pervaded by overconfidence, attested to by the letters and reports of the time and numerous recorded conversations. The Army of the Potomac, however, hardly considered them invincible. The battle of Chancellorsville, fought only 6 weeks earlier, had been a grand tactical defeat through the indolence and stupidity of the commanders not the actual results from fighting. The Confederate units were mauled badly.
The Union's defense was not quite 'hickory hard'. I loved that one. Why, what masculine men they must have been!! The hackneyed description of Pickett's division as some of Lee's best fighters would have brought forth a fist fight at the time. Pickett's division had been on guard duty on the Carolina coast for 6 months and had left a brigades behind. They had not fired a shot in that time, and were used for the July 3rd assault only because they were last in line coming from Chambersburg, and had missed all the fighting of the first two days.
What is true is that both sides recognized it as a critical Union victory. One reporter, standing next to Meade and watching Pickett's charge stream back in disorder said 'Ah General Meade, you are in very great danger of becoming the President of the United States'. After the charge numerous Confederate officers were in tears. Both Lee and Meade offered to resign within two weeks of the battle.
Enough quibbling. If you want some quality material don't get it from Foxnews or CNN. Now, why do I love the battle?
The Union Army of the Potomac had lost 5 battles I just over a year, maybe one being considered a draw. The Seven Days' Campaign, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville. In all, 71,000 casualties and no results. And on a day when they had to win, the failed, the laughed at, defeated the overconfident. And they knew it. As Pickett's charge approached Cemetery Ridge some of the units of the Second Corps, who had lost more than 50% of their men 7 months before on Mary's Heights at Fredericksburg, were shouting 'Fredericksburg' at the Confederates. Stannard's Vermont brigade of 3 month volunteers had done nothing but train in the Washington defenses until only three weeks were left in their enlistment. They were hurried north to join the First Corps. On the third the brigade, which had never fired a shot in anger, wheeled right from Cemetery Ridge to pour a flanking fire into Pickett's bunched brigades. The division commander, Doubleday, shouted 'Glory to God, Glory to God, see the Vermonters go it!' The battle was fought in terrible conditions. The Union army marched up to 37 miles in 24 hours to reach the battlefield, losing about 10% of their strength as stragglers. It was hot and humid, with a heavy thunderstorm beginning the evening of the third. And still they won.
And the sense of climax, of a turning point, so evident even at the time, comes across in print 150 years later. And it is an example of the success of the despised, who won under terrible conditions. And as such it has always been a symbol to me of hope for myself and my future. I feel the battle viscerally, and the field is suffused with numinousness, the spirits of those who struggled palpable to me. And Lincoln's speech is one of the finest and most inspiring things I have ever read. And there is a deeply touching story about the 50th anniversary, in 1913. The survivors of the Union Second Corps stood on Cemetery Ridge while the survivors of Pickett's division walked across the field to the stone wall there they had shot and clubbed each other 50 years earlier. And there, documented with the most intense and touching photographs, old men with walking sticks and white beards shook hands across the wall where they had tried to kill each other.
I had to wipe away tears seeing those photos at the Visitors' Center. For as much as the battle is a symbol of the triumph of the downtrodden, its aftermath is a symbol of what is truly to be striven for- peace, and reconciliation.
July First Second and Third have been personal holidays for many years, and no more so than this year.
Ted
I am not an expert as I perceive them, but I have my share of background on the battle. I have read Hansen, Catton and Foote on the battle, among tertiary sources. I served as a chaperone for a tour. I have read Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, the Comte de Paris history and The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. I have seen an original of the Bacheldor map, considered the best made from the original battlefield. I have read the West Point Atlas of American Wars, numerous regimental histories and thick tomes on individual aspects of the battle- Pickett's charge, the second day's fighting on the Union left. I have walked over the battlefield 5 times, once in January to get the elevations of various parts of the field. I designed a wargame on the battle that was accepted by two different companies for publication (they both went out of business- so much for the stability of the board wargaming industry).
I say all this to show my peculiar interest in the battle and the campaign. I am going to say why here in a minute, but I want to call attention to a terrible piece of writing from Foxnews here. This item is simplistic and hyperbolic. Words like chokehold, epic, invincible legions and hickory hard defense are part of this turgid, histrionic narrative. A couple of brief reality checks. The desire to carry the war into Northern territory was in part an effort to end the war, but just as much an attempt to relieve Virginia farms of devastation, and to supply his own army. The battle began not as some epic plan but when Heth's division came into Gettysburg on June 30 and asked for 5000 pairs of shoes. Given that the division had hardly more than 5000 men it is a measure of the state of Confederate equipment.
Lee's army certainly had become pervaded by overconfidence, attested to by the letters and reports of the time and numerous recorded conversations. The Army of the Potomac, however, hardly considered them invincible. The battle of Chancellorsville, fought only 6 weeks earlier, had been a grand tactical defeat through the indolence and stupidity of the commanders not the actual results from fighting. The Confederate units were mauled badly.
The Union's defense was not quite 'hickory hard'. I loved that one. Why, what masculine men they must have been!! The hackneyed description of Pickett's division as some of Lee's best fighters would have brought forth a fist fight at the time. Pickett's division had been on guard duty on the Carolina coast for 6 months and had left a brigades behind. They had not fired a shot in that time, and were used for the July 3rd assault only because they were last in line coming from Chambersburg, and had missed all the fighting of the first two days.
What is true is that both sides recognized it as a critical Union victory. One reporter, standing next to Meade and watching Pickett's charge stream back in disorder said 'Ah General Meade, you are in very great danger of becoming the President of the United States'. After the charge numerous Confederate officers were in tears. Both Lee and Meade offered to resign within two weeks of the battle.
Enough quibbling. If you want some quality material don't get it from Foxnews or CNN. Now, why do I love the battle?
The Union Army of the Potomac had lost 5 battles I just over a year, maybe one being considered a draw. The Seven Days' Campaign, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville. In all, 71,000 casualties and no results. And on a day when they had to win, the failed, the laughed at, defeated the overconfident. And they knew it. As Pickett's charge approached Cemetery Ridge some of the units of the Second Corps, who had lost more than 50% of their men 7 months before on Mary's Heights at Fredericksburg, were shouting 'Fredericksburg' at the Confederates. Stannard's Vermont brigade of 3 month volunteers had done nothing but train in the Washington defenses until only three weeks were left in their enlistment. They were hurried north to join the First Corps. On the third the brigade, which had never fired a shot in anger, wheeled right from Cemetery Ridge to pour a flanking fire into Pickett's bunched brigades. The division commander, Doubleday, shouted 'Glory to God, Glory to God, see the Vermonters go it!' The battle was fought in terrible conditions. The Union army marched up to 37 miles in 24 hours to reach the battlefield, losing about 10% of their strength as stragglers. It was hot and humid, with a heavy thunderstorm beginning the evening of the third. And still they won.
And the sense of climax, of a turning point, so evident even at the time, comes across in print 150 years later. And it is an example of the success of the despised, who won under terrible conditions. And as such it has always been a symbol to me of hope for myself and my future. I feel the battle viscerally, and the field is suffused with numinousness, the spirits of those who struggled palpable to me. And Lincoln's speech is one of the finest and most inspiring things I have ever read. And there is a deeply touching story about the 50th anniversary, in 1913. The survivors of the Union Second Corps stood on Cemetery Ridge while the survivors of Pickett's division walked across the field to the stone wall there they had shot and clubbed each other 50 years earlier. And there, documented with the most intense and touching photographs, old men with walking sticks and white beards shook hands across the wall where they had tried to kill each other.
I had to wipe away tears seeing those photos at the Visitors' Center. For as much as the battle is a symbol of the triumph of the downtrodden, its aftermath is a symbol of what is truly to be striven for- peace, and reconciliation.
July First Second and Third have been personal holidays for many years, and no more so than this year.
Ted
Among many other perceptive comments Shelby Foote made about Gettysburg was this: "Gettysburg was the price the south paid for having Robert E. Lee." For it was Robert E. Lee who, against Longstreet's advice, ordered Pickett's Charge. In the Fox News article you referenced, Rod Gragg called Pickett's Charge "a magnificent assault." What Shelby Foote called it was "the mistake of all mistakes."
ReplyDeleteLee did it because the first day's fighting had been so encouraging and on the second, he came very close to a breakthrough. By this time, as Longstreet noted years later, Lee's 'blood was up.' Lee looked at the Union lines and said, "He [the enemy] is there and I will strike him."
This is a good cautionary lesson for all of us: ignoring past history while dwelling on recent successes can make us overconfident. (Youth do this all the time when behind the wheel of automobiles.) As you pointed out, at Gettysburg, the Union 2nd Corps who had survived Fredericksburg knew very well how a long run at an entrenched position over exposed ground was going to end.
What amazes me is that Pickett's Charge was not the last of its kind. Two and a half months later, Longstreet - who so opposed Pickett's charge - ordered one himself at Chickamauga: and it was successful! The big difference being that at Chickamauga the Confederate troops only had to cover perhaps 200 yards in their charge, not 3/4 of a mile, so the Federal artillery would not have the influence it had had at Gettysburg.
Perhaps the worst assault of the war occurred in late November of 1864 when General Hood attacked the Federal forces in central Tennessee by making an assault over...2 miles of open ground! The attack destroyed the Confederate Army. Many years after the war, Sam Watkins' comments about that Battle of Franklin were, "The death angel was there to gather its last harvest."
Here are some of the other charges made during the conflict:
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gainesmill/gaines-mill-history/greatest-charges.html
I, too, love that touching scene of reconciliation at the 1913 50th Anniversary of Gettysburg, where men from both sides showed their reconciliation. Reconciliation is as sweet as hatred is bitter, and as the Joseph saga from the book of Genesis shows, reconciliation is far better for the soul.
-D-