Domer's Joke for the Day

[domer]

President GW Bush's favorite military personage is General Pickett.

[Xavier_Onassis]

President GW Bush's favorite military personage is General Pickett.

This works on several levels: Is it because The Decider must eventually Pick it?

Or is it that Juniorbush likes to CHARGE?

[Plane]

Got a favorate yourself?


I like General Lee , even though it was Lee who told Longstreet to put Pickett right into the frount of the center that day.

[domer]

Yes, Plane, I know about Gen. Lee and that fateful day at Gettysburg. My "joke" is not an idle musing: along with the hee-haws there's a very serious caricature of what Bush seems poised to do.

[Plane]

I don't think it useless to speculate on the potential General Lee had to choose other strategys.

It might be that something other than a frountal assault would have prolonged the war in favor of the South , or it might be that no availible choice would have been any better , the point of the speculation is to make better choices when simular situations re-ocur.


What is the specific simularity that has impressed you in this set of situations?

[domer]

Sending young men into a killing field when no good can come of it.

[Plane]

Sending young men into a killing field when no good can come of it.

I think that Good did come of the battle at Gettesburg.

Not the good that Pickett preferred , but he almost breached the line , he might have a State named in his honor in the present CSA if he had been leading an hundred more men , or if the men of the North had quailed.

[domer]

That's not how I understand Gettysburg nor do the virtual entirety of Civil War scholars.

[Plane]

That's not how I understand Gettysburg nor do the virtual entirety of Civil War scholars.

I didn't know that there were a lot of Scolors who considered the battle of Gettisburg "useless".

Am I misunderstanding you ?

[domer]

Pickett's Charge itself, across an open expanse of field into cannon and rifle fire was useless from any military standpoint. Faced with this charge or a retreat, as the battle had gone, Lee would have served his cause much better to retreat and let Pickett's men have their evening meal around a distant campfire.

[Plane]

Pickett's Charge itself, across an open expanse of field into cannon and rifle fire was useless from any military standpoint. Faced with this charge or a retreat, as the battle had gone, Lee would have served his cause much better to retreat and let Pickett's men have their evening meal around a distant campfire.

If Lee had retreated in good order he would have retreated to a new battlefeild and we wold be talking about the carnage that happened at some other site.

Gettysburg was like the reversal of Cold Harbor , where Grants troops charged across a wide feild into the teeth of Lee's well dug in position and were cut down in atrocious numbers.

Are you wanting that battle decisions be based more on caution?

[domer]

Caution? Sure. Wisdom? Better.

[Plane]

Caution? Sure. Wisdom? Better.

Lee was a more tacticly  perfect General than Grant and Gettisburg was not their first meeting.

Grants strategy of grinding down the opponent persistantly exploited his advantage in numbers.

But generally they were evenly matched , if Lee had withdrawn from Gettisburg he would have had to fight in another burg pretty soon , Grants greater ability to replace losses would mean that if Grant failed to break the  southern force at Gettisburg he would eventually do so somewhere.

Lee knew that time was on Grants side, if Gettisburg had of been a defeat for Grant on the scale of Cold Harbor then the resolve of the North to fight might have been broken .

But at Cold Harbor Grant had long supply lines and Lee had short ones Lee's retreat at Cold Harbor left Grant in possession of a useless feild.

If Lee had retreated from Gettisburg where would he have gone to get a diffrent result?

I think that the Battle at Gettisburg and the Battle of the Bulge have some of these things in common.

The side fated to loose was staring at a disadvantage in trends and was hoping for a great reversal in trends with a big effort.



At present is time on our side?

[Amianthus]

President GW Bush's favorite military personage is General Pickett.

You do realize that Pickett was only one of three generals leading the charge (Pettigrew and Trimble also led divisions in the charge) and that Longstreet was the overall commander for the assault that day?