Trivia - 4th of EFFYU

Jul 4, 2021, 12:49 AM

The 4th of July is a time for all Americans of all stripes to come together and celebrate our great nation. At least now it is. But not so long ago one city was so perpetually pixxed off it refused to celebrate the 4th.

If you are a Confederate sympathizer you’ve probably had a bad weekend. Yesterday marked the defeat of the South at Gettysburg in the horrific debacle known as Pickett’s Charge. Asked about his battle plans Lee later said (paraphrased, of course) “Well, we attacked the Union left and failed, then attacked the Union right and failed, so there was nowhere else to attack but right up the GD middle. Pickett’s division wasn’t even my 1st choice, really. But after three days of fighting he had the only troops in our army that hadn’t been chewed up by battle yet.”

The assault was so desperate that Pickett’s commander, Longstreet (from Edgefield), called the failure a “mathematical certainty” and wouldn’t even give the order to advance. He told the army’s artillery commander, Edward Alexander (from Savannah) to order the assault when the 2-hr preparatory bombardment by 150+ cannon was finished.

Even after the most massive artillery bombardment in the history of the continent, the assault was a bloodbath and was the last card Lee had to play at Gettysburg. Someone asked Pickett after the battle where his troops were and he replied “Dead on the field. That old man slaughtered my division.”

Imagine having to leave those woods, cross that field, and hub-to-hub union cannon are waiting for you behind that stone wall

And then things got really bad. As bad as Gettysburg was on the 3rd, July 4th brought even worse news. One of the most militarily important cities in the South was surrendered to the Union. Its commander was himself a pro-confederate northerner, so you can imagine the cries of “Sabotage! Intrigue! Treachery and Treason!” that went on. But the truth was that the city was lost and he figured that the Union would be in its best spirits on the 4th and give its inhabitants the most generous terms they could expect. He was right, but the city was so pixxed it didn’t even acknowledge or celebrate the 4th of July for 3 more generations. It wasn't until 81 years later, after our victory in WW2, that the city once again felt festive on July 4. Oh, and Coca-Cola was first bottled there, too.

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Yep that field is remarkable. There are several cases in the war where, if you walk the ground, you just have to shake your head and say "that was just crazy to even try." - Cold harbor, the Crater at P'burg, and the wall at Fred'burg all come to mind.

Longstreet said "Lee had his blood up" and was hell bent on doing "something." That was the whole point of the G burg invasion, to win a battle on northern soil to get recognized by a foreign power for political pressure, but sometimes you just have to walk away.

Despite all the effort it took to get to that moment on July 3, there was just no way anything decisive was going to happen by that point in the battle. The fact that Pickett was his "reserve" should have told him that. The whole point of a reserve is to exploit or cover a breech. Well, if you are using your reserve to create the breech, you by default have nothing to exploit it with. A total waste of life.

Put in drinking terms if you've only got $20 in your pocket and it costs you a $20 door charge to walk into the bar, what are you going to be able to buy once you get in? Just walk away.

Trivia - 4th of EFFYU

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Re: Trivia - 4th of EFFYU

I visited Gettysburg with a leadership group and had a West

Re: I visited Gettysburg with a leadership group and had a West

Re: I visited Gettysburg with a leadership group and had a West

Whoa …a “critical” review of US history. You commie SOB!***

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