Lincoln at Gettysburg
As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I sit here pondering the historic battle of the Civil War in Gettysburg and my conclusions are that the Union under General George Meade did so much win the battle, but that the Army of Northern Virginia lost the battle. This analysis is more focused again on the aftermath of the battle, as this is something President Donald Trump has to deal with in every branch of Government. He does not have the advantage of putting America in the wilderness for 40 years, until the slave mentality all dies out with that generation.
It was deemed by the South that in order to relieve Vicksburg which General Grant had laid seige too and kept 3 Confederate armies at bay for a year, that General Lee would march north again, and this time strike a sweeping blow in Pennsylvania, the northeast and Washington City. It was bold and brazen, and General Lee had every confidence in his army to do the job, which would neutralize the north, gain recognition from Europe and gain Southern Independence.
When Lee disappeared with his army from Richmond into the Shennandoah. The Army of the Potamic did not have a General. It was not until the President ordered by superior officers, General Meade to take command, that the Union army in the east had a leader who was now following the Confederate forces.
Neither army knew exactly where the other was, and the Union citizens unleashed verbal fury at the Sons of the South as they marched through. Lee gave orders for no looting, raping, burning or murdering. All material confiscated was paid for in Confederate script. He was not going to make enemies of the northern people.
As each army felt it's way toward the other, minor engagements took place, that came to be battles, before the main collusion would form at Gettysburg. Lee was successful. He was gaining northern stocks for his army as many of his men had shoes now and spirits were very high.
It was at Gettysburg in 3 days of battle, which Lee hit the Union right, the Union left, and on July 3rd decided upon striking the Union line centered on Cemetery Ridge. This is where God's work took hold.
General James Longstreet, the second in command, advocated to not fight the Union army. He was of the point, if the Union army is there, it is desiring us to strike it. The Confederate forces should instead obtain the main objectives of Harrisburg, move to the capital of Pennsylvania, make it a fortress, and there resupply and continue the campaign.
Lee instead opted to crush the Army of the Potomac, but his two first flanking actions failed.
This is where from Napoleon to Robert E. Lee that the rules of engagement were violated. A military force NEVER strikes the center, unless one knows that is the absolute weak point and an easy victory can be had. Striking the center leaves behind the chief necessities of war in being able to maneuver, strike the enemy at it's weakest point on a flank, and then getting the advantage to make the enemy lines react, and with infalidated fire, roll up the enemy line.
What Lee did was have General Longstreet pound the Union Center, having enough confiscated shot, shell and powder for cannon, and then he sent in the forces of General Picket, who had holes blown in their lines, reformed, advanced, repeated, and did come over the Union lines in fierce hand to hand fighting. The problem Picket's forces were depleted after the hammering they too, and they were vanquished literally. Picket had no army left when Lee ordered a counter attack. Picket replied, "Tell that old man I have no army left".
Both armies were mauled severely again. Lee began retreating south. Meade instead of advancing like McClellan and Antietam, licked his wounds for 3 days, with Lincoln chafing for the Union Army to move and seize the opportunity.
An interesting point in this was said on the Meade staff, that if Longstreet had just pounded the Union lines longer, the Confederates would have gained victory.
As it was, the Army of Northern Virginia bled it's way south to the Potomac, where the river swelled for storms and sat. Meade arrived a week later, held a war council to which President Lincoln again chafed as war councils did nothing, and with that Lee escaped.
Meade was in favor of attack, as was another General, but four others did not want to attack the Confederate lines. The reasoning was that Lee had dug entrenchments. The answer to entrenchments are cannon and shot and if an opening can be blasted, then an infantry attack follows. If anything, Meade should have constructed pontoon bridges as the South was, and crossed a force to keep Lee penned in.
The reason the Lame Cherry is giving the details in this, is Robert Lincoln during this period, found his father bent over a desk, head down and crying. He asked his father what was the problem and Lincoln answered that with Vicksburg, if Meade had simply stretched out his hand which McClellan would not do, the war would have been over literally. Tens of thousands of dead on both sides would have been spared. Lincoln was torn by what he hesitated as a conspiracy to not defeat the South which was what McClellan had advocated in burning out both armies and creating a slave peace again.
This McClellan idea permeated the ranks yet and General Mead was not exactly a driving force for conservative thinking as he was against the United States invading Mexico in a war he fought in. There was pacifism at his heart even though he would carry out his duty to win a battle, but in that hung the words which Abraham Lincoln winced at when he kept reminding every General that the defeat of Robert E. Lee was thee only order of battle. It was not Richmond and it was not as General Meade telegraphed the President in "he was going to drive the invader army from their soil". Doing that only prolonged the mass death of this war.
At one point in this, Abraham Lincoln almost went himself to the banks of the Potomac to take command of the campaign as he had as much military sense now as any of his generals. He always thought better of it, but it always came back to the reality that for 3 years, Union Generals had botched operations, fought and then withdrew and always let Robert E. Lee escape.
Robert E. Lee was not invincible. As the Germans who studied him, they deemed him the greatest tactical genius in warfare of withdrawing his forces and in using smaller forces against greater numbers, provided those numbers did not move as McClellan never did.
His two major campaigns in Antietam and Gettysburg showed Lee in his not able to command forces in major battles when he had to attack.
Lee's placement of forces at Antietam was incorrect. He put Jeb Stuart in charge of fixed horse artillery and he placed General Thomas Jackson in a fixed position in the battle line. He lost all ability to maneuver which is what was his greatest asset. Two armies butchered each other and Lee retreated and should have been crushed by McClellan.
At Gettysburg, Lee correctly hit the Union left and right. His cavalry against Fitzgerald was a draw and his first problem. This led him to the final day for the center attack. It was said that when Lee's blood got up that no one could do anything with him. He was going to attack and no one could tell him any different. In reality, General Longstreet was correct in they should have gained the capital of Pennsylvania, turned it into a fortress and made the Union attack them to their defeat. Whatever was the reason that Longstreet was not able to pound the Union center more is one of those things of combat, in perhaps command just wanted to get the battle going.
On July 3rd, Lee made his worst blunder. Before the main engagement took place, a General Sickles marched his command off of Little Round Top and was smashed in the village. Whatever Sickles was doing, he did it without orders and left the entire Union left, in the high ground unguarded. The South did spot this and sent forces and a desperate fight took place which hinged the battle in General Joshua Chamberlain in maneuver regained the position, but someone on the Confederate left, and namely General Lee should have poured troops on quick march to Little Round Top with artillery driven up and Cavalry striking on the Union left. Robert E. Lee in following military doctrine would have smashed the Army of the Potomac and taken Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington City in the next two weeks for the planned victory.
Instead his Army was smashed in attacking the center.
General Wadsworth of the North had a conclusion in why Lee escaped and it was called the West Pointer Phobia. He stated that these graduates of West Point had been so upstaged by Southern cadets constantly, that they all believed themselves inferior and this was reinforced by the major losses in combat by the Union, and the daring strikes of General Thomas Jackson to drive home the prejudice.'
It should be noted that Democrats generals, Benjamin Butler and US Grant, along with Republicans William Sherman, had no such fear of Southern prowess and in blunt force proved their forces would win in battles. The illustration of this was Grant upon moving to Potomac headquarters with the remnant of the West Pointers and McClellan's cronies who had a Barbie Doll chorus about Bobby Lee. General Grant who was not prone to outbursts had enough of this and yelled at his offers, "Bobby Lee this, Bobby Lee that. You start worrying about what you are going to do to Bobby Lee and not what Bobby Lee is doing".
Grant was not a flash and dash field general. He was as Vicksburg proved a brilliant siege general. He would flush Robert E. Lee from Richmond, and then like a bulldog he got ahold of Lee and kept moving by the left flank all summer in endless fighting, but his purpose was correct in he was going to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia man for man as Grant had the resources to consume in the northern population. There was no magic in it. What Grant did was sound military doctrine of movement and striking, while forcing Lee to move into a location by Appomattox Court House, where 3 Union armies converged to surround what was left of this fine fighting force.
There was a reality of Gettysburg that once Abraham Lincoln, found his general who had generals like Sherman deploying combat strategy to win, that Abraham Lincoln began winning. It required almost 3 years for Lincoln to flush out the officers who were in sympathy to the south and who were afraid of Southern military men.
47 is going to have to move hard with loyalists to achieve some kind of victories the public can hold onto, in order to win decisively in the midterms, to cement his domestic and foreign victories for a JD Vance election to a Trump 3rd term to cement this Trump revolution into place.
That will require disengagement in contact with Russia, the Mideast and holding China in check, with no war, and it will require an absolute cowing of the resistance by force, and the gaining control of thee American economy, and doing that by drilling oil for cheap energy for Americans to drive the economy and mining bitcoin to retire the debt, then BRICS will splinter.
Nuff Said
agtG
