The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

In The Mailbox: Pickett’s Charge and the Last Full Measure

Posted on | July 3, 2015 | 10 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two oclock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet, it hasn’t even begun yet, it not only hasn’t begun yet but there is stll time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armstead and Wilcox look grave yet it’s going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn’t need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago…. – William Faulkner


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Weasel Zippers: Suspect In Shocking “Random” Murder Had Been Deported To Mexico Several Times
Megan McArdle: No, The U.S. Won’t Follow Greece Over The Cliff
Mark Steyn: Going With The Flow


“Decimated as it was, the First Minnesota was not finished fighting at Gettysburg. Two companies that had been detached from the regiment rejoined the unit, bringing their numbers back up to 150 men.
On the third day of the battle, the Minnesotans were called in to help smother Pickett’s Charge. The First Minnesota suffered 45 more casualties, but Pvt. Marshall Sherman managed to capture the colors of the 28th Virginia.”
-Jon Matsune


The Last Full Measure: The Life And Death Of The First Minnesota Volunteers

Category: History, Linkagery

Comments

10 Responses to “In The Mailbox: Pickett’s Charge and the Last Full Measure”

  1. Earl T
    July 3rd, 2015 @ 10:50 pm

    Of course, the Mississippi Greys were there, even if they didn’t participate in Longstreet’s Assault that day. They marched right into a regular “Cannae” at the Angle: Stannard’s Vermont troops on one flank, the 8th Ohio on the other. Unfortunately Longstreet was right: “No troops ever arrayed for battle could take that position.”

  2. Wombat_socho
    July 4th, 2015 @ 12:08 am

    It’s interesting to read Sears’ account of the battle; he seems to chalk up a lot of the blunders at Gettysburg to the unsettled command structure in Lee’s army, and Bobby Lee’s inability to get his new corps & division commanders to perform with the panache of Stonewall Jackson, among others. He does give Meade and his subordinates a lot of credit for being steady and not panicking, with a couple of exceptions.

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    July 4th, 2015 @ 3:15 am

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  5. Adobe_Walls
    July 4th, 2015 @ 11:17 pm

    Neither commander chose Gettysburg for what is surely the most important battle of the war possibly excepting Sharpsburg. If Lee had concentrated on keeping his army between the feds and Washington it would have been Meade who was forced to make desperate attacks.

  6. Wombat_socho
    July 5th, 2015 @ 12:58 am

    That’s certainly what Longstreet wanted, and we may thank God Lee disregarded his counsel. Otherwise, things would have gone (at best) as they did in the Gingrich and Forstchen trilogy.

  7. Adobe_Walls
    July 5th, 2015 @ 3:58 am

    This is why Sharpsburg is a possible exception as the most important battle. It was a tactical draw but should have been a strategic defeat for the south. This opens several possibilities.

  8. HaroldLDavis
    July 5th, 2015 @ 3:59 am

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  9. Adjoran
    July 6th, 2015 @ 5:21 am

    Gettysburg fits the larger pattern of key battles throughout history. I worked for one publisher who was a military history buff, and a voracious reader of the latest treatments of the great campaigns and battles going back to Alexander. After our almost daily conferences on business, he would invariably describe to me his latest read, and the fascinating details of these engagements that shaped the course of the world. Of course, it made my job a bit harder for the extra half hour he usually occupied with his animated narrations, but it was interesting.

    One thing we both noticed after a couple of years and several dozen scholarly accounts: military history is the story of mistakes. Few of the great victories were won by brilliant strategy or bold tactics; most were determined by sheer stupidity or sometimes just bad luck.

  10. Daniel Freeman
    July 6th, 2015 @ 10:25 pm

    “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” — Napoleon Bonaparte