I am reminded that today one of the seminal military actions in US history occurred. By this time (5:22 p.m.) on July 2, 1863, Joshua Chamberlin has successfully defended Little Round Top and John Bell Hood was in the hospital, losing an arm.
Armchair historians and military buffs have long debated and will long speculate on what might have happened if General Lee had let Hood swing to the right and get behind the Union army. That speculation is all nonsense, because that didn't happen. Hood went up the hill and Chamberlin fought him off.
On the morrow, Pickett will launch his division into history and the retreat from Gettysburg will mark the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.
It is good to remember these things.
4 comments:
...and William Oates who led the 15th Alabama uphill against Chamberlain's men still had his arm. He wouldn't lose it till later at Fussell's Mills (near Petersburg, Virginia), while commanding the 48th Alabama to the "hard blow" of a Yankee minie ball on August 16, 1864.
Oates and Chamberlains lives are compared and contrasted in the book "Conceived in Liberty" as typical of men of the South and North respectively. My wife accidentally bought me that book a few years ago thinking it was the new Lewis and Clark book. I kept it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Really a great read.
Most know about Chamberlain's service as Governor of Maine. Fewer know of Lt Col Oates significant role in the rise of the post-reconstruction South. He was a US Senator who helped architect the strategy to take back control of the South from the Republicans.
http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/getttour/sidebar/genoates.htm
An excellent reminder, I need to go back and find my books on the CIvil War and reread them again.
John Bell Hood was a fighting son of a gun! He's buried in New Orleans.
And the FedGov won the war and it's all been downhill ever since.
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