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Dark Cloud
Brigadier General
USA
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 Posted - December 03 2004 : 6:37:05 PM
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Actually, virtually nothing is repeated. You don't read things that look wearying.
I assume you mean to anyone, and let's just say of the North regarding the South. The difference would be, as all that new information I hadn't posted before says: more accurate and lesser population figures for the South, numbers involved in the Slave Patrol precluding participation in Armies, lack of cohesion and trust between Confederate States, the substantial depth of financial instability, the intense and steadily increasing dislike for Davis when he tried to run a nation, the soft support for the Confederacy in general as opposed to that for the states, inability to feed itself, inability to sustain a long campaign outside own territory, inability to supply sufficient munitions, mounts, men, and equippage and clothing, fear of their own slaves, the shallowness of the rebel officer corps beneath the cream, and the surreal attitudes of Southern civilians when confronted with the end of the war they'd started. "Okay, fine. We'll go back to the way it was, then. Sheesh." |
Dark Cloud
copyright RL MacLeod
darkcloud@darkendeavors.com
www.darkendeavors.com
www.boulderlout.com |
Edited by - Dark Cloud on December 03 2004 6:38:12 PM |
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wILD I
Brigadier General
Ireland
Status: offline |
Posted - December 04 2004 : 07:00:00 AM
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I suppose DC that in the pantheon of rhetoric the God of hindsight reigns supreme.It is challenged by neither logic nor reason.It is not art and it is not bound by the rules of science and it does not require intelectual input.It is the refuge of as you say the "Monday morning quarterback, or as we say here the "hurler on the ditch"But it has one redeeming feature and that is honesty.Your elephantine bias has stripped it of that honesty.Your prejudice,selectivity and cherry picking allied to a large measure of Federal micawberism allows you to suggest that Bull Run and not Gettysburg was the decisive battle of the Civil War.
Selective hindsight renders such variables as chance and human nature irrelevant.A generious portion of micawberism will always guarantee the Federals that something will turn up.
Your improved census and finincial figures,Davis's unpopularity,the supply situation etc all failed to militate against a critical situation developing at Gettysburg.If memory serves me correctly it was by pure chance that an engineering officer finding the LRT undefended realised the the importance of it.It was Lee's stubborness which resulted in Picketts failure.If one is to use hindsight honestly chance and human nature must be taken into consideration.
You could go back to Bull Run and fight the whole war over again with the same result 99 times out of a hundred but on that hundredth occasion Lincoln might have been assassinated in May of 1863 and Stonewall might have survived. |
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Dark Cloud
Brigadier General
USA
Status: offline |
Posted - December 04 2004 : 11:00:39 AM
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If Stonewall had survived, the rebels might have actually used the pikes Jackson had had stored and his reputation shattered. There's ample reason to think him mad.
Yes, all the mystical 'what if's' might preclude a Warren from noticing large, empty and high spaces and Chamberlain from being stationed there and the battle lost. But no doubt, there were mystical moments that possibly prevented the North from winning on Day One, when Reynolds was killed. And a zillion other things of which we know nothing or the most memorable thing said was "So there, Fatty!" and was thereby forgot.
No, Wild, I do not say, have never said, that Bull Run was the "decisive" battle of the war. That was probably Vicksburg, if a battle rather than battles in aggregate are decisive. I have only said that in hindsight it's pretty obvious they South was losing the war (even if they won all the battles) from Day One (I chose Bull Run). They couldn't afford the wins much less the losses.
This is annoying to you because you want to think One Great Man and His Moment can change all, but there's always more to it. Custers and Stuarts are a dime a dozen, Lees are rare, Lincoln unique. |
Dark Cloud
copyright RL MacLeod
darkcloud@darkendeavors.com
www.darkendeavors.com
www.boulderlout.com |
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wILD I
Brigadier General
Ireland
Status: offline |
Posted - December 05 2004 : 09:12:11 AM
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As in the Bible DC you have kept the best wine till last.A veritable gem of a post with just the perfect blend of folksey philosophy,hindsight and oxymoron.
Exit stage left a suicidal wILD I.
Mumble
Mumble
Mumble
Offstage.....................BANG |
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wILD I
Brigadier General
Ireland
Status: offline |
Posted - December 06 2004 : 07:24:26 AM
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Did they play the last post and corus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest.
I have come not to bury wILD I
But to praise him
Well done Warlord |
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Bhist on the History Channel
