GDT: Kracken at your Buffalo Sabres—4pm Eastern—MSG, ESPN+, and WGR 550

[Pimlach]

 

[LGR4GM]

2 hours ago, JohnC said:

Excellent analysis and summarization. As you well know, the military historians have feasted on the issues that you noted about the abilities of the generals and battlefield strategies. As you point out, there was no question that Lee was recklessly bold in his attempt to get a win, as much for political purposes as for military reasons. He was determined to get a knockout blow in the north with the hope that it would have a demoralizing political effect. Looking back, the union flanks held, although close to being breached, and pummeled Lee's major force in the middle. As I stated before, although being battered, the rebs did have a breakthrough at the triangle (middle) but didn't have enough manpower to follow through.  

As brutal the Gettysburg Battle was, Antietam was even more brutal proportionally per day and location. McClellan was the union general. Many historians believe that if he would have been more aggressive sooner, he could have dealt a decisive blow to Lee and his forces. Allowing Lee to escape over the Potomac River in the night allowed the Confederates to head back south and regroup. Maybe??? if McClellan could have destroyed Lee's army to a greater extent, Gettysburg would not have happened. 

There is any interesting parallel regarding the military and hockey franchises. It relates to getting the right people in place to lead. If you get that wrong, you fail. The Sabres are a classic example of that. 

 

 

I will say this. If round top falls at 430pm on the 2nd, it is most likely retaken that evening. There would have been only 4 regiments on the hill with no support. If not and they take round top and hold that end of the line, Meade would have withdrawn his army down the Baltimore Pike in the night. 

The problem most Civil War commanders have is they suffer from the idea of the "decisive blow" when they lived in an era where they lacked the ability to do that. Let's switch all the way over to Chickamauga where due to stuff, the entire left flank of the Army of the Cumberland is literally put to rout. Even then, with supporting units and everything, they dont get a death blow because other units either held long enough or regrouped elsewhere. It was just too hard to logistically annihilate an entire army at that time. With battlefields being miles upon miles long, and no way to quickly send orders, you could destroy one area but by the time you moved on to a new one, they had withdrawn or redeployed. Gettysburg is another example, on day 1 the 11th corps is routed north of town and yet due to how long it takes and the need to attack, reform, and then attack again, the confederates are unable to even destroy the 11th corps. Same thing at the wilderness or Chancellorsville, where oddly the 11th was also screwed and the 12th ended up stemming the tide. 

I think Chickamauga is probably the best example of an army being "destroyed" to the extent that it could be. We could also say that at the end of the battle of Chattanooga, the Union came as close as possible to destroying an army and yet the survivors would reform and make up Hood's army that defended Atlanta and broke itself at Nashville.  

It really takes until WWII for entire army groups to be surrounded and destroyed. This was the German plan for the Bulge but the 99th and 2nd divisions decided to just not let them. 

Anyways,