The Gettysburg campaign...

[SlowwHand]

And I mean either, Boris.

[Boris Godunov]

What strategy did Jackson create? I've only read of his skill as a tactitian, and yes, he was quite brilliant in this regard. But I've not read anything about him taking part in strategy...

[Chris 62]

Inferior, for a simple reason.

Stonewall had a notorius weakness, he loved to SLEEP.

He couldn't function unless he got a decent night's rest, this appears in several campaigns, but when he was rested, WATCH OUT.Also, he had problems both getting along and picking subordinates.

He inspired his men to amazing feats in forced marches, his 'Flying infantry" was something to behold (as many of them lacked shoes! )

His own knickname, given by Bernard bee, is believed to have been scarcastic, not a sign of affection (we will never know the truth, Bee was killed at first bull run).

http://www.civilwarhome.com/jackbio.htm

[Chris 62]

Originally posted by jimmytrick
If you know Lee's campaigns well enough to break them down and do not consider him a great general then I see no point in trying to change your mind.

That is another misdirection attempt, if you believe your position, say why.

We can debate forever and I would be glad to discuss it but you seem to be more interested in winning an argument than stimulating conversation.

nonsense.
Your now attempting to read my mind.
I said why I believe as i do, I ask you to do the same.

Greatness is in the eye of the beholder. Napoleon took 450,000 men into Russia and only 20,000 came back home. I could easily find fault with his greatness in that. You can then list all of his great qualities and so forth. More than willing to discuss it but no argument for me.

And he lost, but it's also true that few of that army was French, and that Boney didn't give a fig that it was lost.

Now, I find it interesting that you seem to believe that it was possible that France and England might have recognized the South if Lee had won at Sharpsburg. Do you believe that war could have actually broken out between these nations and the North?

Not war, but Napoleon the III was looking for an excuse to recognize the confederacy, and a crushing victory would have swayed the more cautious British into a join recognition declaration, and that would have meant active European support (naval facilities, munitions, loans, ect, and the Confederacy would not support the Monroe doctrone, giving the French a free hand in Mexico, where they did try to install a European puppet, Maximillian).

The question in my mind is what might have happened if Lee had won at Gettysburg.

Something similar to the baove answer, BUT only if Lee followed up a win with a rout, somthing he was loathe to do time and again.

[Capt Dizle]

Jackson was a narcoleptic. That is an illness. Of course that he suffered from that disorder could have been an assumption by historians.

Jackson was a religious fundamentalist who believed in being faithful to his duty before God and that his particular duty to God was to give them the bayonet.

His relations with his subordinates often surfaced when he did not percieve in them the same level of fanaticism towards duty that he did. I don't know that it was a weakness, in fact, I would say his insistence on getting more out of his men than they thought they could give was a large reason for his success.

[Chris 62]

Maybe so, but he was sorely missed at Gettysburg.

[Capt Dizle]

Also, lest Chris's comment about Jackson loving to sleep leave any wrong impression, ....

It was often said that Jackson did more before breakfast than other generals did all day and that he thought dawn was one minute after midnight.

So maybe he just drove himself into exhastion from time to time, a fruit of his fanaticism.

[Jon Miller]

Jackson did strategy in one campaign

Jon Miller

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by Chris 62
Maybe so, but he was sorely missed at Gettysburg.

Yes, most feel he would have taken more of the high ground in the first day's fight.

I also believe that Lee was loathe to attempt a flanking movement against the Federal left because it would have required splitting his forces to a large degree. This was something he might have been more willing to do if Jackson was present.

[Chris 62]

He should have attacked the federal right, his own left, and Lee is the harshest critic of Jackson's lethargy, it drove him to distraction, so it has nothing to do with me.

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
Jackson did strategy in one campaign

Jon Miller

He was in an independant command during the Valley Campaign and he performed magnificently. Still much of that was tactical and he never had the level of field command to demostrate his strategic ability sufficiently to know if he would have been great enough to lose 430,000 troops in Russia without giving a hoot.



Sorry Chris

[Chris 62]

About what?

If your trying to equate the Shendoah campaign to the Napoleonic wars, that reaches into the absurd.

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by Chris 62
He should have attacked the federal right, his own left, and Lee is the harshest critic of Jackson's lethargy, it drove him to distraction, so it has nothing to do with me.

Hmm, to get behind the round tops Hood wanted to move to the right, the Confederate right, the Federal left.

[Dr Strangelove]

Meade was yet another cautious Union general. Even if the Confederate forces had managed to take Cemetary Ridge he would have fallen back and re-grouped. Lee would have been faced with a victory that he couldn't really follow up on. If he pursued Meade he would have risked getting his army cut off and possibly having the war end then and there with the obliteration of his army.

The Confederacy was a lost cause from the moment of its conception. Those who ruminate over the "might have beens" for this lost cause are losers too.

Harry Turtledove is ( or is it was? ) nothing more than an aging psychopath suffering from paranoid delusions.

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Meade was yet another cautious Union general. Even if the Confederate forces had managed to take Cemetary Ridge he would have fallen back and re-grouped. Lee would have been faced with a victory that he couldn't really follow up on. If he pursued Meade he would have risked getting his army cut off and possibly having the war end then and there with the obliteration of his army.

The Confederacy was a lost cause from the moment of its conception. Those who ruminate over the "might have beens" for this lost cause are losers too.

Harry Turtledove is ( or is it was? ) nothing more than an aging psychopath suffering from paranoid delusions.

I am pretty sure you just called me a loser and in response I want to simply say that I am not Harry Turtledove. Whoever the hell he is.