A Gettysburg tourguide explains a myth and how he disproves it. The myth is that Pickett's Charge failed because the confederate cannon bombardment failed.
Attacking a fortifiied position across open ground didnt work at Fredricksburg, Cold Harbor, Vicksburg, Franklin, Kennesaw Mt, Corinth, Helena, etc, etc. There were other factors working against the attack's success but bottom line, It was a bad decision on Lee's part.
@@ambrosephill9 Lee was blind and deaf to the enemy’s disposition because JEB Stewart was continuously thwarted from linking up with his commander. Why? The 1st Michigan Cavalry, under the command of BG George Armstrong Custer, whose orders were simply to keep Stewart away from Gettysburg, and that’s what he did for two days. Stewart’s cavalry had been heretofore undefeated in the war and pretty much rode roughshod over his Union classmates from West Point. He was defeated by a better cavalryman than he was and he knew it. Stewart never recovered from this defeat. His confidence was shot, as was Lee’s confidence in him.
I always liked Picketts answer why he thought it failed, He said maybe the yankees had something to do with it. Maybe not his exact words but basically what he said.
Pickett's charge failed for the same reason previous Union attacks over open fields against well dug in positions failed. Rifles are not smooth bore muskets and fighting with Napoleonic tactics was suicide.
Wow this was interesting. I always admired Alonzo Cushing for his guts at Picket's Charge, but the ranger put even more insight into Cushing's heroism during the fight.
Alonzo Cushing was a 22-year-old MAN who was a graduate of West Point. Bayard Wilkenson was a NINETEEN-year-old man who stood up against Jubal Early. THAT young man was wounded in the field and he kept at his position when his leg was mangled by an Artillery shell. He had the guts to amputate his OWN leg and kept fighting! What would NINETEEN year old do that today?
A 19 year today would rise to the occasion, as 19 year olds in every time in history have risen as life demanded it. I imagine there were elders who, when talking around the commons and taverns of the time, would question the capabilities and bravery of 19 year olds like Alonzo Cushing. The real question is where were those people during Gettysburg? For that matter, sir, what are you doing that is exceptional today? It has become vogue to throw stones at glass houses - pray you remember that.
I was an Field Artillery Officer at 22, just like Cushing was, and that was in 2008. Just because the Confederates managed to hit Meade's HQ and disable some of Cushing's guns does not mean that they were accurate, it means that they were lucky. Hitting a target the size of a car at a range over two miles without the aid of the ranging instruments and sights we have today is a very hard feat; even with modern equipment its still pretty hard (unless you are lasing the target and the location data for the guns is spot on). A big problem the Confederate artillery had a Gettysburg is that the fuses they were using were not burning at the correct speed giving the round around 2-3 seconds of additional flight time before the fuse burst the shell (The Confederate Ordinance Dept conducted an investigation in the fall of 63 and the fuse problem was correct by February 64). With that extra flight time that's about 300-500 yards past the target if the round is supposed to explode above the target or the round is burying itself in the dirt and not doing much damage. The Confederate artillery failed in its mission to clear the Union cannon off the ridge and to break up the infantry formations because they were inaccurate. The Union artillery on the other hand didn't fully engage until the Confederates began their assault. Not only was the guns on Cemetery Ridge engaging, but ones on Cemetery Hill and as far south as the slopes of Little Round Top were too. The Confederates were in effectively a cross fire going across that field. Could the Charge had succeeded if the Confederate artillery had accomplished its mission? Maybe. Unless Lee launched further attacks on Cemetery and Culps Hills I don't think what was left of Pickett and Pettigrew's divisions could have held an Union counterattack. Wright's Georgia Brigade of Anderson's Division did take Cemetery Ridge along with 20 cannon the day before, but had to abandon the position because it was unsupported, so the charge succeeding was possible.
The real reason it failed is very simple. Lee tried to out guess Mead, he figured Mead would have the bulk on the flanks. Mead for once guessed correct they were coming in the middle. Lee reminds me of Montgomery when told of the German SS armor in market garden he down played it. Lee made a huge mistake and no artillery bombardment was going to change the outcome.
I've got to give the credit for a Union victory to the Yankee Cavalry. Buford held the high ground on the first day, and Custer made his first in a series of moronic suicidal attacks on Stuarts Cavalry that prevented Stuart from joining in on Picketts charge from the rear.
Note that Cushing moved forward. He was near the top of the hill and caught those rounds which did not clear it. However, there was little impact on the infantry which was near the base of the hill behind the wall. In going forward, Cushing was actually moving out of the bulls-eye.
Pickett's charge may have failed in part due to the lack of effectiveness of the Confederate bombardment, but even that was part of Lee's plan to weaken and divert the Union center whie Jeb Stuart's 6,000 plus cavalry were supposed to flank the union center from behind. Read 'Lost Triumph'. A relatively unknown, young, cocky union cavalry general George Custer lead some 3,000 Michigan cavalry soldiers to slow Jeb Stuart from getting to within a mile of the rear of the union defenses, holding them to a standstill, so Pickett's 13,000 man charge was broken up, disorganized, or otherwise shredded to pieces because Custer held up Stewart at the area they now call east cavalry battlefield. If Jeb Stewart had attacked the fish hook from behind, they would have split the union line in half, rolled them up and crushed them, and marched on to Washington with an offer Lincoln could not refuse. It almost worked, and would have changed the course of history.
Just wanted to add a part to Objective 1 Silence Union batteries. Brig. Gen. Henry J. Hunt did order the cease fire to conserve ammunition for the coming assault but to do so slowly to create the illusion that their canons were being destroyed one by one due to the heavy smoke on the field.
"You're badly wounded. Leave the battlefield." "In a minute sir. The fight's not over and I have two guns left." He sounds like the kind of guy who could be down to a bread knife and throwing rocks and still not want to fall back.
In that day and age, you were considered an adult, and had better start acting like it when you hit puberty. Now they're coddled until their 30's and 40's. My Father was murdered when I was 15, went to bed the night before a teenager. Went to bed the next night head of the household for 7 people.
Of course Lee wanted battle. You just cannot bring yourself to admit that your favorite general lost the campaign, so, like Lee himself in his AFTER-battle report, play up supplies he procured and play down the catastrophe in losses he suffered in PA with little to show for it. The main purpose of Lee's invasion was to bring the AoP to battle and inflict a decisive victory (not inconclusive like F-burg or C-ville), in enemy country where it would have the most political impact in DC and London
Something else that affected the Confederate cannon fire is that fuses for their shells were made in several factories. Fuses made in one factory burned at a different rate than fuses made in the other factories.
This is true...The fact is that the main armament factory of the Confederacy exploded, the confederate gunners were using new fuses that burned at a different rate, causing the overshoots
yes, if you remember the 'sunken road' became the 'bloody lane' and the union finally pierced it. Once Armistead pierced the lines, yes, i think you're right, with another brigade behind him it may've been different. But i'm still baffled that Lee didn't learn from Fredericksburg --- as LONGSTREET did.. Longstreet knew the frontal assault would fail.
Lee was an egomaniac who at this stage of the war believed the Southern propaganda about his invincibility. He had no problem sending thousands of young men into a meat grinder, as long he won another of his "God given" miraculous victories. Well, in this case things did not work out. Longstreet had a much clearer understanding of the situation. He was not swayed by the "cult of personality" built up around his superior.
On July 2nd Wright's Georgia Brigade from AP Hill's Corps actually took Cemetery Ridge along with 20 cannon just to the south of The Angle. Wright withdrew because the two brigades that were supposed to be supporting him didn't move into position. It is believed that Lee got the idea to assault Cemetery Ridge from Wright's after action report.
I've always been amazed why the attack did not use the smoke as a great advantage and attack through it.. Not attack after bombardment but attack during bombardment!!
Picketts Charge failed because there were very few competent generals in the Confederate army. This includes the leader of the Army of Northern Virginia.
if you have ever been to gettysburg and saw the lay of the land at the origin of Pickett's charge as opposed to their desired destination artillery out of ammo or not those boys had balls of steel
The charge failed because longstreet would not send them foward, Gen alexander (cheif of artiely ) sent word to Longstreet at 1 ;35 pm Send them foward, Im running low on ammo, the charge went off after 4 pm, any questions ??
Note: When these over 200 cannons were firing at each other at once it could be heard in WASHINGTON D.C.! Literally! over 80 miles away. Note: It was the loudest man made sound until the test detination of the atomic bomb!! Imagine being in the middle of that.
Messines Ridge, WW I. Probably not as loud as some of the cannonades during the Napolenonic Wars. 400+ combined guns at Waterloo, 2200 at Battle of Leipzig, 1200 at Borodino, Also, there were huge cannonades in WW I. From Wikipedia on the first day of the Battle of the SOmme "On 1 July, another 250,000 shells were fired; the guns could be heard on Hampstead Heath, 165 mi (266 km) away. "
@@jameshorn270 "In what is sometimes described as the largest artillery bombardment in history, the Soviets opened the road to Berlin in 1945 at the Battle of Seelow Heights with a massive barrage that saw over 9,000 Soviet guns and rockets firing along a front approximately 18.5 miles long. That's one artillery piece every 11 feet"
One thing everyone seems to forget including this guy, is that Confederate artillery had bootleg fuses. The guns they used were just as good as Union guns, but the fuses they used were garbage.
One must note that Union valor was not alone on that field. It took a hell of a lot of courage to make that charge across the open expanse. I have walked the charge many times. There was absolutely NO place to hide. The experienced advantage of strong interior lines behind a stone wall of considerable elevation at Fredricksburg, was perhaps forgotten by Gen. Lee on July 3rd 1863. The center, while not inpenetratable, was quite easily reinforced. An err in judgement, and quite simply a tragedy.
Longstreet knew it, he carefully set up the defense of Maryes heights at Friedricksburg. It may have been an overestimation of Southern soldiery on Lee’s part (arrogance), or an underestimation of the resolve that was building within the Union ranks after being so poorly lead in so many previous battles.
This is inaccurate. The only reason these 6 guns were hit is because with the exception of the guns on cemetary hill, these are the only guns on the line that were firing. When they fired, the confederates could see the blast and it gave them something to aim at. Everywhere else, the majority of the confederate fire was overshooting. When the Confederate infantry advanced, the intact Union guns along the entire length of the line slaughtered them. So yeah, the Confederate bombardment failed.
Rebel, thanks for the ref to the Longstreet book. Do you think that Lee did well at Gettysburg? Should Lee not have moved after the first day & taken a defensible position somewhere, & let Meade try to attack him there?
To clarify my previous comment it was a Catholic Priest with predominately Catholic units that you hear the most about giving last rights to the men. The most famous example was Father William Corby. He rode out an gave the Irish brigade "general absolution". he did this with non Catholics as well. he is famous for giving the remnants of the Irish Brigade (only about 580 men in the entire brigade) last rights from upon a boulder at Gettysburg, and they tore up a rebel brigade 4 or 5x their size.
I heard a study that showed the Confederates had a severe logistic problem, not an accuracy problem. While the view was obscured once enough smoke was in the air they only needed to keep firing using the same setting on the gun elevation. The Confederates used cannon balls that had paper fuses. They were used to time the shell to explode just over the heads of the Union soldiers killing them with shrapnel. The gunners all used the same template to cut the fuse to the correct length. But the fuses were made at three different factories and there was no coordinated quality control between the factories. The result was fuses that burned at the different rates cut to the same length. So roughly 1/3 of the shells exploded harmlessly short of the Union line. Roughly 1/3 of the shells exploded effectively over the heads of the Union troops. Finally roughly 1/3 of the shells exploded after hitting the ground. Those that hit earth where the ground was soft enough, the ground there is very rocky, exploded with most of the force and shrapnel shooting harmlessly straight up into the air. About 2/3s of the artillery may as well not have fired at all. Marching for a mile to an entrenched enemy while exposed to their artillery was a tactical bad idea that good fuses may not have overcome.
As a historian watching this video pisses me off. Sometimes I think all the time reading, researching, fact checking as we write books about the truth. The wrong information always seems to outweigh the truth.
John Ritcher your correct 22 in the 1860's was a mature man. The VMI Cadets at New Market that took the hill and won the day for the South we're Children. But the North also had babies fighting at Fredericksburg and they pretty much children some as young as 14 never fired a shot and died because Burnside was a idiot. Why both sides fought European style is beyond me. Nathan Bedford Forrest didn't have many men but won because he didn't go to West Point and fought gurellia war fare and he captured over 30,000 Union Troops because he was just a natural genius. After Cold Harbor and Southern trenches that was the last battle fought European Style. The technology made that obsolete. But it was all the West Pointers knew until Forrest showed both sides that was just a waste of Good men.
22 a child is typical millennial thought; they believe a person isn't an adult until they reach 25 and their brains are fully formed... and when they've (finally) finished school, gotten a job, and Mommy and Daddy aren't taking care of them anymore. I was married at 22, had spent 3 years in the Navy, and was driving a tractor-trailer cross country. I sure as hell didn't consider myself a child, although looking back from 68 I sure as hell was an immature young man.
Lee should have listened to Stuart and Longsteet. The Union had the same defense that the Confederate's did at Fredricksburg. It was a no win situation. Lee was trying to win the war at Gettysburg and it's hard to blame him because the longer the war the more good men died and Lee knew he couldn't attack much longer. That's why he choose to fight in the Wilderness instead of in the open. And dig trenches which caused the death of so many Union Soldiers at Cold Harbor.
@breezeman199 It's cause most of the men were Irish. They don't run. The unit holding the line was the Philadelphia Brigade. The 69th Penn. was almost all Irish, hence the Irish flag. Irish made up a significant portion of the other regiments of the Brigade.
There was a dispute over artillery usage in the CW between infantry and artillery officers. Hunt wanted to save rounds to fire at the enemy advance . Hancock wanted the guns to keep firing to boost the morale of his infantry. That's why Cushing's guns kept firing. Hancock complained to Meade about Hunt and Meade took his side. The reb arty stopped firing out of a combo of belief in success and running out of ammo. They couldn't fire when the infantry was advancing in front of them anyways.
charging over a mile of open ground under artillery fire, almost entirely unsupported by their own artillery. Yes, a barrage is hard to endure, but he forgets the Confederates had themselves lost over 500 infantry during the barrage. Not to mention that many of the Confederate artillery were not even engaged or had minimal ammunition. The only thing this kid has proven is that his erroneous conclusions are based on tiny sample sizes with little to no effect on the entire battle.
KestoSS2 Then there was the problem of the fence, as well as the basic fact that Union lines of communication and support were much shorter than the Confederate lines. All one has to see is a map of the lines.
You make some good points. Artillery was still essentially a defensive instrument, effective in breaking up infantry attacks. Not so good being used offensively though. If you ever get the chance check out Gettysburg, well worth the visit.
It depends on how it was used.... Napoleon often used his artillery quite effectively to assist his attacks! Only at waterloo after 24 hrs of rain was his artillery rendered ineffectual
Not really. Artillery was extremely effective in the attack - especially by the time of the American Civil war. Artillery rifles were very accurate and fuses and air burst munitions were quite modern.
@@mikeborgmann Right, and that was because the horses could not move the guns quickly enough through the mud to support advancing infantry. The mud also hampered cavalry attacks. The horses became exhausted very quickly and many simply refused to move.
Yes the visibility was a serious issue in regard to aiming your field piece,so was the fact the the CSA fuses were not as reliable as those of the USA...
The foundry in Richmond had caught fire and they had to get their ammunition from Georgia and the quality wasn't as good. Not sure what this guy is saying yes I'm sure there were some direct hits but on the whole much of the confederate cannon fire didn't hit. At least nothing substantial.
My son and I walked Pickett’s Charge starting at the Virginia Memorial and ending at the High Water Mark. Then we walked back. He actually walked backwards to the Virginia Memorial. What a sight!
very interesting. wonder what would have happened if the Confederate artillery to the north, in town, had not ran out of ammunition early. I think they were having a greater effect, according to battle reports, than the artillery to the front.
The other part of this that people miss is a HUGE mistake Lee made. Longstreet argued with Lee about attacking the left because the men positioned there were so beat up and tired fro m earlier fighting. Well, Lee has to except Longstreet's report on the shape of the men so he changes his orders to attack the center. He changes it to the center because the men there are fresh. Moving all those fresh men to the left would take half a day so Lee had to choose to attack the center. This is where he screwed up bad and most people don't know. In the attack of the left he would have Ewell attack Culps Hill in support. But then Lee changes his orders to attack the center but he DOESN'T tell Ewell to call off his attack on Culps Hill. Lee forgot to tell him. So, not knowing, Ewell attacks Culps Hiill completely on his own and his men get UTTERLY DESTROYED!! It was unknown suicide for those men! They were demolished! With Pickett's charge. For the rest of his life General Pickett hated Lee for what happened to his men. He was furious because his men not got support that he was sure Lee would send in to help. Pickett did not realize it was going to be one line and that is it. It was unthinkable to him. He would have argued had he known that. Think about it. O.K. General Lee has decided on this bold move to attack and destroy them right here. O.K. so, first line goes in and then Lee will send in more for support. It makes sense, if your gonna try something this risky surely your gonna throw every man at them that you have but..........................no. He left our boys to go beat the whole damn Union army! Pickett's famous quote was, in reguards to Lee and the charge, he had my men murdered!! That ate at Pickett for the rest of his life. From that day on he didn't exactly have the warmest feelings towards Lee. Ewell didn't exactly ever love Lee again either for FORGETTING to tell him the attack was off and thus his men got slaughtered!
Pickett's charge failed because as Longstreet allegedly said, no 15,000 men could take then hill in 1863. Hell, 200,000 men couldn't cross a mile of territory after a week of bombardment in 1916 and take a hill. Agree with everyone that the bombardment was a failure. As Porter Alexander said when he visited G'burg for the first time in 1880 (IIRC) and actually saw Cemetery Hill for the first time, "we should have attacked that hill; we would've had enfilading fire from two directions."
cushing got shot up pretty bad. i own a bike tour company here in gettysburg and my main guide is a fan of cushing's bravery. he got shot in the groin and still remained until a bullet went into his mouth and ended his life. brave dudes back then.
It's unfortunate the park has people who are so misinformed educating people about the fighting. The artillery fire DID fail and it wasn't the smoke. The factory where the fuses were made for the confederate artillery burned down. They had to buy them from somewhere else. That very old style fuse was not made to a perfect science. These fuses were different. They knew this before the battle. They were having major problems with accuracy all of a sudden and this was reported up the chain. They decided to have a day spent on testing and working with artillery to figure what was wrong. Picketts charge was on the 3rd, but the day scheduled to inspect, test and figure out the problem with the artillery wasn't until the 10th. Now yes, the smoke hung on the field VERY heavy that day because there was NO wind. It is well documented that it was a very humid day and "not a leaf moved fr4om sun up to sundown." There was no wind at all. So, between the fuses and the wind it was a disaster. It was a very bad decision to order 160 cannons to open fire on the union. They knew their guns were way off for some reason and that with the smoke they would not be able to adjust. This is why so many officers were against the attack of Picketts charge. Longstreet knew all of the conditions were against them. The Union stopped their cannon fire and waited for the rebs to get closer. A canister shot held on average 25 iron balls that would spray out everywhere. One iron ball could pass through 4 men with ease! Within 50 yards it could pass through "about" 11 men. Just one union cannon shot at fifty yards could easily kill 100 men! People have been trying to pin the blame for this on Pickett but that's not true. Lee has become this southern god to the point that he had no blame ever only credit. The truth is that Picketts charge was Lee's fault! Longstreet tried to fight Lee over it. Most of the officers were against it as well. With an insane attack like that Lee should have sent ALL his men on that attack or none at all. He gave the Union over 2 hours to get their men positioned and ready. At any point Mead could slide 5,000 men in to help his line within 5 minutes easily because his line was almost a full circle.
tom thorn The union was always fighting with one hand behind their back. They had the manpower and war materials, just not at first good leaders. Lee wasnt stupid and knew all of this and knew it would take drastic measures and chances to win the war.
I agree with you on one hand behind their back. They were. That's a line out of the Civil War doc. from Ken Burns. Yes they had one hand behind their back in the sense that the North had never come close to using a draft and forcing people in. They also had some lousy men in charge for a good while, which made Lee look so good. Not that Lee really was as great as the South has built him up to be but when your facing lousy commanders it is easy to look great! There were no less than 4 times early in the war when the North had Lee for the defeat but lousy commanders simply blew it! Once they had Lee's army split in two, confused, rattled and ready for the knock out punch to end the war and a lousy commander blew it! His army was split and three quarters had no supplies with many of them out of ammo and still blew it! The force that Grant had as he took control was more than 4 times what the South had. He knew and used a very sensible strategy. I am going to hit him and fight him. When he backs off I am not going to let him. I am going to hit him again, and again and again until I break them! He did exactly that. That has NOTHING to do with Pickett's charge! When Lee made his plan the night before he was going to attack the left again with around 15,400 men. When he told Longstreet to do this Longstreet said no I can't do this the two units facing them are beat up so bad they can't fight. They need rest. ON THE SPOT Lee was willing to give on that point because moving that many men into position to replace those two divisions would take half the day and the Union would see every move. Lee then said, o.k. you are going to use two other divisions and they are in the center. You will then attack the center and break them. And we will win the war. The problem was as Longstreet told him they are now lined in an almost complete circle due to two roads they were using. We come out in a straight line in open field with almost a mile to walk they will simply flow 6,000 men in behind to support a very strong line protected by a wall. But before that there is a fence they will also meet that they can't push down, they will have to climb over it. As soon as the men came out from the trees the Union would and DID open fire on them with artillery from three sides! As Dickson wrote in his journal about his artillery firing on the South when they came out he said "We couldn't help but to hit them with EVERY shot!" They would easily take out 15 men with one shot. When they reached the fence they were getting shot from well over 13,000 men firing as fast as they could. Not to mention they were taking solid shot. That is a solid canon ball being using like a bowling ball moving 700 feet per second!! One shot could easily take out 18 to 20 men!! Then canister fire which was like a giant shotgun! 15 solid iron balls would fire from a canon that could kill WELL over 30 men depending on the depth of your line! This is ALL before the South had a chance to fire a single rifle!!! They were being hit like that for OVER 20 MINUTES!! This, and they had less than 15,000 men to march over 20 minutes, take ALL that fire, hit the union line, which now has over 20,000 men all loaded aimed and ready to fight behind a rock wall for a good majority of them! And by the way, the North just simply flanked them and began shooting into them from three sides!! Lee said it would work because the artillery attack would break them. It took them hours to get over 160 canons lined up side by side in a line that was almost two miles wide! Both Lee and Longstreet knew that they were having major problems with the accuracy of the canons because Lee had met with his men and decided to run a day long test and inspection on the artillery to figure out what was wrong with them. The test Lee scheduled was for the 10th! This was the 3rd!! He also knew that with the weather they would NOT be able to see shit once the firing started! Why? It was a bad day with NO breeze. You depend on breeze to clear smoke. That day was miserable. It was very hot, the humidity was off the charts and there was NO breeze!! There are many journal writings and town records for that! They liked to comment that there wasn't a leaf within 50 miles that moved that day. So once you aim your first shot you just have to hope you hit something because they fired for nearly 2 hours and couldn't see a thing!! All while knowing your artillery is bad for some reason! The said "We can't hit the wide side of a barn from INSIDE the barn!" That's a major artillery problem! PLUS these guys were in wool uniforms in miserable heat marching almost a mile before they could fire a shot! THIS is why Longstreet argued with Lee about the attack. Now, to be fair, we only have Longstreets version of the argument so he could have exaggerated how long he argued, that must be said however, it was not just Longstreet that was against the charge! From what we know, damn near EVERY officer was against the charge. Soldiers can't really say because they don't have any of the details or even know about the artillery. A problem like that is something you keep very quiet. Everybody else knew! The part the movie got right was when Pickett asked Longstreet "do you want me to order the charge, Longstreet couldn't lift his head, look at him or even speak. He just shook his head a little and Pickett got his yes. Longstreet KNEW there was no chance in HELL that this charge was going to work! To make things worse, artillery did not follow orders to hold back ammo some to support the charge! When they made the charge the artillery was spent. They had no support on the nearly one mile march! Lee knew after the charge that he had lost far too many men BUT that wasn't the killer! The number of ranked men, high and low, he knew was something he could NEVER recover from. He knew he could never replace so many good ranked men. The South was broke after that. THAT is why Lee wrote the letter to Davis to offer his resignation! He knew just how badly he screwed up! Now, I'm finishing my book on this but his letter to Davis was VERY telling and is looked over by far too many historians. Lee refers to Davis finding a man in better health, Lee's heart problems were getting much worse. He had already had one major heart attack forcing him to conduct a battle while in bed in his tent. He also referenced finding someone mentally stronger. We know that Lee had a temper that was growing nastier as the war went on. We can also see as Longstreet wrote that there were times when he was talking to Lee and his mind seemed to wonder off and then come back. Now, Longstreet NEVER made ANY comment that Lee had mental problems nor did anyone else, let me be clear, but we can see there appeared to be something going on with him as the war went on. After Gettysburg that day and the next 4 people tried having a conversation with Lee but he seemed to keep drifting off in his mind during conversation which all 4 men wrote about and they just walked away from him. The question is WHY did Lee make such a bad move at Gettysburg? Not just the charge but all three days. He had NO knowledge of his enemy numbers or position, yet THIS is when he really tries to bet it all on one fight? Why not move around? At the least wait for a time when your "eyes and ears of the army" is actually AROUND SOMEWHERE to help you? Why do it when you KNOW your artillery is VERY badly off for a reason they had not yet discovered?
The North never became desperate in need of men, money, guns, supplies, while the South ran out of everything. Not just the army but the South itself was broke. Look up what a bag of flour cost around the time of Gettysburg! In todays dollars, a bag of flour went up over 500 dollars! Confederate money, which flowed fast at first, wasn't worth the paper it was printed on three quarters of the way thru the war because EVERYBODY knew the South could not win! They weren't trying to win. They were trying to get a peace agreement to end the war. They knew they were not going to beat the North. They knew the North would not surrender. They were hoping voters would turn against the war in the North and force the president to sign a peace deal will Davis. Lee, Davis, Longstreet and the rest of them knew when Lincoln was reelected their chance of getting a peace deal was slim to none! Their effort to win the war in the press failed and they knew it.
Was your great grand dad there when the Brigade was so sadly depleted that they numbered only about 580 at Gettysburg? They numbered the same as the largest regiment of the entire brigade they tore to shreds. THAT'S guts. I have Irish from both sides of my family a few generations ago. They were in the Saint Patrick Battalion. Irish bravery is seemingly unmatched. Now THAT'S one war the Irish truly understood. Martyrs for freedom.
My Great Great Grandfather James McPeak volunteered for the 69th PA and fought at Gettysburg and faced Pickett's Charge - he eventually returned to Ireland and is buried in Newbridge Co Derry - I think only one other volunteer from the 69th PA made it back to Ireland - think his name was Maynes from Ballyronan - lot of respect for all the brave soldiers on both sides
@@rickonline777 Of all the regiments that faced attacks like that, it's always the Irish regiments that hold the longest until it becomes hopeless and were going to be surrounded and destroyed if they didn't eventually fall back. At Bull Run, it was the 69th New York that kept unit cohesion when all the others broke and ran. Lots of respect for your grand dad. I don't think making it back to Ireland was a priority to most of the volunteers as they went to the US to start a new life, and not fight a war. The war just happened and they volunteered more to show their loyalty to their new nation and they EARNED it. Sadly it took the sacrifice of many Irish boys to earn the respect of a nation, a people ( Protestants ) that they were never able to get back in the UK no matter how much they gave. Now many have sort of "adopted" aspects of being Irish, especially going nuts on Saint Patrick's Day. Now people want to BE Irish when they aren't. That was not something that happened prior to the Civil War were along with freed black folk and the Chinese, they could not find work because, as while as the Irish are, they (we) were not seen as white. Hell, I'm Hispanic and my birth certificate says I'm white, yet people have issues imagining that Hispanics are not a race but a large ethnic group within the while, black and asian and indigenous races. Because of my Irish, and touch of French family history, I am Hispanic but glow in the dark white. 🤣🤣🤣 Sorry about rambling but this is a touchy subject, especially in this climate. The Irish earned their respect and acceptance in this nation..... but Hispanics and Black folk seem to still be very far off even if people have culturally appropriated many "Latino" aspects, especially the food, and other things like Pinatas, especially TACOS etc etc. They want the fun and delicious stuff but seems would rather have all that good stuff without us. I've been told many times by people online who see my IRL last name to "go back to Mexico" when my family has called Texas home since the 1730s, LONG before there was ever a US or even the Republic of Texas. My family fought in the Texas Revolution to free it from Santa Ana's rule and then had Irish marry into the family that fought in the Saint Patrick's battalion and have had Irish blending into our family ever since. It's where my cousins and myself get our unusual height from. We are quite tall for hispanics, most standing over 6 feet which is above average. The tallest cousin in 6'9", then two is 6'5" and I come in third at 6'2", and I would have been taller if not for Crohn's disease and all the medications I've had to take when I was 13 to today. Anyway, in person we are white as we blend in with everyone else who is white because we ARE white, but online or over the phone, we are "wetbacks or anchor babies", (yes we've been called that) lucky for some of my cousins that have "white" last names from families they married into. I think it was insane the Irish were not seen as white simply because the majority were Catholic. Even today I have gotten "looks" when asked what religion I am. Even outright hostility. It's a shame people still believe the anti-Catholic propaganda from so long ago. They make a big stink about the scandals in the Church yet they completely ignore the fact that it happens just a often in other denominations. It comes up on the news and is forgotten yet when it happens in the Catholic church, they run with it and see it as "proof" against Catholics as a whole. Anyway, please excuse my rambling. A lot of respect for your Grand Dad, especially eventually for making it back to Ireland. I suppose they were able to "make it" financially which is why they were able to get back?
@@GeneralKenobiSIYE Thanks for the reply m8 😁 I had family on both sides of the American civil war - other family members were Hinfey from Co Derry and fought with some of the Texas battalions - think some of the family are still in Texas 😁 - Irish love a good war 🤣
Irish have been traveling the world for thousands of years - more Irish around the world than in Ireland - also might explain your height - I'm 6'5" and a bit and there is reports of Giant skeletons being found in old cemeteries outside Magherafelt in Co Derry
Stuarts Calvary was suppose to attack the rear of the Union Lines at same time the Southern Army was attacking the front. Custer prevented Stuart form reaching the lines. If the Artillery and Custer had done their jobs the lines would have been crushed.
Thanks for sharing your civil war stuff! The videos & ur commentary r interesting & entertaining. Hope you post more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (btw I'm not even American...I'm Canadian, but this is a totally fascinating era.)
It DID make a difference because in that day, the VAST majority of people were very religious. Most times it was a Catholic Priest riding out with the men or standing before them giving them "Last Rights" not absolving them of their sins. we all have to repent. That's what as Catholics (most Irish Soldiers on both sides I.E. the Irish Brigade) and Christians at large, we know we have to do directly with God. Final repentance made a huge difference w/ highly religious soldiers going into a fight.
ajd, I think that if Lee had won at Gettysburg, he would have still lost a lot of men & that the north would have really fielded an army then. Panic would have set in & cities would have been emptied with men drafted or volunteered into the army.
Okay which is it? I was thinking that he said that the artillery smoke was so great and with the humidity seeing was impracticable, then it's General Lee is watching the effect of the bombardment.........well I guess it's like watching a bumble bee he can't figure out where he wants to lite
It isn't crap. Hazard's artillery brigade consisted of 27 guns, with another 12 brought up to reinforce. 35 of these were knocked out. The artillery that did the execution wasn't in the centre, but on the flanks of the attack; McGilvery's Brigade (39 guns) smashed Kemper's brigade, whilst Osborne's brigade (also 39 guns) smashed Brockenborough's brigade. The remaining brigades had very little artillery coming in on them.
Sorry replied by my brothers Krylancelo95 account just then. Thank you jwhite2000232. I also glad you had a pleasent time when you visited my country (alsa not everyone does unfortuantly, since there some real jerks over here, as with every where else). I must say every American I meet in person were also most charming and friendly as well, and have heard much of the hospitality of the states. I hope to visit your Great land one day soon.
The shots were accurate, but the fuses were incorrectly cut. So shells were hitting their marks, like Cushing's cannons, but many of them would continue to bounce and roll well beyond the Federal lines, if they didn't actually hit something solid. That's why the barrage was ineffective.
The puny Civil War artillery was ranged against the concentrated infantry formations of that time. WWI formations were more dispersed, permitted because bolt action rifles and MGs gave higher rate of fire.
I would say that in long-range counterbattery fire the Union's rifled guns were superior because they out-ranged the smoothbores, but smoothbores were much more effective against infantry formations. That's because, unlike rifles, smoothbores could fire case shot, which exploded and sent shrapnel into troop formations, and canister, which turned the cannon into giant shotguns--devastating against troops at close range. The rifles were less effective in this role because their (con't)
3. If the factory worker is not happy with work then the obvious solution is to train and seek employment in a more personally rewarding career. It's not easy and often one must compromise, but its the only way one can hope to improve ones lot. 4. Ah yes, pointing out national defeats, the xenophobes last refudge. Yes Britain was defeated in those particalur conflicts as well as several others. But Britain was also victorious in many others. And not just against milltary weaker foes either.
The fuses the Confederates were using were burning too slow. No quality control like the Union had available for their cannons. Smoke didn't help either.
He failed to mention that the young guy in charge of the Confederate artillery was only 27 years old, very young for such responsibility, and a graduate of West Point named Edward Porter Alexander from Washington , Georgia. The union army stopped shooting their guns in order to mislead , and make the Confederates think they were out of ammunition, thus Longstreet ordered the charge of Pickett.
This is my opinion but I still think one of the main reasons the charge failed was because of the artillery (I still keep in mind that the charge should not have been made at all and was a very foolish move) because as many as they had firing (they had close to or around 200 of them) at the Union they should have taken out a good portion of the cannons they were aiming at and thus causing less casualties when they were marching even though the gunfire still would have been a killing blow .
Generals continued to believe that massive artillery barrages could do the job and clear enemy positions, right up to WWI and probably beyond. They were proved wrong over and over again.
Artillery of the time simply could not inflict the kind of damage modern artillery does. Example: The 12 pound Napoleon smoothbore fires a 9lb shell. Compare this to the 100 lbs shell of a modern 155 mm howitzer. You fuzed by the inaccurate method of cutting the timer fuze to about the right length for the range. What the guide leaves out is that thousands of rounds were required to inflict that damage. The bombardment was accurate enough, but Lee had unrealistic expectations for its effects.
Good video but I would like to point out one thing. At 1:40 the emphasis on Cushing's age is misleading. Yes Cushing was 22 years old, but he was not certainly not a child o,r more accurately, his actions as related to his age should not be misconstrued. The life expectancy for an American male in 1863 was only 40 years old. Life expectancy did not significantly rise until the 1890-1915 time frame when it increased to 50 years, then increasing again to 60 years old by 1935. So in the context of his time, Cushing was practically a middle aged man, expected to think and perform as a middle age man in regards to family, society, career, and leading of other men. Still, an amazing display of bravery.
Only when they were halfway across that field and in close range enough for the Yankee soldiers bullitt's to hit their intended mark , did they open up and resume firing.
@breezeman199 It wasnt that it was ineffective it was that they did all the could up to a certain point but after that they couldnt really do any more damage to the Union positions, the whole attack was a tactical mistake from Lee, and the main reason it failed was that the Union troops were too well dug in
Remins me of Waterloo. The French there had a lot of guns and skilled crews. But their gunfire proved very ineffective. I think most of the Confederate shells sailed way over the heads of the union troops and landed in the rear areas.
I know that but alot of people not myself or you maybe but alot of people think if picketts charge is succesful then thats it the south wins. Like I hinted and you stated the 6th corps fresh and yet to see action woulda countered quickly against a tired worn out rebel force. After Picketts charge I wonder why Meade doesnt send VI corps out to counter attack.
for over 100 years people were told that the south could never have won the war because the north had to many advantages with materials , factories, etc. and then we all learned in vietnam that the underdog can definitely win if determined. truth is that the south got tired of fighting before the north did. Just like the english got tired of fighting us in our revolutionery war. we didn't defeat the british, they simply had enough and left.
turkeytonite You're comparing apples and golf balls. The situation in Vietnam was similar to the American Revolution where a faraway power was fighting a band of revolutionaries tired of being colonies. The confederacy was in the same physical area, part of the US and NOT a faraway colony. The worse the fighting, the more determined the Union was NOT to allow a hostile neighboring separate country to its South. This miscalculation is why the South was a loser for even seceding and starting the war, and why it truly was about greater Union resources, because the resolve level was certainly the same.
Or more accurately, a choice in the matter* since it was a direct order all the way up from General Lee. (*ie one that wouldn't result in a court martial).
respectfully disagree.while the confederate bombardment did heavy damage to cushing guns at the angle and arnolds battery just to the north,woodruffs battery just to the north in zieglers grove kept firing.do not forget also just to the south of the copse of trees browns disabled battery was replaced by cowans 6th corps battery which had been operating a few hundred yards further south on the ridge.alexander webb the brigade commander at the copse personally signalled him to come and replace browns battery.also remember about 500 yards south or so where the ridge is considerably lower colonel mcgilvery of the artillery reserve had about 50 or so guns lined up that were virtually untouched by the confederate bombardment because the confederate gunners on seminary ridge could not see them! when pickett was half way across the field these guns tore into him terribly.also on cemetary hill major osbourne's guns of the 11 corps tore into brockenbroughs and davis's brigade destroying their usefulness at the left end of the confederate line.another point ,col. alexander in charge of longstreets 1st corps guns believed the confederates made a crucial mistake by not concentrating more of general ewels 2nd corps guns east of the town near the hanover road.he believed heavier fire from there would have enfiladed the union position on cemetary hill and the northern part of cemetary ridge causing the union line to break.i could right more but i will end it here by saying that the confederate bombardment was not intended only to silence the federal cannon ,it was also to demoralize and kill as many union infantry on the ridge as possible and it failed miserably largely because of overshooting and to some extent the inferior quality of the confederate shells(many not exploding). AS I SAID I CAN GO ON BUT THESE ARE THE MAIN POINTS. THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING!
The Confederate artillery DID NOT DO HEAVY damage to the North's artillery! You are absolutely wrong! This is believed, falsely, but believed by many! They had a line of artillery that was almost two miles wide! They fired for almost two HOURS!! Over 160 canon firing for almost 2 hours! Why didn't they wipe the northern defenses out and win the charge? Do you realize how many shots they fired? They should have wiped them out. But they didn't! Why didn't they? People have got to start ACTUALLY studying this stuff! The southern artillery was shit at Gettysburg. Why? The factory they got their fuses from burned down. They started getting fuses from another factory. They were BVERY old style fuses that were not exact. The fuses they got from the new factory were not quite the same, thus affecting burn and accuracy. They were rather badly off all of the sudden and they knew it. This was something they met With General Lee about and was decided they would take one day with artillery tests with Lee and anyone else concerned and would test and experiment to figure out why they were so inaccurate all of the sudden. They scheduled that test for the 10th. Problem with that was Pickett's charge was the 3rd. Lee knew his artillery was inaccurate though he did not know why. I think this is part of why he ordered over 160 pieces to all be used side by side almost 2 miles wide!! It wasn't some short ass little line like the movie. The movie was as inaccurate as the artillery! The second thing was the weather. There was NO breeze that day. It was hot, humid as hell and there was no air movement. The common quote from an officers journal was "not one leaf ever moved the entire day!" That's why I laugh when you see how windy it is in the movie. That meant the smoke from the guns never left the field. The smoke just sat there. You couldn't see twenty feet. That meant they had no way to aim or change their aim if they missed. They didn't even have a way to know if they miss. That's why we have the journals telling us what the north decided to do was slowly stop firing one gun and then another to fool the south into thinking they were hitting their targets. That is also why one shot landed in the house Meade was in eating. WAY off the union lines! ha Because of the fuses they were missing their targets by 200 yards! That is 2 football fields!! It was bad! That is also why they got blown the hell away on the march up to the northern line. Over 5,000 men were killed by northern artillery. That does not happen when you are accurate and badly damaging union artillery. They were being hit with artillery from 3 sides. The north was firing artillery in on them from way out of line where the south had no chance of being able to spot, aim, and hit them back! Read about the men who were ACTUALLY there. Read their journals. It's not debatable. They go into detail about how they just stood beside their guns while the shots went way past them laughing almost , knowing that these guys were in for hell if they really did attack. Read about the casualties. Read about the number of northern artillery men that died! Over 160 guns fire for almost 2 hours and yet SO FEW men in the northern artillery died! Read LONGSTREET'S book! He tells us EXACTLY what happened!!! He KNEW AS WELL about the artillery and he argued against fighting at Gettysburg AT ALL! He knew the artillery was way off and was TOTALLY against Pickett's charge! That's why when Pickett asked if he should attack Longstreet could speak or even look at him! He just nodded his head a little because HE KNEW what was going to happen!! He KNEW that artillery didn't do a damn thing!!!
I'll respectfully disagree with the notion that Pickett's charge failed because of artillery, whether ineffective or not. The charge failed because it was made over open fields against an entrenched, highly motivated, and heavily armed Union line. When did any such attack succeed? I can think of only one, the Union charge up Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga. Lee should have known better, especially after his experience on Malvern Hill in the Peninsula Campaign. Lee wasn't as good a commander as his apologists would have us believe.
interesting you say that. alot of people debate the turning point of the civil war between antietam and gettysburg. antietam cause it gave lincoln his chance for the emancipation proclamation and gettysburg cause of the first major decisive victory in the east. i say it is chancellorsville. to lose someone as major as jackson has to alter the entire war. i might go as far to say that there wouldnt have even been a gettysburg.
The bombardment DID fail. After the fist few volleys, the cannon were shooting high. Yes, some artillery batteries were severely hit. But the infantry was not. The artillery shells of that period were not the high damage-radius shells of today, so just because some artillery took a beating doesn't mean that the infantry was taking the same beating. The soldiers' own letters and journals bear this out, saying things like "nothing 4 feet above the ground could live", and "all we had to do was flatten out a little thinner".
He thought his whole army was worn out. One of the great "what ifs" of history: if Reynolds had accepted command of the Army of the Potomac when Lincoln offered it and had been in charge instead of Meade, and Meade had been the one who was shot on the First Day, Lee might never have gotten his army back to Virginia and the war in the East might have ended then and there.
First Leutenant Alonzo Cushing, recipient of the Medal of Honor (president Obama presented the award 151 years after this battle) was the bravest of the brave and died for his army. Just watched the ceremony again and am interested in learning more about this gallant soldier
Meade was a very capable commander. I really think that he was content with the major victory he had already won. I think he didnt want to do anything to tarnish what he had already acomplished over the 3 days. Same thing with his lazy persuit and letting them escape back into Virginia. War should have been over probably in 62' if Mclellan wasn't the biggest blunder ever.
At Antietam the Union guns were far more effective than the Confederate guns. The Union rolled out their newest artillery pieces, the 3-inch ordnance rifle and made mincemeat out of the Confederate artillery. Through most of the war the Rebs used smooth-bore bronze and iron artillery, with captured union wrought-iron rifles after Antietam. Even so, Rebel artillery was hampered by non standardization and mainly smooth-bore guns. They made wrought iron "Napoleons" after they ran out of bronze.
Sorry about taking a month to reply. Usually people are bawling me out for some reason so I tread very lightly!!! My grandfather was really really young. I do know that he was one of 500 given Absolution by Fr. Corby.I think that was before the Peach Orchard.Now that must of been something to have seen and heard if one could
I'm only aware of one instance in the entire war when massed Confederate guns had any impact offensively-- May 3 at Chancellorsville. Civil War artillery (especially Confederate artillery with its mis-fused, non-standardized shells) was very ineffective at making "mincemeat" of anything, except when defending against infantry attack. Lee was asking them to do something that they simply weren't competent to do-- it was like asking your plumber for tax advice. Probably won't end well.
@mnpd007 Maybe the North would have, maybe not. Lee realized at the beginning of the war that he couldn't destroy the northern armies. He aimed to win as many battles as he could to eliminate northern support of the war and either 1) create enough pressure on the government to end it or 2) elect a new president. Lincoln was rather unpopular in the months before the election, and Lincoln knew that he was probably going to lose. However, Shermans march through Georgia saved him.
Attacking a fortifiied position across open ground didnt work at Fredricksburg, Cold Harbor, Vicksburg, Franklin, Kennesaw Mt, Corinth, Helena, etc, etc. There were other factors working against the attack's success but bottom line, It was a bad decision on Lee's part.
If wars are rigged in some way shape or form, this was most definitely a deliberate blunder.
Poor intelligence from poor scouting, leads to poor decision making.
@@ambrosephill9
Lee was blind and deaf to the enemy’s disposition because JEB Stewart was continuously thwarted from linking up with his commander. Why?
The 1st Michigan Cavalry, under the command of BG George Armstrong Custer, whose orders were simply to keep Stewart away from Gettysburg, and that’s what he did for two days.
Stewart’s cavalry had been heretofore undefeated in the war and pretty much rode roughshod over his Union classmates from West Point. He was defeated by a better cavalryman than he was and he knew it.
Stewart never recovered from this defeat. His confidence was shot, as was Lee’s confidence in him.
@@Frankie5Angels150 And he lost his life a year later at Yellow Tavern. As did Custer 13 years later at Little Big Horn.
It didn’t work in World War 1 either.
I always liked Picketts answer why he thought it failed, He said maybe the yankees had something to do with it. Maybe not his exact words but basically what he said.
That’s what I read too.
"so why did your charge fail?"
pickett: "idk but maybe the enemy did it idk idk idk maybe idk i have no clue idk"
Pickett's charge failed for the same reason previous Union attacks over open fields against well dug in positions failed. Rifles are not smooth bore muskets and fighting with Napoleonic tactics was suicide.
and to think these tactics continued in WW1 even when mines, machines guns and long range artillery were a thing
Wow this was interesting. I always admired Alonzo Cushing for his guts at Picket's Charge, but the ranger put even more insight into Cushing's heroism during the fight.
Alonzo Cushing was a 22-year-old MAN who was a graduate of West Point. Bayard Wilkenson was a NINETEEN-year-old man who stood up against Jubal Early. THAT young man was wounded in the field and he kept at his position when his leg was mangled by an Artillery shell. He had the guts to amputate his OWN leg and kept fighting! What would NINETEEN year old do that today?
David Robinson in 1863 a nineteen year old would be equivalent to a 30 year old now
Well, Bro, plenty of them have.... they're just not as newsworthy as someone who snorts condoms
David Robinson They would dodo in there pants
A 19 year today would rise to the occasion, as 19 year olds in every time in history have risen as life demanded it. I imagine there were elders who, when talking around the commons and taverns of the time, would question the capabilities and bravery of 19 year olds like Alonzo Cushing. The real question is where were those people during Gettysburg? For that matter, sir, what are you doing that is exceptional today? It has become vogue to throw stones at glass houses - pray you remember that.
That man deserves his own statue at West Point or Fort Sill home of the artillery school.
I was an Field Artillery Officer at 22, just like Cushing was, and that was in 2008. Just because the Confederates managed to hit Meade's HQ and disable some of Cushing's guns does not mean that they were accurate, it means that they were lucky. Hitting a target the size of a car at a range over two miles without the aid of the ranging instruments and sights we have today is a very hard feat; even with modern equipment its still pretty hard (unless you are lasing the target and the location data for the guns is spot on). A big problem the Confederate artillery had a Gettysburg is that the fuses they were using were not burning at the correct speed giving the round around 2-3 seconds of additional flight time before the fuse burst the shell (The Confederate Ordinance Dept conducted an investigation in the fall of 63 and the fuse problem was correct by February 64). With that extra flight time that's about 300-500 yards past the target if the round is supposed to explode above the target or the round is burying itself in the dirt and not doing much damage. The Confederate artillery failed in its mission to clear the Union cannon off the ridge and to break up the infantry formations because they were inaccurate.
The Union artillery on the other hand didn't fully engage until the Confederates began their assault. Not only was the guns on Cemetery Ridge engaging, but ones on Cemetery Hill and as far south as the slopes of Little Round Top were too. The Confederates were in effectively a cross fire going across that field.
Could the Charge had succeeded if the Confederate artillery had accomplished its mission? Maybe. Unless Lee launched further attacks on Cemetery and Culps Hills I don't think what was left of Pickett and Pettigrew's divisions could have held an Union counterattack. Wright's Georgia Brigade of Anderson's Division did take Cemetery Ridge along with 20 cannon the day before, but had to abandon the position because it was unsupported, so the charge succeeding was possible.
The real reason it failed is very simple. Lee tried to out guess Mead, he figured Mead would have the bulk on the flanks. Mead for once guessed correct they were coming in the middle. Lee reminds me of Montgomery when told of the German SS armor in market garden he down played it. Lee made a huge mistake and no artillery bombardment was going to change the outcome.
I've got to give the credit for a Union victory to the Yankee Cavalry. Buford held the high ground on the first day, and Custer made his first in a series of moronic suicidal attacks on Stuarts Cavalry that prevented Stuart from joining in on Picketts charge from the rear.
Note that Cushing moved forward. He was near the top of the hill and caught those rounds which did not clear it. However, there was little impact on the infantry which was near the base of the hill behind the wall. In going forward, Cushing was actually moving out of the bulls-eye.
Pickett's charge may have failed in part due to the lack of effectiveness of the Confederate bombardment, but even that was part of Lee's plan to weaken and divert the Union center whie Jeb Stuart's 6,000 plus cavalry were supposed to flank the union center from behind. Read 'Lost Triumph'. A relatively unknown, young, cocky union cavalry general George Custer lead some 3,000 Michigan cavalry soldiers to slow Jeb Stuart from getting to within a mile of the rear of the union defenses, holding them to a standstill, so Pickett's 13,000 man charge was broken up, disorganized, or otherwise shredded to pieces because Custer held up Stewart at the area they now call east cavalry battlefield. If Jeb Stewart had attacked the fish hook from behind, they would have split the union line in half, rolled them up and crushed them, and marched on to Washington with an offer Lincoln could not refuse. It almost worked, and would have changed the course of history.
Just wanted to add a part to Objective 1 Silence Union batteries. Brig. Gen. Henry J. Hunt did order the cease fire to conserve ammunition for the coming assault but to do so slowly to create the illusion that their canons were being destroyed one by one due to the heavy smoke on the field.
Sigma0283 absolutely he did. He had his batteries stop firing one at a time.... pretty brilliant
"You're badly wounded. Leave the battlefield."
"In a minute sir. The fight's not over and I have two guns left."
He sounds like the kind of guy who could be down to a bread knife and throwing rocks and still not want to fall back.
In that day and age, you were considered an adult, and had better start acting like it when you hit puberty. Now they're coddled until their 30's and 40's. My Father was murdered when I was 15, went to bed the night before a teenager. Went to bed the next night head of the household for 7 people.
Of course Lee wanted battle. You just cannot bring yourself to admit that your favorite general lost the campaign, so, like Lee himself in his AFTER-battle report, play up supplies he procured and play down the catastrophe in losses he suffered in PA with little to show for it. The main purpose of Lee's invasion was to bring the AoP to battle and inflict a decisive victory (not inconclusive like F-burg or C-ville), in enemy country where it would have the most political impact in DC and London
Something else that affected the Confederate cannon fire is that fuses for their shells were made in several factories. Fuses made in one factory burned at a different rate than fuses made in the other factories.
The 2 brigades on the flanks of the attack; Kemper's and Brockenborough's were absolutely smashed. The rest reached musket range intact.
This is true...The fact is that the main armament factory of the Confederacy exploded, the confederate gunners were using new fuses that burned at a different rate, causing the overshoots
yes, if you remember the 'sunken road' became the 'bloody lane' and the union finally pierced it. Once Armistead pierced the lines, yes, i think you're right, with another brigade behind him it may've been different. But i'm still baffled that Lee didn't learn from Fredericksburg --- as LONGSTREET did.. Longstreet knew the frontal assault would fail.
Lee was an egomaniac who at this stage of the war believed the Southern propaganda about his invincibility. He had no problem sending thousands of young men into a meat grinder, as long he won another of his "God given" miraculous victories. Well, in this case things did not work out. Longstreet had a much clearer understanding of the situation. He was not swayed by the "cult of personality" built up around his superior.
On July 2nd Wright's Georgia Brigade from AP Hill's Corps actually took Cemetery Ridge along with 20 cannon just to the south of The Angle. Wright withdrew because the two brigades that were supposed to be supporting him didn't move into position. It is believed that Lee got the idea to assault Cemetery Ridge from Wright's after action report.
I've always been amazed why the attack did not use the smoke as a great advantage and attack through it.. Not attack after bombardment but attack during bombardment!!
Picketts Charge failed because there were very few competent generals in the Confederate army. This includes the leader of the Army of Northern Virginia.
if you have ever been to gettysburg and saw the lay of the land at the origin of Pickett's charge as opposed to their desired destination artillery out of ammo or not those boys had balls of steel
The charge failed because longstreet would not send them foward, Gen alexander (cheif of artiely ) sent word to Longstreet at 1 ;35 pm Send them foward, Im running low on ammo, the charge went off after 4 pm, any questions ??
Lost cause bullshit. Longstreet was right
Note: When these over 200 cannons were firing at each other at once it could be heard in WASHINGTON D.C.! Literally! over 80 miles away. Note: It was the loudest man made sound until the test detination of the atomic bomb!! Imagine being in the middle of that.
Messines Ridge, WW I. Probably not as loud as some of the cannonades during the Napolenonic Wars. 400+ combined guns at Waterloo, 2200 at Battle of Leipzig, 1200 at Borodino,
Also, there were huge cannonades in WW I. From Wikipedia on the first day of the Battle of the SOmme "On 1 July, another 250,000 shells were fired; the guns could be heard on Hampstead Heath, 165 mi (266 km) away. "
@@jameshorn270
"In what is sometimes described as the largest artillery bombardment in history, the Soviets opened the road to Berlin in 1945 at the Battle of Seelow Heights with a massive barrage that saw over 9,000 Soviet guns and rockets firing along a front approximately 18.5 miles long. That's one artillery piece every 11 feet"
One thing everyone seems to forget including this guy, is that Confederate artillery had bootleg fuses. The guns they used were just as good as Union guns, but the fuses they used were garbage.
One must note that Union valor was not alone on that field. It took a hell of a lot of courage to make that charge across the open expanse. I have walked the charge many times. There was absolutely NO place to hide. The experienced advantage of strong interior lines behind a stone wall of considerable elevation at Fredricksburg, was perhaps forgotten by Gen. Lee on July 3rd 1863. The center, while not inpenetratable, was quite easily reinforced. An err in judgement, and quite simply a tragedy.
Longstreet knew it, he carefully set up the defense of Maryes heights at Friedricksburg. It may have been an overestimation of Southern soldiery on Lee’s part (arrogance), or an underestimation of the resolve that was building within the Union ranks after being so poorly lead in so many previous battles.
This is inaccurate. The only reason these 6 guns were hit is because with the exception of the guns on cemetary hill, these are the only guns on the line that were firing. When they fired, the confederates could see the blast and it gave them something to aim at. Everywhere else, the majority of the confederate fire was overshooting. When the Confederate infantry advanced, the intact Union guns along the entire length of the line slaughtered them. So yeah, the Confederate bombardment failed.
Rebel, thanks for the ref to the Longstreet book.
Do you think that Lee did well at Gettysburg?
Should Lee not have moved after the first day & taken a defensible position somewhere, & let Meade try to attack him there?
To clarify my previous comment it was a Catholic Priest with predominately Catholic units that you hear the most about giving last rights to the men. The most famous example was Father William Corby. He rode out an gave the Irish brigade "general absolution". he did this with non Catholics as well. he is famous for giving the remnants of the Irish Brigade (only about 580 men in the entire brigade) last rights from upon a boulder at Gettysburg, and they tore up a rebel brigade 4 or 5x their size.
I heard a study that showed the Confederates had a severe logistic problem, not an accuracy problem. While the view was obscured once enough smoke was in the air they only needed to keep firing using the same setting on the gun elevation.
The Confederates used cannon balls that had paper fuses. They were used to time the shell to explode just over the heads of the Union soldiers killing them with shrapnel.
The gunners all used the same template to cut the fuse to the correct length. But the fuses were made at three different factories and there was no coordinated quality control between the factories. The result was fuses that burned at the different rates cut to the same length. So roughly 1/3 of the shells exploded harmlessly short of the Union line. Roughly 1/3 of the shells exploded effectively over the heads of the Union troops. Finally roughly 1/3 of the shells exploded after hitting the ground. Those that hit earth where the ground was soft enough, the ground there is very rocky, exploded with most of the force and shrapnel shooting harmlessly straight up into the air.
About 2/3s of the artillery may as well not have fired at all. Marching for a mile to an entrenched enemy while exposed to their artillery was a tactical bad idea that good fuses may not have overcome.
As a historian watching this video pisses me off. Sometimes I think all the time reading, researching, fact checking as we write books about the truth. The wrong information always seems to outweigh the truth.
A 22 year old is not a child. Thats where these modern men fail. Cushing was no child.
John Ritcher your correct 22 in the 1860's was a mature man. The VMI Cadets at New Market that took the hill and won the day for the South we're Children. But the North also had babies fighting at Fredericksburg and they pretty much children some as young as 14 never fired a shot and died because Burnside was a idiot. Why both sides fought European style is beyond me. Nathan Bedford Forrest didn't have many men but won because he didn't go to West Point and fought gurellia war fare and he captured over 30,000 Union Troops because he was just a natural genius. After Cold Harbor and Southern trenches that was the last battle fought European Style. The technology made that obsolete. But it was all the West Pointers knew until Forrest showed both sides that was just a waste of Good men.
I was in Vietnam at 18, had a captain who was 22. I’m not impressed with this guy thinking he’s a child
I joined the marines at 17 and was in charge of an infantry squad at 21, this 22 year old Beta male is what’s wrong with this country....
22 a child is typical millennial thought; they believe a person isn't an adult until they reach 25 and their brains are fully formed... and when they've (finally) finished school, gotten a job, and Mommy and Daddy aren't taking care of them anymore. I was married at 22, had spent 3 years in the Navy, and was driving a tractor-trailer cross country. I sure as hell didn't consider myself a child, although looking back from 68 I sure as hell was an immature young man.
Brand new 22yo 2LT's in Field Artillery get 4 howitzers when they get to their first unit after their basic course. I would not consider them a child.
Lee should have listened to Stuart and Longsteet. The Union had the same defense that the Confederate's did at Fredricksburg. It was a no win situation. Lee was trying to win the war at Gettysburg and it's hard to blame him because the longer the war the more good men died and Lee knew he couldn't attack much longer. That's why he choose to fight in the Wilderness instead of in the open. And dig trenches which caused the death of so many Union Soldiers at Cold Harbor.
@breezeman199 It's cause most of the men were Irish. They don't run. The unit holding the line was the Philadelphia Brigade. The 69th Penn. was almost all Irish, hence the Irish flag. Irish made up a significant portion of the other regiments of the Brigade.
There was a dispute over artillery usage in the CW between infantry and artillery officers. Hunt wanted to save rounds to fire at the enemy advance . Hancock wanted the guns to keep firing to boost the morale of his infantry. That's why Cushing's guns kept firing. Hancock complained to Meade about Hunt and Meade took his side. The reb arty stopped firing out of a combo of belief in success and running out of ammo. They couldn't fire when the infantry was advancing in front of them anyways.
charging over a mile of open ground under artillery fire, almost entirely unsupported by their own artillery. Yes, a barrage is hard to endure, but he forgets the Confederates had themselves lost over 500 infantry during the barrage. Not to mention that many of the Confederate artillery were not even engaged or had minimal ammunition. The only thing this kid has proven is that his erroneous conclusions are based on tiny sample sizes with little to no effect on the entire battle.
KestoSS2 Then there was the problem of the fence, as well as the basic fact that Union lines of communication and support were much shorter than the Confederate lines. All one has to see is a map of the lines.
My exact thought he makes it sound like the union only had 6 guns and lost 4 of em.
You make some good points. Artillery was still essentially a defensive instrument, effective in breaking up infantry attacks. Not so good being used offensively though. If you ever get the chance check out Gettysburg, well worth the visit.
It depends on how it was used.... Napoleon often used his artillery quite effectively to assist his attacks! Only at waterloo after 24 hrs of rain was his artillery rendered ineffectual
Not really. Artillery was extremely effective in the attack - especially by the time of the American Civil war. Artillery rifles were very accurate and fuses and air burst munitions were quite modern.
@@mikeborgmann Right, and that was because the horses could not move the guns quickly enough through the mud to support advancing infantry. The mud also hampered cavalry attacks. The horses became exhausted very quickly and many simply refused to move.
Yes the visibility was a serious issue in regard to aiming your field piece,so was the fact the the CSA fuses were not as reliable as those of the USA...
The foundry in Richmond had caught fire and they had to get their ammunition from Georgia and the quality wasn't as good. Not sure what this guy is saying yes I'm sure there were some direct hits but on the whole much of the confederate cannon fire didn't hit. At least nothing substantial.
I wish the audio were clearer.
Yeah, my college history teacher, not a tour guide said that if it wasn't for the cannons stopping he'd have had a chance.
My son and I walked Pickett’s Charge starting at the Virginia Memorial and ending at the High Water Mark. Then we walked back. He actually walked backwards to the Virginia Memorial. What a sight!
very interesting. wonder what would have happened if the Confederate artillery to the north, in town, had not ran out of ammunition early. I think they were having a greater effect, according to battle reports, than the artillery to the front.
No mention of the sturdy log fence along the road intersecting the battlefield.
Pickett marched the wrong way also. Like you said the smoke was to thick to see which way to go.
The other part of this that people miss is a HUGE mistake Lee made. Longstreet argued with Lee about attacking the left because the men positioned there were so beat up and tired fro m earlier fighting. Well, Lee has to except Longstreet's report on the shape of the men so he changes his orders to attack the center. He changes it to the center because the men there are fresh. Moving all those fresh men to the left would take half a day so Lee had to choose to attack the center. This is where he screwed up bad and most people don't know. In the attack of the left he would have Ewell attack Culps Hill in support. But then Lee changes his orders to attack the center but he DOESN'T tell Ewell to call off his attack on Culps Hill. Lee forgot to tell him. So, not knowing, Ewell attacks Culps Hiill completely on his own and his men get UTTERLY DESTROYED!! It was unknown suicide for those men! They were demolished! With Pickett's charge. For the rest of his life General Pickett hated Lee for what happened to his men. He was furious because his men not got support that he was sure Lee would send in to help. Pickett did not realize it was going to be one line and that is it. It was unthinkable to him. He would have argued had he known that. Think about it. O.K. General Lee has decided on this bold move to attack and destroy them right here. O.K. so, first line goes in and then Lee will send in more for support. It makes sense, if your gonna try something this risky surely your gonna throw every man at them that you have but..........................no. He left our boys to go beat the whole damn Union army! Pickett's famous quote was, in reguards to Lee and the charge, he had my men murdered!! That ate at Pickett for the rest of his life. From that day on he didn't exactly have the warmest feelings towards Lee. Ewell didn't exactly ever love Lee again either for FORGETTING to tell him the attack was off and thus his men got slaughtered!
...And there's Mr TheBeast's great retort that took him 1 day shy of a week to come up with.
Bravo, sir, bravo.
Pickett's charge failed because as Longstreet allegedly said, no 15,000 men could take then hill in 1863. Hell, 200,000 men couldn't cross a mile of territory after a week of bombardment in 1916 and take a hill. Agree with everyone that the bombardment was a failure. As Porter Alexander said when he visited G'burg for the first time in 1880 (IIRC) and actually saw Cemetery Hill for the first time, "we should have attacked that hill; we would've had enfilading fire from two directions."
cushing got shot up pretty bad. i own a bike tour company here in gettysburg and my main guide is a fan of cushing's bravery. he got shot in the groin and still remained until a bullet went into his mouth and ended his life. brave dudes back then.
Even if the Charge Works What does the South Hope to Gain? There is a Fresh Veteran 6th Union corps behind that ridge who hasn't fought at all yet.
It's unfortunate the park has people who are so misinformed educating people about the fighting. The artillery fire DID fail and it wasn't the smoke. The factory where the fuses were made for the confederate artillery burned down. They had to buy them from somewhere else. That very old style fuse was not made to a perfect science. These fuses were different. They knew this before the battle. They were having major problems with accuracy all of a sudden and this was reported up the chain. They decided to have a day spent on testing and working with artillery to figure what was wrong. Picketts charge was on the 3rd, but the day scheduled to inspect, test and figure out the problem with the artillery wasn't until the 10th. Now yes, the smoke hung on the field VERY heavy that day because there was NO wind. It is well documented that it was a very humid day and "not a leaf moved fr4om sun up to sundown." There was no wind at all. So, between the fuses and the wind it was a disaster. It was a very bad decision to order 160 cannons to open fire on the union. They knew their guns were way off for some reason and that with the smoke they would not be able to adjust. This is why so many officers were against the attack of Picketts charge. Longstreet knew all of the conditions were against them. The Union stopped their cannon fire and waited for the rebs to get closer. A canister shot held on average 25 iron balls that would spray out everywhere. One iron ball could pass through 4 men with ease! Within 50 yards it could pass through "about" 11 men. Just one union cannon shot at fifty yards could easily kill 100 men! People have been trying to pin the blame for this on Pickett but that's not true. Lee has become this southern god to the point that he had no blame ever only credit. The truth is that Picketts charge was Lee's fault! Longstreet tried to fight Lee over it. Most of the officers were against it as well. With an insane attack like that Lee should have sent ALL his men on that attack or none at all. He gave the Union over 2 hours to get their men positioned and ready. At any point Mead could slide 5,000 men in to help his line within 5 minutes easily because his line was almost a full circle.
Of course the smoke had a lot to do with it but was not the sole reason for the failure...
tom thorn The union was always fighting with one hand behind their back. They had the manpower and war materials, just not at first good leaders. Lee wasnt stupid and knew all of this and knew it would take drastic measures and chances to win the war.
I agree with you on one hand behind their back. They were. That's a line out of the Civil War doc. from Ken Burns. Yes they had one hand behind their back in the sense that the North had never come close to using a draft and forcing people in. They also had some lousy men in charge for a good while, which made Lee look so good. Not that Lee really was as great as the South has built him up to be but when your facing lousy commanders it is easy to look great! There were no less than 4 times early in the war when the North had Lee for the defeat but lousy commanders simply blew it! Once they had Lee's army split in two, confused, rattled and ready for the knock out punch to end the war and a lousy commander blew it! His army was split and three quarters had no supplies with many of them out of ammo and still blew it! The force that Grant had as he took control was more than 4 times what the South had. He knew and used a very sensible strategy. I am going to hit him and fight him. When he backs off I am not going to let him. I am going to hit him again, and again and again until I break them! He did exactly that. That has NOTHING to do with Pickett's charge! When Lee made his plan the night before he was going to attack the left again with around 15,400 men. When he told Longstreet to do this Longstreet said no I can't do this the two units facing them are beat up so bad they can't fight. They need rest. ON THE SPOT Lee was willing to give on that point because moving that many men into position to replace those two divisions would take half the day and the Union would see every move. Lee then said, o.k. you are going to use two other divisions and they are in the center. You will then attack the center and break them. And we will win the war. The problem was as Longstreet told him they are now lined in an almost complete circle due to two roads they were using. We come out in a straight line in open field with almost a mile to walk they will simply flow 6,000 men in behind to support a very strong line protected by a wall. But before that there is a fence they will also meet that they can't push down, they will have to climb over it. As soon as the men came out from the trees the Union would and DID open fire on them with artillery from three sides! As Dickson wrote in his journal about his artillery firing on the South when they came out he said "We couldn't help but to hit them with EVERY shot!" They would easily take out 15 men with one shot. When they reached the fence they were getting shot from well over 13,000 men firing as fast as they could. Not to mention they were taking solid shot. That is a solid canon ball being using like a bowling ball moving 700 feet per second!! One shot could easily take out 18 to 20 men!! Then canister fire which was like a giant shotgun! 15 solid iron balls would fire from a canon that could kill WELL over 30 men depending on the depth of your line! This is ALL before the South had a chance to fire a single rifle!!! They were being hit like that for OVER 20 MINUTES!! This, and they had less than 15,000 men to march over 20 minutes, take ALL that fire, hit the union line, which now has over 20,000 men all loaded aimed and ready to fight behind a rock wall for a good majority of them! And by the way, the North just simply flanked them and began shooting into them from three sides!! Lee said it would work because the artillery attack would break them. It took them hours to get over 160 canons lined up side by side in a line that was almost two miles wide! Both Lee and Longstreet knew that they were having major problems with the accuracy of the canons because Lee had met with his men and decided to run a day long test and inspection on the artillery to figure out what was wrong with them. The test Lee scheduled was for the 10th! This was the 3rd!! He also knew that with the weather they would NOT be able to see shit once the firing started! Why? It was a bad day with NO breeze. You depend on breeze to clear smoke. That day was miserable. It was very hot, the humidity was off the charts and there was NO breeze!! There are many journal writings and town records for that! They liked to comment that there wasn't a leaf within 50 miles that moved that day. So once you aim your first shot you just have to hope you hit something because they fired for nearly 2 hours and couldn't see a thing!! All while knowing your artillery is bad for some reason! The said "We can't hit the wide side of a barn from INSIDE the barn!" That's a major artillery problem! PLUS these guys were in wool uniforms in miserable heat marching almost a mile before they could fire a shot! THIS is why Longstreet argued with Lee about the attack. Now, to be fair, we only have Longstreets version of the argument so he could have exaggerated how long he argued, that must be said however, it was not just Longstreet that was against the charge! From what we know, damn near EVERY officer was against the charge. Soldiers can't really say because they don't have any of the details or even know about the artillery. A problem like that is something you keep very quiet. Everybody else knew! The part the movie got right was when Pickett asked Longstreet "do you want me to order the charge, Longstreet couldn't lift his head, look at him or even speak. He just shook his head a little and Pickett got his yes. Longstreet KNEW there was no chance in HELL that this charge was going to work! To make things worse, artillery did not follow orders to hold back ammo some to support the charge! When they made the charge the artillery was spent. They had no support on the nearly one mile march! Lee knew after the charge that he had lost far too many men BUT that wasn't the killer! The number of ranked men, high and low, he knew was something he could NEVER recover from. He knew he could never replace so many good ranked men. The South was broke after that. THAT is why Lee wrote the letter to Davis to offer his resignation! He knew just how badly he screwed up! Now, I'm finishing my book on this but his letter to Davis was VERY telling and is looked over by far too many historians. Lee refers to Davis finding a man in better health, Lee's heart problems were getting much worse. He had already had one major heart attack forcing him to conduct a battle while in bed in his tent. He also referenced finding someone mentally stronger. We know that Lee had a temper that was growing nastier as the war went on. We can also see as Longstreet wrote that there were times when he was talking to Lee and his mind seemed to wonder off and then come back. Now, Longstreet NEVER made ANY comment that Lee had mental problems nor did anyone else, let me be clear, but we can see there appeared to be something going on with him as the war went on. After Gettysburg that day and the next 4 people tried having a conversation with Lee but he seemed to keep drifting off in his mind during conversation which all 4 men wrote about and they just walked away from him. The question is WHY did Lee make such a bad move at Gettysburg? Not just the charge but all three days. He had NO knowledge of his enemy numbers or position, yet THIS is when he really tries to bet it all on one fight? Why not move around? At the least wait for a time when your "eyes and ears of the army" is actually AROUND SOMEWHERE to help you? Why do it when you KNOW your artillery is VERY badly off for a reason they had not yet discovered?
The North never became desperate in need of men, money, guns, supplies, while the South ran out of everything. Not just the army but the South itself was broke. Look up what a bag of flour cost around the time of Gettysburg! In todays dollars, a bag of flour went up over 500 dollars! Confederate money, which flowed fast at first, wasn't worth the paper it was printed on three quarters of the way thru the war because EVERYBODY knew the South could not win! They weren't trying to win. They were trying to get a peace agreement to end the war. They knew they were not going to beat the North. They knew the North would not surrender. They were hoping voters would turn against the war in the North and force the president to sign a peace deal will Davis. Lee, Davis, Longstreet and the rest of them knew when Lincoln was reelected their chance of getting a peace deal was slim to none! Their effort to win the war in the press failed and they knew it.
Was your great grand dad there when the Brigade was so sadly depleted that they numbered only about 580 at Gettysburg? They numbered the same as the largest regiment of the entire brigade they tore to shreds. THAT'S guts. I have Irish from both sides of my family a few generations ago. They were in the Saint Patrick Battalion. Irish bravery is seemingly unmatched. Now THAT'S one war the Irish truly understood. Martyrs for freedom.
My Great Great Grandfather James McPeak volunteered for the 69th PA and fought at Gettysburg and faced Pickett's Charge - he eventually returned to Ireland and is buried in Newbridge Co Derry - I think only one other volunteer from the 69th PA made it back to Ireland - think his name was Maynes from Ballyronan - lot of respect for all the brave soldiers on both sides
@@rickonline777 Of all the regiments that faced attacks like that, it's always the Irish regiments that hold the longest until it becomes hopeless and were going to be surrounded and destroyed if they didn't eventually fall back. At Bull Run, it was the 69th New York that kept unit cohesion when all the others broke and ran. Lots of respect for your grand dad. I don't think making it back to Ireland was a priority to most of the volunteers as they went to the US to start a new life, and not fight a war. The war just happened and they volunteered more to show their loyalty to their new nation and they EARNED it. Sadly it took the sacrifice of many Irish boys to earn the respect of a nation, a people ( Protestants ) that they were never able to get back in the UK no matter how much they gave. Now many have sort of "adopted" aspects of being Irish, especially going nuts on Saint Patrick's Day.
Now people want to BE Irish when they aren't. That was not something that happened prior to the Civil War were along with freed black folk and the Chinese, they could not find work because, as while as the Irish are, they (we) were not seen as white. Hell, I'm Hispanic and my birth certificate says I'm white, yet people have issues imagining that Hispanics are not a race but a large ethnic group within the while, black and asian and indigenous races. Because of my Irish, and touch of French family history, I am Hispanic but glow in the dark white. 🤣🤣🤣 Sorry about rambling but this is a touchy subject, especially in this climate. The Irish earned their respect and acceptance in this nation..... but Hispanics and Black folk seem to still be very far off even if people have culturally appropriated many "Latino" aspects, especially the food, and other things like Pinatas, especially TACOS etc etc. They want the fun and delicious stuff but seems would rather have all that good stuff without us.
I've been told many times by people online who see my IRL last name to "go back to Mexico" when my family has called Texas home since the 1730s, LONG before there was ever a US or even the Republic of Texas. My family fought in the Texas Revolution to free it from Santa Ana's rule and then had Irish marry into the family that fought in the Saint Patrick's battalion and have had Irish blending into our family ever since. It's where my cousins and myself get our unusual height from. We are quite tall for hispanics, most standing over 6 feet which is above average. The tallest cousin in 6'9", then two is 6'5" and I come in third at 6'2", and I would have been taller if not for Crohn's disease and all the medications I've had to take when I was 13 to today. Anyway, in person we are white as we blend in with everyone else who is white because we ARE white, but online or over the phone, we are "wetbacks or anchor babies", (yes we've been called that) lucky for some of my cousins that have "white" last names from families they married into. I think it was insane the Irish were not seen as white simply because the majority were Catholic. Even today I have gotten "looks" when asked what religion I am. Even outright hostility. It's a shame people still believe the anti-Catholic propaganda from so long ago. They make a big stink about the scandals in the Church yet they completely ignore the fact that it happens just a often in other denominations. It comes up on the news and is forgotten yet when it happens in the Catholic church, they run with it and see it as "proof" against Catholics as a whole. Anyway, please excuse my rambling. A lot of respect for your Grand Dad, especially eventually for making it back to Ireland. I suppose they were able to "make it" financially which is why they were able to get back?
@@GeneralKenobiSIYE Thanks for the reply m8 😁 I had family on both sides of the American civil war - other family members were Hinfey from Co Derry and fought with some of the Texas battalions - think some of the family are still in Texas 😁 - Irish love a good war 🤣
Also have a lot of cousins in Philadelphia - and a brother married an American girl and has been in Philly for 20 years and loves the place 😁
Irish have been traveling the world for thousands of years - more Irish around the world than in Ireland - also might explain your height - I'm 6'5" and a bit and there is reports of Giant skeletons being found in old cemeteries outside Magherafelt in Co Derry
Ever notice how that Reb artillery always overshoots
Stuarts Calvary was suppose to attack the rear of the Union Lines at same time the Southern Army was attacking the front. Custer prevented Stuart form reaching the lines. If the Artillery and Custer had done their jobs the lines would have been crushed.
Thanks for sharing your civil war stuff! The videos & ur commentary r interesting & entertaining.
Hope you post more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(btw I'm not even American...I'm Canadian, but this is a totally fascinating era.)
It DID make a difference because in that day, the VAST majority of people were very religious. Most times it was a Catholic Priest riding out with the men or standing before them giving them "Last Rights" not absolving them of their sins. we all have to repent. That's what as Catholics (most Irish Soldiers on both sides I.E. the Irish Brigade) and Christians at large, we know we have to do directly with God. Final repentance made a huge difference w/ highly religious soldiers going into a fight.
ajd, I think that if Lee had won at Gettysburg, he would have still lost a lot of men & that the north would have really fielded an army then. Panic would have set in & cities would have been emptied with men drafted or volunteered into the army.
Okay which is it? I was thinking that he said that the artillery smoke was so great and with the humidity seeing was impracticable, then it's General Lee is watching the effect of the bombardment.........well I guess it's like watching a bumble bee he can't figure out where he wants to lite
It isn't crap.
Hazard's artillery brigade consisted of 27 guns, with another 12 brought up to reinforce. 35 of these were knocked out.
The artillery that did the execution wasn't in the centre, but on the flanks of the attack; McGilvery's Brigade (39 guns) smashed Kemper's brigade, whilst Osborne's brigade (also 39 guns) smashed Brockenborough's brigade. The remaining brigades had very little artillery coming in on them.
It was reports of rebels saying them damn Yankees have better aim in the north and with 50,000 men dead or missing I would say it is true
But at Fredericksburg, the Army of the Potomac went in only one brigade at a time. it was piss-poor planing on Burnside's part.
Sorry replied by my brothers Krylancelo95 account just then.
Thank you jwhite2000232.
I also glad you had a pleasent time when you visited my country (alsa not everyone does unfortuantly, since there some real jerks over here, as with every where else).
I must say every American I meet in person were also most charming and friendly as well, and have heard much of the hospitality of the states.
I hope to visit your Great land one day soon.
The shots were accurate, but the fuses were incorrectly cut. So shells were hitting their marks, like Cushing's cannons, but many of them would continue to bounce and roll well beyond the Federal lines, if they didn't actually hit something solid. That's why the barrage was ineffective.
The puny Civil War artillery was ranged against the concentrated infantry formations of that time. WWI formations were more dispersed, permitted because bolt action rifles and MGs gave higher rate of fire.
I would say that in long-range counterbattery fire the Union's rifled guns were superior because they out-ranged the smoothbores, but smoothbores were much more effective against infantry formations. That's because, unlike rifles, smoothbores could fire case shot, which exploded and sent shrapnel into troop formations, and canister, which turned the cannon into giant shotguns--devastating against troops at close range. The rifles were less effective in this role because their (con't)
3. If the factory worker is not happy with work then the obvious solution is to train and seek employment in a more personally rewarding career. It's not easy and often one must compromise, but its the only way one can hope to improve ones lot.
4. Ah yes, pointing out national defeats, the xenophobes last refudge. Yes Britain was defeated in those particalur conflicts as well as several others. But Britain was also victorious in many others.
And not just against milltary weaker foes either.
no audio
The fuses the Confederates were using were burning too slow. No quality control like the Union had available for their cannons. Smoke didn't help either.
He failed to mention that the young guy in charge of the Confederate artillery was only 27 years old, very young for such responsibility, and a graduate of West Point named Edward Porter Alexander from Washington , Georgia. The union army stopped shooting their guns in order to mislead , and make the Confederates think they were out of ammunition, thus Longstreet ordered the charge of Pickett.
They were outbof long range ammunition,plenty of cannister left.
This is my opinion but I still think one of the main reasons the charge failed was because of the artillery (I still keep in mind that the charge should not have been made at all and was a very foolish move) because as many as they had firing (they had close to or around 200 of them) at the Union they should have taken out a good portion of the cannons they were aiming at and thus causing less casualties when they were marching even though the gunfire still would have been a killing blow .
Generals continued to believe that massive artillery barrages could do the job and clear enemy positions, right up to WWI and probably beyond. They were proved wrong over and over again.
Artillery of the time simply could not inflict the kind of damage modern artillery does. Example: The 12 pound Napoleon smoothbore fires a 9lb shell. Compare this to the 100 lbs shell of a modern 155 mm howitzer. You fuzed by the inaccurate method of cutting the timer fuze to about the right length for the range. What the guide leaves out is that thousands of rounds were required to inflict that damage. The bombardment was accurate enough, but Lee had unrealistic expectations for its effects.
But yes, overall I agree with you--Union artillery was generally superior to that of the Confederates.
Good video but I would like to point out one thing. At 1:40 the emphasis on Cushing's age is misleading. Yes Cushing was 22 years old, but he was not certainly not a child o,r more accurately, his actions as related to his age should not be misconstrued. The life expectancy for an American male in 1863 was only 40 years old. Life expectancy did not significantly rise until the 1890-1915 time frame when it increased to 50 years, then increasing again to 60 years old by 1935.
So in the context of his time, Cushing was practically a middle aged man, expected to think and perform as a middle age man in regards to family, society, career, and leading of other men. Still, an amazing display of bravery.
Only when they were halfway across that field and in close range enough for the Yankee soldiers bullitt's to hit their intended mark , did they open up and resume firing.
@breezeman199 It wasnt that it was ineffective it was that they did all the could up to a certain point but after that they couldnt really do any more damage to the Union positions, the whole attack was a tactical mistake from Lee, and the main reason it failed was that the Union troops were too well dug in
Remins me of Waterloo. The French there had a lot of guns and skilled crews. But their gunfire proved very ineffective. I think most of the Confederate shells sailed way over the heads of the union troops and landed in the rear areas.
I know that but alot of people not myself or you maybe but alot of people think if picketts charge is succesful then thats it the south wins. Like I hinted and you stated the 6th corps fresh and yet to see action woulda countered quickly against a tired worn out rebel force. After Picketts charge I wonder why Meade doesnt send VI corps out to counter attack.
for over 100 years people were told that the south could never have won the war because the north had to many advantages with materials , factories, etc. and then we all learned in vietnam that the underdog can definitely win if determined. truth is that the south got tired of fighting before the north did. Just like the english got tired of fighting us in our revolutionery war. we didn't defeat the british, they simply had enough and left.
turkeytonite You're comparing apples and golf balls. The situation in Vietnam was similar to the American Revolution where a faraway power was fighting a band of revolutionaries tired of being colonies. The confederacy was in the same physical area, part of the US and NOT a faraway colony. The worse the fighting, the more determined the Union was NOT to allow a hostile neighboring separate country to its South. This miscalculation is why the South was a loser for even seceding and starting the war, and why it truly was about greater Union resources, because the resolve level was certainly the same.
@rickcee thats true that they couldnt win the war but lincoln was at that time saying if we cant stop them in this invasion we must negotiate peace
I like this guy's passion. That is rare amongst young people. This is clearly more about the topic than the money he gets paid for this.
(con't) conical projectiles tended to bury themselves in the ground without doing much damage.
Or more accurately, a choice in the matter* since it was a direct order all the way up from General Lee.
(*ie one that wouldn't result in a court martial).
respectfully disagree.while the confederate bombardment did heavy damage to cushing guns at the angle and arnolds battery just to the north,woodruffs battery just to the north in zieglers grove kept firing.do not forget also just to the south of the copse of trees browns disabled battery was replaced by cowans 6th corps battery which had been operating a few hundred yards further south on the ridge.alexander webb the brigade commander at the copse personally signalled him to come and replace browns battery.also remember about 500 yards south or so where the ridge is considerably lower colonel mcgilvery of the artillery reserve had about 50 or so guns lined up that were virtually untouched by the confederate bombardment because the confederate gunners on seminary ridge could not see them! when pickett was half way across the field these guns tore into him terribly.also on cemetary hill major osbourne's guns of the 11 corps tore into brockenbroughs and davis's brigade destroying their usefulness at the left end of the confederate line.another point ,col. alexander in charge of longstreets 1st corps guns believed the confederates made a crucial mistake by not concentrating more of general ewels 2nd corps guns east of the town near the hanover road.he believed heavier fire from there would have enfiladed the union position on cemetary hill and the northern part of cemetary ridge causing the union line to break.i could right more but i will end it here by saying that the confederate bombardment was not intended only to silence the federal cannon ,it was also to demoralize and kill as many union infantry on the ridge as possible and it failed miserably largely because of overshooting and to some extent the inferior quality of the confederate shells(many not exploding). AS I SAID I CAN GO ON BUT THESE ARE THE MAIN POINTS. THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING!
Frank Gioia You make an excellent point, and I agree with you, but you need to break your comment into paragraphs to make them more easily readable.
Frank Gioia
I agree Mr Gioia. Everything you said I have just read in a book by Stephen W. Sears entitled "Gettysburg". You are right on target.
The Confederate artillery DID NOT DO HEAVY damage to the North's artillery! You are absolutely wrong! This is believed, falsely, but believed by many! They had a line of artillery that was almost two miles wide! They fired for almost two HOURS!! Over 160 canon firing for almost 2 hours! Why didn't they wipe the northern defenses out and win the charge? Do you realize how many shots they fired? They should have wiped them out. But they didn't! Why didn't they? People have got to start ACTUALLY studying this stuff! The southern artillery was shit at Gettysburg. Why? The factory they got their fuses from burned down. They started getting fuses from another factory. They were BVERY old style fuses that were not exact. The fuses they got from the new factory were not quite the same, thus affecting burn and accuracy. They were rather badly off all of the sudden and they knew it. This was something they met With General Lee about and was decided they would take one day with artillery tests with Lee and anyone else concerned and would test and experiment to figure out why they were so inaccurate all of the sudden. They scheduled that test for the 10th. Problem with that was Pickett's charge was the 3rd. Lee knew his artillery was inaccurate though he did not know why. I think this is part of why he ordered over 160 pieces to all be used side by side almost 2 miles wide!! It wasn't some short ass little line like the movie. The movie was as inaccurate as the artillery! The second thing was the weather. There was NO breeze that day. It was hot, humid as hell and there was no air movement. The common quote from an officers journal was "not one leaf ever moved the entire day!" That's why I laugh when you see how windy it is in the movie. That meant the smoke from the guns never left the field. The smoke just sat there. You couldn't see twenty feet. That meant they had no way to aim or change their aim if they missed. They didn't even have a way to know if they miss. That's why we have the journals telling us what the north decided to do was slowly stop firing one gun and then another to fool the south into thinking they were hitting their targets. That is also why one shot landed in the house Meade was in eating. WAY off the union lines! ha Because of the fuses they were missing their targets by 200 yards! That is 2 football fields!! It was bad! That is also why they got blown the hell away on the march up to the northern line. Over 5,000 men were killed by northern artillery. That does not happen when you are accurate and badly damaging union artillery. They were being hit with artillery from 3 sides. The north was firing artillery in on them from way out of line where the south had no chance of being able to spot, aim, and hit them back! Read about the men who were ACTUALLY there. Read their journals. It's not debatable. They go into detail about how they just stood beside their guns while the shots went way past them laughing almost , knowing that these guys were in for hell if they really did attack. Read about the casualties. Read about the number of northern artillery men that died! Over 160 guns fire for almost 2 hours and yet SO FEW men in the northern artillery died! Read LONGSTREET'S book! He tells us EXACTLY what happened!!! He KNEW AS WELL about the artillery and he argued against fighting at Gettysburg AT ALL! He knew the artillery was way off and was TOTALLY against Pickett's charge! That's why when Pickett asked if he should attack Longstreet could speak or even look at him! He just nodded his head a little because HE KNEW what was going to happen!! He KNEW that artillery didn't do a damn thing!!!
Frank Gioia agreed. Was he wounded during the bombardment or during the attack? He commanded a battery that was overran by Armistead
I'll respectfully disagree with the notion that Pickett's charge failed because of artillery, whether ineffective or not. The charge failed because it was made over open fields against an entrenched, highly motivated, and heavily armed Union line.
When did any such attack succeed? I can think of only one, the Union charge up Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga. Lee should have known better, especially after his experience on Malvern Hill in the Peninsula Campaign. Lee wasn't as good a commander as his apologists would have us believe.
Cushing's bravery is a given. The casualties of one battery, however, do not disprove the overall inaccuracy of the Rebel bombardment.
interesting you say that. alot of people debate the turning point of the civil war between antietam and gettysburg. antietam cause it gave lincoln his chance for the emancipation proclamation and gettysburg cause of the first major decisive victory in the east. i say it is chancellorsville. to lose someone as major as jackson has to alter the entire war. i might go as far to say that there wouldnt have even been a gettysburg.
@okeagle25
You following me, camera guy?
What a wonderful presentation!
The bombardment DID fail. After the fist few volleys, the cannon were shooting high.
Yes, some artillery batteries were severely hit. But the infantry was not. The artillery shells of that period were not the high damage-radius shells of today, so just because some artillery took a beating doesn't mean that the infantry was taking the same beating. The soldiers' own letters and journals bear this out, saying things like "nothing 4 feet above the ground could live", and "all we had to do was flatten out a little thinner".
exactly! without a concerted and orchestrated assault combining all arms of the forces an assault against an entrenched force has always failed.
Outstanding story of bravery and commitment.
He thought his whole army was worn out.
One of the great "what ifs" of history: if Reynolds had accepted command of the Army of the Potomac when Lincoln offered it and had been in charge instead of Meade, and Meade had been the one who was shot on the First Day, Lee might never have gotten his army back to Virginia and the war in the East might have ended then and there.
First Leutenant Alonzo Cushing, recipient of the Medal of Honor (president Obama presented the award 151 years after this battle) was the bravest of the brave and died for his army. Just watched the ceremony again and am interested in learning more about this gallant soldier
Meade was a very capable commander. I really think that he was content with the major victory he had already won. I think he didnt want to do anything to tarnish what he had already acomplished over the 3 days. Same thing with his lazy persuit and letting them escape back into Virginia. War should have been over probably in 62' if Mclellan wasn't the biggest blunder ever.
I guess these people never heard of a windscreen for a microphone.
Correction : “ there” instead of their…..
Didn't Meade have a entire fresh Corp in reserve?? Even if the south took the wall it wouldn't have lasted long.
At Antietam the Union guns were far more effective than the Confederate guns. The Union rolled out their newest artillery pieces, the 3-inch ordnance rifle and made mincemeat out of the Confederate artillery. Through most of the war the Rebs used smooth-bore bronze and iron artillery, with captured union wrought-iron rifles after Antietam. Even so, Rebel artillery was hampered by non standardization and mainly smooth-bore guns. They made wrought iron "Napoleons" after they ran out of bronze.
Sorry about taking a month to reply. Usually people are bawling me out for some reason so I tread very lightly!!! My grandfather was really really young. I do know that he was one of 500 given Absolution by Fr. Corby.I think that was before the Peach Orchard.Now that must of been something to have seen and heard if one could
I'm only aware of one instance in the entire war when massed Confederate guns had any impact offensively-- May 3 at Chancellorsville. Civil War artillery (especially Confederate artillery with its mis-fused, non-standardized shells) was very ineffective at making "mincemeat" of anything, except when defending against infantry attack.
Lee was asking them to do something that they simply weren't competent to do-- it was like asking your plumber for tax advice. Probably won't end well.
@mnpd007 Maybe the North would have, maybe not. Lee realized at the beginning of the war that he couldn't destroy the northern armies. He aimed to win as many battles as he could to eliminate northern support of the war and either 1) create enough pressure on the government to end it or 2) elect a new president. Lincoln was rather unpopular in the months before the election, and Lincoln knew that he was probably going to lose. However, Shermans march through Georgia saved him.
Those guys at Bastogne were a fine example as well.