High water mark of the confederacy..where? (2 Viewers)

[Rob]

Can I ask a couple of questions of my ACW friends.

First,am I right in thinking that although the casualties over the three days of Gettysburg were bad there was not one single day where casualties exceeded those at Antietam?.

Secondly,was there close quater fighting in 'The Devils Den' or was it occupied by one side and shelled by the other.

Finally, the new dismounted Cavalrymen from First Legion,would they have been anywhere near the 55TH North Carolina regt also relesed by FL?.

Thanks in advance guys

Rob

 

[UKReb]

Another big if is what if Meade had followed up on his advantage immediately after the battle. This could have gone a long way to ending the insurgency. This failure to follow up caused Lincoln untold heartache.

Yes and his continual inactivity for the following six months is the primary reason Grant came East

 

[jazzeum]

Yes and his continual inactivity for the following six months is the primary reason Grant came East

Thank goodness

 

[Scott]

My wife and I honeymooned in Gettysburg 25 years ago. She worked there as a Park Ranger as well and used to "run" the old Cyclorama. We go back there with the kids when we can as they had a GGGG grandfather that was in the 116th Pa. Gettysburg is great for family visits if they aren't interested in the battlefield. There's lots of shopping and other attractions such as Land Of Little Horses and some night life in town. Considering the Gettysburg was already a crossroads town way before the battle it was natural to have a fight there and natural as someplace to go when going from here to there. Antietam and Harpers Ferry are not far as well.

 

[Warrior]

Can I ask a couple of questions of my ACW friends.

First,am I right in thinking that although the casualties over the three days of Gettysburg were bad there was not one single day where casualties exceeded those at Antietam?.

Secondly,was there close quater fighting in 'The Devils Den' or was it occupied by one side and shelled by the other.

Finally, the new dismounted Cavalrymen from First Legion,would they have been anywhere near the 55TH North Carolina regt also relesed by FL?.

Thanks in advance guys

Rob

Rob,
THe casualties at Gettysburg over the three days was north of 50,000 dead, wounded, captured, but as you pointed out, Antietam was the bloodiest single day of the entire war.

Devils Den was to the far left of Houck's ridge and was defended by the 4th Maine and was attacked along with the entire Union left by Hoods division. Troops under the command of Benning and Law hit Devils Den essentially from two sides. The fighting there was termed one of the bloodiest and fiercest struggles of the war by one of the Confederate soldiers.

The 55th NC was part of Heth's Division and commanded by Connally. They occupied the railroad cut and slugged it out with the 6th Wisconsin of the famous "Iron Brigade", who along with the 95th and 84th NY charged headlong into the cut and took many southern prisoners during the fighting on the first day of the battle. They were not opposed by any dismounted cavalry as far as I know...........

 

[Rob]

Rob,
THe casualties at Gettysburg over the three days was north of 50,000 dead, wounded, captured, but as you pointed out, Antietam was the bloodiest single day of the entire war.

Devils Den was to the far left of Houck's ridge and was defended by the 4th Maine and was attacked along with the entire Union left by Hoods division. Troops under the command of Benning and Law hit Devils Den essentially from two sides. The fighting there was termed one of the bloodiest and fiercest struggles of the war by one of the Confederate soldiers.

The 55th NC was part of Heth's Division and commanded by Connally. They occupied the railroad cut and slugged it out with the 6th Wisconsin of the famous "Iron Brigade", who along with the 95th and 84th NY charged headlong into the cut and took many southern prisoners during the fighting on the first day of the battle. They were not opposed by any dismounted cavalry as far as I know...........

Thanks George you are a gentlemen!.You have given me just the info I was after.As I begin to discover this massive,legendary conflict I have loads of Rookie questions and I really appreciate your answer.

Bob has recommended several books that I intend to read before I go and I am also going to start reading about the more famous Battles in order they took place,so Bull run is up first.

Thanks again mate

Rob

 

[jazzeum]

Rob,

Can you share us with us the list Bob gave you. I'd love to see it.

 

[Rob]

Rob,

Can you share us with us the list Bob gave you. I'd love to see it.

Brad I'm afraid I can only give you one title (other than Gettysburg discussed yesterday)as my pc went down last week and I lost so much stuff,I'm going to have to ask him again (he'll be pissed as he'd already sent me it twice!)

However the one book he recommended very highly was Bruce Catton's 'The coming fury' which he said was excellent.I guessing he probably also enjoyed the other two from Mr Catton's trilogy 'Terrible swift sword' and 'Never call retreat'.Sorry about this Brad but I'm hoping he emails me soon as I've lost his email address,oh and yours too Brad!

Rob

 

[Warrior]

Thanks George you are a gentlemen!.You have given me just the info I was after.As I begin to discover this massive,legendary conflict I have loads of Rookie questions and I really appreciate your answer.

Bob has recommended several books that I intend to read before I go and I am also going to start reading about the more famous Battles in order they took place,so Bull run is up first.

Thanks again mate

Rob

Rob,
My pleasure, feel free to ask questions anytime, glad to offer my assistance if I know the answer.

Please let us know when you are coming as I would love to plan a trip down there, hopefully around the show schedule and maybe some other members as Brad suggested could come down for the time you will be there.

One book I'd highly recommend is The Gettysburg Companion, a massive volume on the battle with loads of great maps and much detailed information.

There are raftloads of books on the ACW, I think the Harry Pfanz books on Gettysburg are spectacular, specifically his book on the second day and culps hill and cemetery hill.............

 

[Rob]

Thanks George,if we get across the pond I will drop you a line mate,would be good to meet up.Funny you mention the Gettysburg companion (Mark Adkin isn't it?)its right up my list for forthcoming purchases,the reviews are excellent.I see he also does Waterloo and Trafalgar that also look good.

Best wishes

Rob

 

[Warrior]

Thanks George,if we get across the pond I will drop you a line mate,would be good to meet up.Funny you mention the Gettysburg companion (Mark Adkin isn't it?)its right up my list for forthcoming purchases,the reviews are excellent.I see he also does Waterloo and Trafalgar that also look good.

Best wishes

Rob

Rob,
Please do let us know and yes, Adkin is correct; I've also got the Waterloo Companion, another spectacular book as well, highly recommended........

 

[BlakeWR85]

Rob, definitely hire a private guide that rides in your car. I found it very informative. Also in the museum, I noticed alot of the artifacts was from one family. They must have picked up all this stuff after the battle.

It was the Rosensteel family, they donated the artifacts to the museum in 1971 on the pretense that they would be displayed, which they were for years. In the new museum, the number of items have dropped from 6,633 to 1,338. But the size of the new visitors center grew by 3,000 square feet What the heck, they are suppose to have more room for the vast amount of artifacts, but are only displaying a fraction of them Apparently the family is pissed

 

[Rob]

It was the Rosensteel family, they donated the artifacts to the museum in 1971 on the pretense that they would be displayed, which they were for years. In the new museum, the number of items have dropped from 6,633 to 1,338. But the size of the new visitors center grew by 3,000 square feet What the heck, they are suppose to have more room for the vast amount of artifacts, but are only displaying a fraction of them Apparently the family is pissed

Blake,are you saying they picked up 6,633 items from the Gettysburg Battlefield?!!

Rob

 

[Rob]

Rob,
Please do let us know and yes, Adkin is correct; I've also got the Waterloo Companion, another spectacular book as well, highly recommended........

Certainly will mate,I may get all three of these companions.I wonder if he'll do more?.

Rob

 

[BlakeWR85]

Hi Rob, apparently they did , I'm not making up the numbers, I got it from the Civil War News paper from April 2008, it's older so maybe not many people have it, but it has a nice article talking about the new visitor's center. Even James McPherson was surprised when he was told how many fewer relics would be on display, it didn't make sense to him, he thought the purpose of the bigger space was to exhibit the wealth of artifacts the park owns. I think they should give what they are not going to use back to the family.

 

[Rob]

Hi Rob, apparently they did , I'm not making up the numbers, I got it from the Civil War News paper from April 2008, it's older so maybe not many people have it, but it has a nice article talking about the new visitor's center. Even James McPherson was surprised when he was told how many fewer relics would be on display, it didn't make sense to him, he thought the purpose of the bigger space was to exhibit the wealth of artifacts the park owns. I think they should give what they are not going to use back to the family.

Wow!! thats incredible,and to think I was excited when I went to the Somme and picked up a handful of shrapnel balls and a clip of British bullets!!.That really is something,there must have been rifles and flags and who knows what else,man I'd love to see the whole collection.And I agree with you,they should hand what they don't use back.What those items from one of Historys most famous battles must mean to that family,its a crime not to have them on show.

Found this;

http://www.echoesofgettysburg.com/id28.html

Thanks for posting about this Blake,fascinating stuff.

Rob

 

[BlakeWR85]

Relics from the Somme, sounds awesome, just don't donate it to the Somme visitor's center Let me know if there is anything else you want to know, I'm sure it can be answered from the article. They were trying to create a "story-line" so that the relics fit into their "story," so in other words, they were trying to make it P.C. and dumb it down for your average visitor of all ages. Whereas a lot of Civil War buffs would find a lot of items not displayed to be important, they decided most of the stuff didn't fit into the story they created, quote from the former park superintendent "...we have no need for 40 varieties of rifle muskets." I don't know about you, but I don't like watered-down history!

 

[Rob]

No I don't like it either,and if the super doesn't want 40 different types of rifle I'll take 39 off his hands,now how do I get them through customs??

Cheers Blake

Rob

 

[Warrior]

But the size of the new visitors center grew by 3,000 square feet What the heck, they are suppose to have more room for the vast amount of artifacts, but are only displaying a fraction of them

Having been there, there is a ton of wasted space and they laid out the rooms with the artifacts in them pretty poorly, you walk around like you're in a maze and you can see they wasted the space badly, a real shame as I thought the other visitors center was fine............

 

[BlakeWR85]

Having been there, there is a ton of wasted space and they laid out the rooms with the artifacts in them pretty poorly, you walk around like you're in a maze and you can see they wasted the space badly, a real shame as I thought the other visitors center was fine............

I noticed that too, they did indeed waste the space around the displays. Maybe they were making up for the increased obesity in America, so one size building fits all (I know, that was a terrible distasteful joke )