mac
Brigadier General
Posts: 1,800
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Post by mac on May 31, 2022 4:32:55 GMT
I thought this an interesting piece on the Fetterman fight, especially the historic detail at the end.
Cheers
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Post by yanmacca on May 31, 2022 14:44:30 GMT
Nice one Mac, its a shame that this battle gets so little press compared to the BLBH. Again both battles were brought on by errors and bad mistakes made by the leadership.
Ian
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Post by quincannon on May 31, 2022 18:30:46 GMT
Mac: I had the good fortune to visit the Fetterman battle site,the day after my visit to LBH. Joan was not all that happy about the departure from the road home. Recall it was she who remarked when my brother in law and I visited Vicksburg, that "What are we stopping again for? That goddamned cannon looks exactly like the last one we stopped at". You get the picture.
Two take aways from the video and the visit.
1) I think the video is on the money concerning the hypothesis that those who survive tell the story their way, and it may or may not be what the story really was. In this instance Fetterman gets a very bad rap, and always has. He was probably the most combat experienced officer in the garrison of FPK, and there were some real losers and never wheres that made up the rest. Fetterman probably did get orders not to move north of that ridge, but very frankly, having been on that terrain, I doubt if he could tell where Lodge Trail began, ended, or where it flowed into another. I sure as hell could not and I had a good large scale modern map in hand. It is very broken country, so going over the ridge may not have been intentional at all.
2) Where that fort was built was one hell of a bad place to build a fort. I am reminded of the Valley of Dien Bien Phu. The valley is smaller than DBP of course, but the high ground that surrounds it is just as forbidding. The battle site itself is a complete death trap. Anyone that goes in, is not going to come out. The rub is that you cannot know that until you are in it. I am quite sure that on that day when they were chasing those decoys, it looked as peaceful as the inside of Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
Good find. Interesting video, where once again we learn the lesson that you best not believe all you hear from contemporary sources. They tell fibs for their own reasons. They are still fibs though. I also detest the idea that some would destroy the reputation of a good man, just to save their pwn rotten ass. Another aside. Carrington should have never commanded anything more than a room full of clerks and book keepers. He was no Infantryman. Whomever gave him that position should be hung for criminal negligence.
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