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Post by quincannon on Jan 26, 2017 2:19:18 GMT
I cannot understand how you can discuss any war, without discussing the after effects.
For me if someone espoused a return to status quo anti bellum, would be the same as a Japanese advocating the return to Bushido, and the Divinity of the Emperor. I consider myself a Virginian. There are certain people who fought for the south that I greatly admire. I also realize that the ACW was adjudicated a hundred and fifty years ago. It's over. The progressive movements in the south have made great strides in recovery and in building a new south that the entire nation can be proud of. Still there are those, an ever shrinking minority that want to relive that past. No matter how much they wish to, they can not, any more than Japan will revert to its status pre 1941. If you want a lost cause, that type of thinking is the real lost cause.
Our last President was fond of saying "Trying to make a more perfect Union" Is that not what we should all be about?
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Post by Beth on Jan 26, 2017 5:33:30 GMT
You guys are missing my point. This particular area is for the discussion of Wheatfield Fight at Gettysburg, not the Civil War in general or it's aftermath. The Lost Cause is a part of Reconstruction. If you want to discuss the Lost Cause and it's relationship to Gettysburg, feel free to start a new thread on the subject under Gettysburg or in the general Civil War, but not in the Wheatfield thread. There already is another area for the entire Civil War and if you want a board to focus on any other battle you just need to ask and I can create it in about 2 minutes especially if it has a shared relationship with LBH. I would be more hesitant to add a board for Reconstruction though except on how it relates to the 7th Cavalry's activities, because I don't feel there isn't nearly as much interest in general history on this board as there is in military history. HOWEVER before we start adding on a number of battles and/or historic eras, we will have to decide what is going to be the future focus of these boards-LBH, Conflict in General, a collection of interesting battles or history in general. If we start adding every battle or subject that people might want to discuss in detail, this board will become an unmanageable monster. In the world of message boards, there are tons of forums dedicated to the Civil War and War in General but the boards about LBH and the Centennial Campaign are fewer than a handful. We make ourselves unique from the other two LBH boards by encouraging a different way of looking at the BLBH and by having a broader focus on general warfare because of a shared interest in general military history. We are uniquely blessed with a number of members who have a wealth of military experience and/or interest who can add new dimension to any discussion of military conflict. As it stands now we aren't using all of the areas of focus set up on the board. We have a number of areas/boards pertaining to the Centennial Campaign and General conflict which get little or no discussion either because of a lack of interest and/or lacking the number of members to keep up a conversation. If we add more boards and areas of discussion it's only going to make the problem worse to the point that there will be no conversation, only one person perhaps making comments on Gettysburg, one on LBH, a third in Waterloo and a someone else in the Battle of Midway. Everyone else will be driven away because they can't find actual conversations. If a board tries to be too many things, it loses itself. It's better to be focused. Jack-of-all-trades doesn't work well with a message board unless you have 100's to 1000's of members. Here is a general history board so you can see the size of posting population you need to support a general subject board historum.com/ Note they have had close to 500 people on the board just in the past 24 hours. Gettysburg is a natural tie in for a board focusing on LBH. They are close to each other in a general historic timeline and make use of much of the same knowledge and players. Gettysburg is also like BLBH in that it has a multi day component and actions taking place over a wide area of various terrains. I created separate board for Gettysburg because it is such a complicated affair with a lot of moving parts. I wanted a way to clearly keep different aspects of the battle separate so they were easy to find and didn't get lost in an endless number of threads about the entire Civil War. I know there will be a general bleeding over or thread drift when discussing the battle, but at least there is an attempt to keep some order. Pickett's charge doesn't have to share space with Doubleday and McPherson's Ridge. Waterloo, though I find it very interesting--after all I had a 5x great-grandfather who was conscripted into in Napoleon's army-I don't believe it requires it's own board here. It doesn't have a natural tie in with BLBH other than it was a complicated multi day affair with multiple battlefields and many moving parts. I feel that any Waterloo discussion can just fit into the area for European and Colonial wars. If however we find that Waterloo is just an absolute irresistible subject that we want to know about every action, then we can revisit it or I can find and suggest other message boards that will go into minute details of discussion.
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Post by deadwoodgultch on Jan 26, 2017 12:25:03 GMT
Sorry to pop off like that.
A war that I have heard called " The War of Northern Aggression" by those that started that war. It was started by ideologues. The carnage and suffering that was brought down on both sides, by both sides was terrible. The war did bring about a more perfect Union. Reconstruction, the Klan, separate but equal, Jim Crow, etc. aside we have progressed and continue to do so. All of those things, for the most part, like the war are history. We as a nation and the world need to learn and grow from that history.
That being said, there is much about the battle of Gettysburg to be studied. Even why Gettysburg? Stuart? This segment, why was there not a general pull back and regrouping by the Union? Why was there such a general lull, this day, prior to the action in the first place?
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Post by quincannon on Jan 26, 2017 15:47:49 GMT
I disagree in two areas
1) I do not think Gettysburg deserves a category by itself, but rather it should be a thread under The Civil War category. It was a many faceted, very important battle, but so were a lot of others and all of them from the Seven Days to Gettysburg interrelated.
2) I think Waterloo tells us a lot about Little Big Horn. It is a transitional battle, that leads directly to the ACW, and then to LBH. To understand LBH and the Centennial Campaign you must first understand that the 19th Century as a whole was a transformative period in military affairs, and the evolution of fire, maneuver, and communications.
A study of Little Big Horn and the Centennial Campaign is completely superficial if you do not study the art and science of war, and that means a study of battle in this most important century.
In fairness I should add that I believe the big attraction of Gettysburg is that it has a little something for everyone, including myth (the shoes to be found there), human interest (Jenny Wade, Culp, and the Gordon/Whatshisname story of post war reconciliation), plus tactics, a lot of tactics good and bad, there are far more enlightening campaigns of maneuver to be found in the ACW body of work. Second Manassas and Chancellorsville come readily to mind. All this stuff is very pertinent to the overarching mission of this board, which is a better and deeper understanding of what went on the afternoon of 25 June 1876.
Additionally if you wish to know why the Marines were so damned tough and resilient at Chosin, you must go back to The Bois de Belleau, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa to understand their culture. Similarly, you must go back to the battles of the ACW to try and understand the mindset and attitudes of the leadership at LBH - We beat the Confederate Army so these Indians cannot be that tough. That gets you killed real fast, so it is best to know where that type thinking came from, and change course.
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benteen
First Lieutenant
"Once An Eagle
Posts: 406
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Post by benteen on Jan 26, 2017 17:46:34 GMT
Beth,
I understand that you would like to keep posts on a thread to stay on point to that thread. Since this is a thread pertaining to Gettysburg, I have a question that pertains to the Civil War in general so I will post it in the Civil War thread.
Be Well Dan
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