If Col. Fremantle's analysis was so on point, then why did the CSA literally melt away less than two years later? Also, in what parallel universe did the wise Col. expect the enslaved Black population to willingly spill their blood for their tormentors? Would the good Col. have done that if the tables were turned?
Although Gettysburg was not the battle that ended the "slavocracy," much more blood still had to be shed, it did prove a number of things: Lee was foolish to recklessly attempt such a "large-scale raid" in the face of overwhelming Union superiority; Lee's goal of spreading the pain of the war onto the Pennsylvania countryside was easily absorbed and countered; and while Lee was enjoying himself with delusions of grandeur, Grant was effectively "eating his lunch" in the West and splitting the Confederacy in two!
The Anaconda Plan, devised by Winfield Scott and embraced by Pres. Lincoln, did exactly what it set out to do - it squeezed the life out of the "slavocracy" and tried to avoid an horrendous war of attrition to be fought by the Union.
Lee was a "showboater," like many other Southern cavaliers. Unfortunately, the war's beneficient political outcome was fritters away in the stupid compromise of 1876-1877, which ended Reconstruction and demolished the possibility of a true American democracy.
If Col. Fremantle's analysis was so on point, then why did the CSA literally melt away less than two years later? Also, in what parallel universe did the wise Col. expect the enslaved Black population to willingly spill their blood for their tormentors? Would the good Col. have done that if the tables were turned?
Although Gettysburg was not the battle that ended the "slavocracy," much more blood still had to be shed, it did prove a number of things: Lee was foolish to recklessly attempt such a "large-scale raid" in the face of overwhelming Union superiority; Lee's goal of spreading the pain of the war onto the Pennsylvania countryside was easily absorbed and countered; and while Lee was enjoying himself with delusions of grandeur, Grant was effectively "eating his lunch" in the West and splitting the Confederacy in two!
The Anaconda Plan, devised by Winfield Scott and embraced by Pres. Lincoln, did exactly what it set out to do - it squeezed the life out of the "slavocracy" and tried to avoid an horrendous war of attrition to be fought by the Union.
Lee was a "showboater," like many other Southern cavaliers. Unfortunately, the war's beneficient political outcome was fritters away in the stupid compromise of 1876-1877, which ended Reconstruction and demolished the possibility of a true American democracy.
Sheldon Teicher
Chivalry vs. industry. No contest.
It's remarkable the extent to which delusion can contribute to army morale.