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After the Battle of the Wilderness Grant pushes Southward. On May 7, Lieut. Gen. Grant issued orders for the Army of the Potomac to march toward Spotsylvania Court House, a small village where the Brock Road met the road to Fredericksburg. Grant hoped to get between Gen. Robert E. Lee's army and Richmond or, at the very least, to draw the Confederates into the open where he could take advantage of superior Union numbers.
Spotsylvania Court House
Posted from battlefields.org
Civil War
American History
Military History
Posted 4 y ago
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I may be wrong, but I think the advent of Grant ushered in a new era of the civil war. Prior practice entailed Union generals conducting campaigns independent of each other. Lincoln was so concerned over the ineptness of the Union army that he studied tactics and visited units in the field. Grant implemented two Principles of War which were Unity of Command and Objective.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
What! You're not watching the mini series "Grant" on the History Channel. Last segment tonight at 9pm Eastern Daylight Time.
Grant ushered in a new era of Warfare. He was the first General to fully incorporate the emerging technologies into his tactics and strategies, steam boats, railroads, telegraph, and iron clad river boats. He was the first to understand that losing a battle meant nothing if he could still advance, and he understood that a national offensive in all theaters of operation would stop the South from moving troops to single battles. Along with Sherman, he also understood that defeating an Army meant defeating and/or demoralizing it's base of support. So a logistical, tactical and strategic genius.
As I have said before, too much of the History of the Civil War was written by the losers, so Lee becomes a saint and Grant a drunken butcher. IMO, Grant should be there with Washington, Patton, MacArthur and Petreaus.
I have no big grips about the Portrayal of Grant in the mini series or the commentary on the Battles.
Grant ushered in a new era of Warfare. He was the first General to fully incorporate the emerging technologies into his tactics and strategies, steam boats, railroads, telegraph, and iron clad river boats. He was the first to understand that losing a battle meant nothing if he could still advance, and he understood that a national offensive in all theaters of operation would stop the South from moving troops to single battles. Along with Sherman, he also understood that defeating an Army meant defeating and/or demoralizing it's base of support. So a logistical, tactical and strategic genius.
As I have said before, too much of the History of the Civil War was written by the losers, so Lee becomes a saint and Grant a drunken butcher. IMO, Grant should be there with Washington, Patton, MacArthur and Petreaus.
I have no big grips about the Portrayal of Grant in the mini series or the commentary on the Battles.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
MAJ Ken Landgren - The History Channel. Considering that they compressed his whole life into three 2 hour blocks, they did a surprisingly good job. You have to understand Grant's life before the War to have any understanding of the man. Truly one of the Army's best.
https://www.history.com/shows/grant
https://www.history.com/shows/grant
Grant Full Episodes, Video & More | HISTORY
At the time of his death, Ulysses S. Grant was the most famous man in the world and stood alongside men like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the pantheon of American heroes. However, today Ulysses S. Grant is largely forgotten, his rightful legacy tarnished by a fog of myth, rumor and falsehood.
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I don't believe Grant cared whether Lee prevented him from taking Spotsylvania since he would continue to advance on Petersburg, which forced Lee into a Siege that he couldn't win. The reality of the War was that Lee had lost when he failed to turn back Grant at the Wilderness. He was now facing three Union Army's, Sheridan in the Valley Campaign, Meade's Army of the Potomac, and Ord coming up the James. Even if he had managed to link with Johnson, who was already committed in trying to contain Sherman, at best it would have prolonged the war by weeks.
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