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53fc0bb
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"Burnside left even sooner, hard on the heels of a violent argument with Meade, an exchange of recriminations which a staff observer said "went far toward confirming one's belief in the wealth and flexibility of the English language as a medium of personal dispute."
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army-of-the-potomac
union-army
civil-war-eastern-theater
|
Shelby Foote |
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ee9302e
|
The word began to filter down the lines, and the grumbling stopped, there was something new about this march, something these men had never been a part of before. If the fight in the Wilderness had not gone their way--the most optimistic called it a draw--they were not doing what this army had always done before, they were not going back above the river. If they had never said much about Grant, had never thought him any different from the ones who had come before, if they had become so used to the steady parade of failure, this time there was a difference. Some wanted to cheer, but were hushed by nervous officers. So along the dusty roads hats went up and muskets were held high, a silent salute to this new commander. This time, they were marching south.
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overland-campaign
army-of-the-potomac
civil-war-eastern-theater
historical-fiction
|
Jeff Shaara |
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73d963a
|
Richmond serves one purpose. Lee must defend it. If we threaten the city, he will have to confront us. Lee will soon learn ... we are not going away. If the newspapers and all those people in Washington must hear that, fine, I will write it down, send a letter to Stanton. You can deliver it yourself, read it to him, to all of them, make them understand what we are going to do. If it takes all summer ... if it takes all year ... it is only a matter of time before General Lee must face the consequences.
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civil-war-eastern-theater
|
Jeff Shaara |
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2ad20ec
|
Now I lay me down to sleep In mud that's many fathoms deep. If I'm not here when you awake Just hunt me up with an oyster rake
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history
civil-war-eastern-theater
history-of-the-united-states
military-history
|
Shelby Foote |
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c62ad09
|
"Meade looked at Grant, and Grant turned, moved toward his tent, said quietly, "General, a moment, if you please ..." --
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civil-war-eastern-theater
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Jeff Shaara |
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485ea6a
|
Across the river he could see the burnt and crushed buildings of Fredericksburg, the debris piled along the streets, the scattered ruins of people's lives, lives that were changed forever. His men had done that. Not all of it, of course. The whole corps had seemed to go insane, had turned the town into some kind of violent party, a furious storm that blew out of control, and he could not stop it. The commanders had ordered the provost guards at the bridges to let no goods leave the town, nothing could be carried across the bridges, and so what the men could not keep, what they could not steal, they had just destroyed. And now, he thought, the people will return, trying to rescue some fragile piece of home, and they will find this...and they will learn something new about war, more than the quiet nightmare of leaving your home behind. They will learn that something happens to men, men who have felt no satisfaction, who have absorbed and digested defeat after bloody stupid defeat, men who up to now have done mostly what they were told to do. And when those men begin to understand that it is not anything in them, no great weakness or inferiority, but that it is the leaders, the generals and politicians who tell them what to do, that the fault is there, after a while they will stop listening. Then the beast, the collective anger, battered and bloodied, will strike out, will respond to the unending sights of horror, the deaths of friends and brothers, and it will not be fair or reasonable or just, since there is no intelligence in the beast. They will strike out at whatever presents itself, and here it was the harmless and innocent lives of the people of Fredericksburg.
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war
futile
civil-war-eastern-theater
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Jeff Shaara |