GDG- Who was right and who was wrong?

[Chet Diestel]

Esteemed GDG Member Jack Lawrence Contributes:


> Hi Chet.
>
> I agree with everything you said. I just said it.

   One of the problems with discussing Meade is that it always wanders into 
this defenive thing. Bottom line, he was what he was.

  regards,

   Jack (I just couldn't bring myself to type "Hi Jack."):

  As before, I find myself in total agreement with you in all you have 
written, especially with the drift by so many into "this defensive thing," 
as you called. it. My take on it, is that Meade fought the battle he had at 
hand. If circumstances had been different and Lee had chosen to fight a 
defensive-based battle (Oh, would Longstreet have loved that!), then Meade 
would have conducted an offensive operation that was marked with skill and 
quick reaction to any discovered weakness in Lee's dispositions.
  The "problem" INMO has always been that many people view "the defensive 
thing" as equating passivity. They aren't the same thing --- not even in the 
same neighborhood with regards to military science. In a defensive-based 
battle, it can often take more skill and no less aggressiveness than that 
possessed by a general conducting highly-offensive operations. Meade was by 
nature an aggressive fighter and his war record pre-Gettysburg certainly 
supports that conclusion.
   With regards,
            Chet