GDG- Re: Meade and pursuit

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Hello,
 
I am not sure who posted this below:

>>>>That author Harold Holzer felt that it was "Irrational"  on Lincoln's 
part to think that Meade and the Army of the Potomac could just  pick itself up 
and begin an full-fledged pursuit of Lee after having been  badly banged up in 
a huge three-day battle with all the "horrors" thus  involved and all the 
necessity of cleaning up the battlefield and resupplying  his army that was also 
necessary.">>>>



Mr. Holzer, I think, needs to study military history a bit more.   After 
taking a full day's pounding from the finest army in Europe, the Duke of  
Wellington, after the repulse of Napoleon's Old Guard at Waterloo, gave the  order, 
"the whole line shall advance!"  He did not wait a day to issue that  order.  
 
This was an army that was closer to breaking that Meade's was and yet they  
fully understood that just because they had stopped Napoleon's assaults all 
day,  the job was not yet over.  And pursue them, with the Prussians, they did,  
to the very gates of Paris where they achieved a political solution.  They  
did so while resupplying on the march, many of Wellington's regiments being very 
 low on ammunition intially, but the pursuit phase capitalizes on the poorer  
morale of the defeated but it is not window of opportunity of infinite  time. 
 The Prussian and English cavalry took up the pursuit and gobbled up  
thousands of demoralized Frenchmen while doing so.  Could not Meade's fine  cavalry 
do the same?  They were in good shape and had drubbed Stuart on the  third day.
 
Another stated that Meade did pursue, after a day basically, and he could  
have really had Lee in a pickle with his back to the river at Williamsport and  
did damage him some even still had things been better coordinated I feel.
 
Pursuit is where the glory of victory lies - not the battle itself, unless  
you get something like a Cannae.
 
Greg Biggs
<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> Check out free AOL at 
http://free.aol.com/thenewaol/index.adp.  Most comprehensive set of free 
safety and security tools, millions of free high-quality videos from across the 
web, free AOL Mail and much more.