GDG- Re: Meade and pursuit

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Curt writes::

>>>>Without commenting on Holzer's bona fides as a military  historian and 
the questions relating to Meade's pursuit after Gettysburg, I  believe the 
analogy of Wellington and Waterloo is at best strained and at  worst false.  
Waterloo would not have been fought had not Wellington been  positively  assured of 
the intervention of Bluecher's massive Prussian  army on the French right.  
The battle, essentially, was won when  Gneisenau's curious objections were 
overcome, and Bluecher informed Hardinge  about midnight of the day before the 
battle that "We are to join the  Duke."  Wellington's preparations to withdraw 
from Mt. St. Jean were  delayed, but his correspondence indicates that he could 
not stay much beyond  dawn without positive news of Prussian support on his  
left.>>>>



Curt,
The analogy is not strained or false at all.  The point is that  Wellington 
stood his ground and came very near to breaking after being pounded  all day by 
Napoleon - and yet when the last French attack was defeated he  ordered an 
advance with HIS forces that had taken that pounding.  He did  not rest and 
refit his men before doing so - he advanced and began the pursuit  phase of the 
battle, which is my point.
 
What you leave out above is the distinct possibility of Grouchy actually  
marching to the sound of the guns and striking Blucher's Prussians in column of  
march on their way to help Wellington - and Wellington had no control at all  
over that possibility.
 
Greg Biggs
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