GDG- Re: CS supply

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Jack writes:

>>>>Name the battles they won. Period.  Pleasev don'tr  count those defensive 
enagagemets.>>>>

Why not?  Those were battles too.  But for attacking battles they  won at 
Perryville (tactically - they turned it into strategic defeat by  retreating) and 
Chickamauga.  They won in the Seven Days ultimately by  attacking every day.  
They won at Chancellorsville and Second Manassas  which were defensive 
tactically but with an offensive component to them  -  and Second Manassas was part 
of a moving Confederate offensive that culminated  at Sharpsburg.  They won 
the first day of Shiloh as part of an offensive  into Tennessee and were only 
defeated the next day by fresh Union  reinforcements.  The Confederate Army of 
the Mississippi there was an  ordnance officer's nightmare due to the myriad of 
weapons in the ranks ranging  from flintlocks and shotguns to brand new 
Enfields literally just off the  blockade runners.  They did not run out of 
ammunition.
 
You cannot toss out such qualifiers because you don't understand the CS  
supply system.  If it was as terrible as you seem to think then they would  have 
also lost the defensive battles too for lack of food, shoes and  bullets.  The 
fact remains, quite solidly, that this was not the  case.
 
So the question remains on the table - name a battle they lost of any type  
due to lack of food, shoes and bullets as the main reasons (and not 
generalship)  for those losses.
 


>>>>You know, whebn troops go around without food and  (repoertedly) shoes 
etc., they tend not to perfotm at optimal  levels.>>>>>




Napoleon still won at Marengo even though his men were hungry while  
fighting.  He did so after the troops that had been out foraging finally  showed up to 
reinforce his army.  The food they brought was distributed  after the battle. 
 Patton's men pulled out of a major winter offensive in  December, 1944 and 
were sent to the Ardennes to stop the German attack there and  did so without 
an initial issue of food or ammunition and fought for a couple  days in that 
condition before the logistics caught up with them, it having to be  re-oriented 
to the new offensive.  The 101st Airborne was sent to Bastogne  without an 
issue of Winter clothing and managed to hold onto the city for the  rest of the 
campaign.
 
Supply shortages can be overcome for a certain time frame.  If they  remain 
in place for extended periods then you can have some problems.  This  is why 
sieges tend to take so long to resolve.
 
Greg Biggs



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