GDG- If Sickles had stayed put!

[Margaret D. Blough]

Linda,

Sickles commanded a corps within an army, not to mention having absolutely no experiencing in commanding an army or in military engineering.  He had no more idea of what the conditions on the rest of the line were than he did on what was on the dark side of the moon so he could have no idea how his actions would affect the overall defensive line, Yet, on his own, he decided to take an action that did not only affect his own line but affected the army's position as a whole.  I've never seen any evidence that he informed, much less consulted, Hancock, whose flank he was exposing, of his plans.  Units had to be pulled from the rest of the army to plug up the hole he created, and much relied on extraordinary performance by the artillery in buying time, especially in Bigelow's battery holding action in the Peach Orchard and Freeman McGilvery's improvising an artillery line, for relief to come.

Regards,

Margaret

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Linda J Guy <lindajguy at embarqmail.com> 

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> 
> 
> JC, 
> Yes, that is the one, and is what he told Sickles. But my point is that 
> Sickles was not completely at fault on this. He was a politician turned 
> general, who did ask his superior three times before he was attacked if 
> his troops were in proper position. I understand why he wanted the 
> higher ground. However, I lay most of the blame on Meade for the blunder 
> of the troop placement. Meade was just lucky he had a superior fighting 
> force in the position although spread thin, otherwise things have been 
> way different. 
> 
> Linda 
> 
> JIM COOKE wrote: 
> > Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> > 
> > 
> > Linda, 
> > The artillery man was Henry J. Hunt, who agreed that the Peach Orchard 
> position was a good position for posting artillery, but at the same time 
> demurred from recommending, ordering or otherwise accepting Sickle's decision to 
> move forward, stating that he (HJH) did not have the authority to do so. 
> > JC 
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: Linda J Guy 
> > To: GDG 
> > Sent: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:56:48 -0400 (EDT) 
> > Subject: Re: GDG- If Sickles had stayed put! 
> > 
> > Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> > 
> > 
> > From someone not quite as expert in maneuvers as many others on this 
> > list I would like to put in my feeble knowledge from research for a 
> > college paper on this subject. 
> > 
> > As I remember from my research, Sickles sent word at least three times 
> > for confirmation on the placement of his troops and was sent instead on 
> > separate occasions, first Meade's son, then an artillery man (I forget 
> > his name, but he had also told Sickles he thought he had a good 
> > position), and finally Meade when the attack was about to start. If 
> > Meade wanted Sickles troops moved he should have got off his lazy butt 
> > and went the first time Sickles asked if he was in the correct position. 
> > He was just as lazy on this as following Lee's retreat. 
> > 
> > Also, after the war, Lee wrote Sickles "if his troops had not been where 
> > they were located he (Lee) would have won the battle." I think for your 
> > enemy in any battle to admit he was bested in position on the 
> > battlefield is proof enough it was a good position which just needed to 
> > be re-enforced with extra troops. 
> > 
> > Sickles had also learned from a bad experience at Chancellorsville with 
> > his troops positioned in lower ground on the field, and wanted to 
> > prevent the same mistake. 
> > 
> > He might have been a scoundrel and womanizer, but he did not want to 
> > lose troops under his command. How would that continue building the 
> > reputation he valued so much? When it comes to Sickles you have to think 
> > like a politician, not an army officer to understand his motives. 
> > 
> > As to his murder trial, he did get acquitted with the first "temporary 
> > insanity" plea. He was not a stupid man, just a politician. 
> > 
> > Just my research, and honest opinion. 
> > 
> > Linda 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > collins.d at comcast.net wrote: 
> > 
> >> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Actually, Meade and one of his engineers did recon the night of July 1. That 
> map is now in the National Archives. 
> >> 
> >> No this was not after the fact. Meade did ride out to the 3rd Corps position. 
> He directed Sickles where he wanted the 3rd Corps placed. The only thing is, the 
> rebels started their artillery attack,. This prevented the 3rd Corps from 
> falling back into the positions they were initially assigned. 
> >> 
> >> Collins, Topographical Engineers. 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> -------------- Original message -------------- 
> >> From: "Bill Speer" 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >>> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> " Meade did go to the 3rd Corps position. If you read Coddington, Meade was 
> >>> astounded by what he saw for sickles had assumed a position "very muchin 
> >>> advance" of what it had been Meade's intention for him to take." 
> >>> [bs] 
> >>> Was this not after the fact, if you would. He did not recon the area before 
> >>> issuing orders. Just perhaps due to the animosity between the two he did 
> >>> not want to accept anything Sickles did, especially using a Corps 
> >>> commander's discression. 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> bs 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
> >>> You may unsubscribe by going to 
> >>> http://mailman.arthes.com/mailman/listinfo/gettysburg 
> >>> 
> >>> You can add yourself to the GDG map at: 
> >>> http://www.frappr.com/gettysburgdiscussiongroup 
> >>> 
> >>> View archived posts from May 2004 - present at 
> >>> http://mailman.arthes.com/pipermail/gettysburg/ 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
> >> You may unsubscribe by going to 
> http://mailman.arthes.com/mailman/listinfo/gettysburg 
> >> 
> >> You can add yourself to the GDG map at: 
> http://www.frappr.com/gettysburgdiscussiongroup 
> >> 
> >> View archived posts from May 2004 - present at 
> http://mailman.arthes.com/pipermail/gettysburg/ 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> > 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
> > You may unsubscribe by going to 
> http://mailman.arthes.com/mailman/listinfo/gettysburg 
> > 
> > You can add yourself to the GDG map at: 
> http://www.frappr.com/gettysburgdiscussiongroup 
> > 
> > View archived posts from May 2004 - present at 
> http://mailman.arthes.com/pipermail/gettysburg/ 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
> > You may unsubscribe by going to 
> http://mailman.arthes.com/mailman/listinfo/gettysburg 
> > 
> > You can add yourself to the GDG map at: 
> http://www.frappr.com/gettysburgdiscussiongroup 
> > 
> > View archived posts from May 2004 - present at 
> http://mailman.arthes.com/pipermail/gettysburg/ 
> > 
> > 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
> You may unsubscribe by going to 
> http://mailman.arthes.com/mailman/listinfo/gettysburg 
> 
> You can add yourself to the GDG map at: 
> http://www.frappr.com/gettysburgdiscussiongroup 
> 
> View archived posts from May 2004 - present at 
> http://mailman.arthes.com/pipermail/gettysburg/