Gettysburg`s 150th Anniversary

[Marti Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Marti]

President`s Day Weekend - February 2011
Visited Historic Gettysburg Pennsylvania

In 2011, Gettysburg will begin their commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. For the next five years, you are invited you to join us as we honor the soldiers and civilians who fought and lived in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania. The most famous small town in America.

For a list of Events planned for Gettysburg’s 150th anniversary
commemoration, call (800) 337-5015 or visit 150th Anniversary.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Well, it's the north, so I guess we have to expect them to call it the Civil War, rather than the more correct War Between the States. A civil war by definition is between two sides which both want to occupy all of the territory. The English Civil War and Russian Civil War were genuine civil wars, as both the royalists and the roundheads / communists wanted to occupy all of the UK / Russia. In the US context, however, while the north wanted to occupy and control the south, the south had no war aims to occupy and control the north, so it was, by definition, not a civil war.

Gettysburg is an interesting and pivotal battle. I enjoyed visiting the battlefield some years ago, even though that was one that our boys lost. What was really interesting, however, was subsequently standing on the battlefield of Waterloo and looking at the diagram of the charge of the Imperial Guard against Wellington's center. What immediately struck me was, ''Hey, that is Pickett's charge!'' and of course it had the same result for Napolean that it had for Lee. Since the Napoleanic Wars were heavily studied at West Point in the early 19th century, I have subsequently wondered why Lee made the same move that he had to know failed for Napolean with disastrous results.

There is an interesting alternative history novel entitled ''Gettysburg'' written by Newt Gingrich which details how Lee should have fought the battle. It follows the actual history through the first day of Gettysburg, and then has Lee shift tactics and win a decisive victory.

I also enjoyed reading an alternative history essay written in the 1920s by Sir Winston Churchill entitled ''If Lee had not won at Gettysburg'' in which Churchill describes the positive results on world history of a Confederate victory at Gettysburg, including World War I never happening and communism never taking over Russia, and why a Confederate victory at Gettysburg led to those results. He starts out by saying that the success of the fabled Pickett's charge was a near run thing and it might have failed if JEB Stuart's cavalry had not simultaneously hit the Union rear (In the real battle, of course, that did not happen as Stuart was some distance from Gettysburg). Churchill, in his paralel world of the 1920s, interestingly, describes a continental European Common Market organized by an elderly Kaiser Wilhelm II, thirty years before such a common market was actually established.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Well, it's the north, so I guess we have to expect them to call it the Civil War, rather than the more correct War Between the States. A civil war by definition is between two sides which both want to occupy all of the territory. The English Civil War and Russian Civil War were genuine civil wars, as both the royalists and the roundheads / communists wanted to occupy all of the UK / Russia. In the US context, however, while the north wanted to occupy and control the south, the south had no war aims to occupy and control the north, so it was, by definition, not a civil war.

Gettysburg is an interesting and pivotal battle. I enjoyed visiting the battlefield some years ago, even though that was one that our boys lost. What was really interesting, however, was subsequently standing on the battlefield of Waterloo and looking at the diagram of the charge of the Imperial Guard against Wellington's center. What immediately struck me was, ''Hey, that is Pickett's charge!'' and of course it had the same result for Napolean that it had for Lee. Since the Napoleanic Wars were heavily studied at West Point in the early 19th century, I have subsequently wondered why Lee made the same move that he had to know failed for Napolean with disastrous results.

There is an interesting alternative history novel entitled ''Gettysburg'' written by Newt Gingrich which details how Lee should have fought the battle. It follows the actual history through the first day of Gettysburg, and then has Lee shift tactics and win a decisive victory.

I also enjoyed reading an alternative history essay written in the 1920s by Sir Winston Churchill entitled ''If Lee had not won at Gettysburg'' in which Churchill describes the positive results on world history of a Confederate victory at Gettysburg, including World War I never happening and communism never taking over Russia, and why a Confederate victory at Gettysburg led to those results. He starts out by saying that the success of the fabled Pickett's charge was a near run thing and it might have failed if JEB Stuart's cavalry had not simultaneously hit the Union rear (In the real battle, of course, that did not happen as Stuart was some distance from Gettysburg). Churchill, in his paralel world of the 1920s, interestingly, describes a continental European Common Market organized by an elderly Kaiser Wilhelm II, thirty years before such a common market was actually established.

This is sort of like pointing out that the U.S. is really a republic rather than a democracy. It really doesn't matter in the long run.