And Jester answers better than I could have hoped to. I'll leave it at that.
As for McClellan, his problem was that he was an egomaniacal *******, but extremely cautious. As I said, an organizing genius, and you're right Beef that the Army of the Potomac was really put together by him. But this is a guy who believed every intelligence report that ever said he was outnumbered, who was hesitant at the decisive moment. He should have crushed Lee at Antietam, but listened instead to Fitz John Porter and his "Remember, general, I am the last reserve of the last army of the Republic" ******** and didn't send Porter's corps in to crush Lee's center when he had the chance, not to mention the Peninsula campaign in 1862 where he should have taken Richmond with a nearly 2-1 advantage, but spent a month besieging Yorktown only to find the Confederates long gone. He also believed that he was above the President and all the civilian leadership, and sabotaged fellow commanders to just to gather more glory to himself.
As for Grant and Sherman, it's funny you mention their determination. They certainly did have that, but if you actually look at their campaigns they used maneuver a great deal to try and avoid bloodshed, particularly Sherman in the Atlanta campaign of 1864. He frequently used his numerical superiority to force Johnston out of strong defensive positions just so that he wouldn't have a bloodbath on his hands. The one time he got frustrated and tried it, he regretted it immensely (as did Grant of Cold Harbor afterwards). I'm a bit of a Sherman fan. The guy was undoubtedly crazy by modern standards, but he understood warfare and he had the utter devotion of his soldiers.
Grant gets the "butcher" reputation from the Overland Campaign in 1864, where huge brutal battles were fought, but if you look at what he kept trying to do, he was actually trying to avoid that. His "sidles" around Lee's right flank might actually have won the war if his subordinates had done better, too (particularly the race for Petersburg).
Of course, he had no hesitation to use the numbers to his advantage. He stopped prisoner parole for one reason: the North could afford it, the South couldn't. And he knew that every time there was a battle with a large casualty list on both sides he won even if the Confederates held the field. He just was more of a bulldog than anyone Lee had ever had to face.
I just got it for Christmas, autographed too. Turns out my cousin's college roommate is his daughter, and he offered to shoot a round of golf with my uncle, my brother, and myself (the hockey fans in the family) this spring if we wanted. Which I thought was pretty awesome. Haven't started the book yet, though...too many others in the queue.
I think I'd more easily accept it if we got it regularly, but this on-again, off-again ******** really pisses me off.
I've come to the conclusion that enjoyment of the snow is directly correlated to whether it means you get out of doing stuff. The moment they stop giving you free vacation for snow, its mystique disappears quickly.
I've come to the conclusion that enjoyment of the snow is directly correlated to whether it means you get out of doing stuff. The moment they stop giving you free vacation for snow, its mystique disappears quickly.
I haven't enjoyed it since I was little. Even when my brothers were still around and got caught shoveling it more than me, I was essentially confined to the house all day (the hill in my backyard got smaller to my eyes every year, and the one at the school around the corner got leveled off for reasons even today no one really knows). That's still how it is -- either that, or I've gotta do most all the shoveling because only my little brother is left to do it with me, and I'll have to be going out to work or something.
I've come to the conclusion that enjoyment of the snow is directly correlated to whether it means you get out of doing stuff. The moment they stop giving you free vacation for snow, its mystique disappears quickly.
The funny thing is even as kids you still had to make that day of school up, for me it was always that there are things you can do in the snow that you can't do normally. I totally agree with you though, once you get to the point where you are working. Snow is just an inconvenience to drive through, and a poor use of paid time off since you would much rather use it on days where you have something planned and it's not so ****** out.
I'd rather have the blizzard once every 3 weeks than 3 inches of snow once a week
Knowing how things go in my area, the 3 inches/week would work way better. People wouldn't act as though they've never seen snow, and chances are clearing it would become at least calculated even if still not entirely timely.
If it was sunny between those blizzards, maybe I'd reconsider. But if it's going to be all gray all the time anyway, I'd rather just have something that's easier to deal with (where I live, anyway).
My job has to deal with this blizzard. It's going to ruin my day.
Jester and Stonehands: I actually agree with you. Remember, I acknowledge that slavery was the driving force behind nearly every issue, including the economic conspiracy theories and fears in both regions. Jester, I had actually completely forgotten about the poor white farmer having only the slave lower than them in the social hierarchy. As I mentioned before, my US history is comparatively spotty.
gold hover, gold.
