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re: tGOAT American General U.S. Grant's memorial officially restored on the National Mall

Posted on 10/13/19 at 7:54 am to
Posted by RollTide1987
Baltimore, MD
Member since Nov 2009
71721 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 7:54 am to
quote:

True, although Lee’s assault towards DC imo ran the Confederates out of steam.


Which only happened because Grant made him desperate enough to attempt an assault toward DC. It was a Hail Mary pass that failed.

Posted by Sayre
South Bend, Indiana
Member since Nov 2011
5754 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 7:56 am to
quote:


And that he was a raging alcoholic.


More bullshite being repeated by people who really don't know what they're talking about
Posted by windshieldman
Member since Nov 2012
12818 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 7:57 am to
quote:

Pemberton had 33,000 troops


He had around 20,000 actually in the city. I agree Pemberton broke orders. But Grant made more than 2 assaults on the city. I’ve read way too many books, and several from even a Union perspective. It was minimum 4 probably minimum 5 assaults on the city. They maybe weren’t all large assaults. He made over 10 different plans that all backfired. Eventually and this is barber shop talk, iirc, had 40,000 troops with Pemberton down to 20 something thousand. Another 20-30,000 got sent to Grant bringing the total to over 70,000. Pemberton should have left, I agree, but in reality Lee shouldn’t have gone for DC and used some of his forces to help break the Vicksburg siege.
Posted by RollTide1987
Baltimore, MD
Member since Nov 2009
71721 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 7:58 am to
quote:

I just don’t consider a siege some kind of great tactical accomplishment.


1) You ignore the tactical moves that got the two armies to Vicksburg in the first place.

2) You ignore the strategic implications the fall of Vicksburg presented to the Confederacy. It was a worse overall defeat for the Confederacy than Gettysburg was.
Posted by windshieldman
Member since Nov 2012
12818 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 7:59 am to
quote:

Which only happened because Grant made him desperate enough to attempt an assault toward DC. It was a Hail Mary pass that failed.


I agree with that
Posted by windshieldman
Member since Nov 2012
12818 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:02 am to
quote:

You ignore the tactical moves that got the two armies to Vicksburg in the first place.


No, I’m not speaking on the process to get his troops to Vicksburg though, I’m strictly speaking on the actual Battle of Vicksburg itself.

For some reason I can’t copy and paste your other quote all of a sudden. No I agree with your 2nd post. That’s why I stated my post above, it was an enormous loss, which is why I understand Pemberton wanting to stay and still think Johnson should have helped him.
Posted by RollTide1987
Baltimore, MD
Member since Nov 2009
71721 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:04 am to
quote:

He had around 20,000 actually in the city.


He had more than that in the city. Pemberton surrendered 29,495 men with him on July 4.


quote:

But Grant made more than 2 assaults on the city.


He made only two major assaults on the city. You can argue the mine that was exploded on June 25 was an assault but it was a local affair and not really a general effort by the entirety of Grant's army.


Posted by RollTide1987
Baltimore, MD
Member since Nov 2009
71721 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:05 am to
quote:

No, I’m not speaking on the process to get his troops to Vicksburg though


That's the most important part though. Those movements sealed Vicksburg's fate. The siege itself, once it got going, was anti-climatic and a foregone conclusion.
This post was edited on 10/13/19 at 8:06 am
Posted by windshieldman
Member since Nov 2012
12818 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:09 am to
quote:

had more than that in the city. Pemberton surrendered 29,495 men with him on July 4.


I may stand corrected on that and think you are right going back to look it up, that’s why I mentioned barber shop talk.I’m still confused, from what I read Pemberton had room for 18,000 troops in the city limits. I read where there were 29,495 who surrendered in the entire campaign. So was it that # that surrendered in the city limits or just the entire amount over the course of the campaign. I remember they had 10,000-15,000 or so soldiers, skirmishers outside the city initially defending
Posted by crazy4lsu
Member since May 2005
40038 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:14 am to
quote:

He seiged the Confederates with a shite ton more men than they had.


And? He only lost around 800 dead (with another 4000 injured) compared to 3000 Confederates dead (with another 3000 injured). It's not he was Vo Nguyen Giap with regards to his assaults and the use of his men. Grant, over the course of the war, lost only around 15% of his troops, compared to much higher percentages against other Confederate and Union generals. Because winning was so important, the nature of Grant's assignments required severe casualties, yet he generally inflicted higher casualties on his opponents than he received himself, time and again.

At Chickamauga, Grant rescued the Army of the Cumberland, organized reinforcements, broke out, and sent Braxton Bragg to Georgia, with 6000 total casualties. His entire Western Campaign, he lost 37,000 men while the Confederates lost around 84000. One would expect that Grant, as the attacking general, would have much higher casualties. There are more examples I could go into as he progressed further into the war.

quote:

had constant bombardments from the MIssissippi river and still couldn’t force out a starved, ragged out, low ammo, and much less soldiers confederate army. Until, they literally did starve out.


What do you think the point of a siege is?
Posted by windshieldman
Member since Nov 2012
12818 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:15 am to
I went back to another one of these threads we argued in and said it was 25,000 or more. So not sure why I got 20,000 in my head, you are correct on the #s

ETA: Actually I said 25,000 or less. So I was wrong then. But not as wrong as today, I forget #s sometimes
This post was edited on 10/13/19 at 8:22 am
Posted by windshieldman
Member since Nov 2012
12818 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:18 am to
quote:

What do you think the point of a siege is?


It’s what I’ve been saying it is I didn’t say it wasn’t a good siege
Posted by windshieldman
Member since Nov 2012
12818 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:20 am to
quote:

And? He only lost around 800 dead (with another 4000 injured) compared to 3000 Confederates dead (with another 3000 injured).


Well of course, like we said it was a siege. He bombed the hell out of the confederates for a long while. I wouldn’t expect the army doing the siege to have huge casualties
Posted by crazy4lsu
Member since May 2005
40038 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:34 am to
quote:

It’s what I’ve been saying it is I didn’t say it wasn’t a good siege


Why exactly? Grant had some hard work to do, as the position of Vicksburg presented specific problems. Grant had to get his army out of the malarial floodplain and onto the bluffs on the east side of the river. A direct assault on the city wasn't feasible, as the riverboats needed to support the assault would be more prone to artillery fire. Access to the Mississippi downstream was blocked and the position of Confederate guns on Snyder's Bluff prevent very much movement on the Yazoo. Thus Grant had to figure out a way of avoiding the fortified positions to get either north or south of the city in order for the siege itself to occur.

His failed projects at moving the army by boat was a reflection of the realities on the ground. But his movements confused Pemberton, who wrote that the "enemy is constantly in motion in all direction," and frankly the work Grant's army did in preparation to lay siege to the city is instrumental. The weather was not cooperative, the ships they needed to support the siege had to move north to south, and be subject to Confederate batteries. I have no clue why you would underrate the siege and the work that led up to the siege itself.
Posted by TT9
Seychelles
Member since Sep 2008
91793 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:36 am to
Sherman fan here.
Posted by windshieldman
Member since Nov 2012
12818 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:38 am to
quote:

Why exactly?


I said I didn’t say it wasn’t a good siege, meaning I do agree, it was a good siege

I’m not knocking his siege. I’ve said many times before, Grant was a siege master
This post was edited on 10/13/19 at 8:39 am
Posted by tigahbruh
Louisiana
Member since Jun 2014
2864 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:39 am to
"tGOAT" is a bit of hyperbole, but Grant does indeed deserve more credit than he has traditionally gotten.
He was an effective leader who was able to adapt strategy, tactics, etc to changing conditions and technology.

He also understood the halfass nature of his predecessors and that the vaunted Confederate leadership really just had had a handful of quality generals and the rest were bickering egos with mediocre ability.

He masterminded one of the 2 major victories that all but decided the war.

His effective adaptation included destruction of enemy civilian infrastructure and food supply, which certainly hurt women, children, and all noncombatants in the South (not limited to the white ones, either). That was something Lee was not willing to do.

Grant's presidency was really problematic in terms of corruption. Despite revisionist attempts at Reconstruction, it was full of overt graft, power abuse, and incompetent governance that was supported by the Grant administration. Much of the violence that stemmed from Reconstruction came from his direct patronage of abusive state "carpetbag" governments. Grant himself may not have committed graft, but he was aware of it all around him and did nothing.

Also, he was a full on believer in "consolidation of the West," at worst full blown genocide. At best, giving tribes a choice between permanent ethnic quarantine camps ("reservations") or extermination. Sherman, his top enforcer, openly wrote that the killing of tribal women and children was justified in the efforts to close the frontier.

SJWs tend to put their hands over their ears and go "LALALALALALA!" when confronted with facts about Grant and Sherman.

As military men, both were superb. As adapters and pioneers of the new Western paradigm in terms of military tactics, they deserve credit. Both were strong ideologues of Nationalism and forced unity. Without them, this nation would never have become the greatest nation in the history of humanity.

No civilization ever became great by being nice. Grant was not nice.
Posted by crazy4lsu
Member since May 2005
40038 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:43 am to
Then what exactly do you disagree with? That he didn't take Vicksburg faster? It was remarkably efficient considering the task at hand, and Grant realized his limitations immediately, and attempted to mitigate them. By January, Grant himself knew he was in for a longer campaign, as there was no direct way to Vicksburg without receiving unnecessary casualties.
Posted by windshieldman
Member since Nov 2012
12818 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:46 am to
quote:

but Grant does indeed deserve more credit than he has traditionally gotten. He was an effective leader who was able to adapt strategy, tactics, etc to changing conditions and technology. He also understood the halfass nature of his predecessors and that the vaunted Confederate leadership really just had had a handful of quality generals and the rest were bickering egos with mediocre ability.


I think Grant is fine and at times I come on here and make an initial comment like in this thread to mess with OP. Grant actually was very respectful of Confederate generals even in their surrender. Hell even with Vicksburg he was after Pemberton surrendered.

Not sure what you mean by mediocre ability though, the generals the South had were the only reason the war lasted 4 years. You don’t take a rag tag army, blockaded, shitty weaponry overall, shitty navy at least overall, lack of food and clothes, trying to defend a pretty substantial territory and make the war go 4 years. Even in surrender most still having enough morale to want to keep fighting and disagreed with Lee surrendering to begin with, without have many top quality generals.
Posted by BobABooey
Parts Unknown
Member since Oct 2004
16213 posts
Posted on 10/13/19 at 8:48 am to
quote:

the evidence clearly shows that [Grant] created the most auspicious record on racial equality and civil rights of any president from Lincoln to Lyndon B. Johnson.

What was the black unemployment rate under Grant? Trump takes the crown!!
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