Betio island Tarawa atoll. “All gave some. Some gave all”. The most concentrated hell of WWII bar none. The failure of proper recon of the beaches resulting in most of the the Marines having to wade many 100s of yards just to get to the beach when their landing craft couldn’t make it over the reefs led to the establishment of the Navy UDT’s, the fore bearers of the modern SEALs.
During the massive preparatory bombardment some said it looked like a volcano. Nobody figured the Japanese could sustain such a pounding. They did so very well in their bunkers primarily consisting of sand covered coconut palm logs with some concrete reinforcement.
Afterwards Admiral Nimitiz ordered Navy engineers to diagram in detail the defenses of Betio. http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/jp-betio-island/index.html
Then a replica was built on which most surface warships bound for the Pacific theater would train in shore bombardment.
The real problem was that the Navy and USMC and Army were reactive in adapting their weapons and tactics instead of proactive. IOW they always based their weapons and tactics on the previous invasions they had conducted.
But with defenses like those on Betio and Iwo Jima no matter if every Marine assault boat team had been in a LTV taking islands like are going to be nasty. Only infantry can do it.
I’ve told you a million times not to exaggerate. Kursk, Stalingrad, Hürtgen Forest, Monte Cassino, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Cologne, Hamburg . . . they dwarf Betio.
Yes, it was nasty, but your superlative doesn’t apply.
It sure as hell does. Betio is only a touch over a square mile in area. Nearly 5,000 men died in that area. “Concentrated” being the key word in my description. Now give me the location of a square mile of such concentrated fury elsewhere in WWII.
Second Cold Harbor June 3, 1864. 7000 Union, 1500 Confederate. Antietam Creek: 23,100 total. Malvern Hill: 2150 Union, 5650 Confederate. I have stood on the Malvern Hill battlefield and can hit a driver over it. Gettysburg and Pickett’s charge: 6555 casualties in 50 minutes. Total at Gettysburg for 3 days was 51,000. Hannibal at Cannae: Estimates from 50,000-70,000 Romans in ONE day. That was bloody hell.
Yes and the Wheat Field at Gettysburg is another July 2nd, 1863.. Concentrated casualties/KIA or died of wounds in a concentrated area over a concentrated period of time.
This is off topic, but I will be brief. My step-father was at Tarawa as a Marine in the first landing. He came home with a steel plate in his head and as one of the most violent men I have ever known. The fighting never stops at the end of a war; it just slows down and the soldiers coming back continue the war in their own homes and with their own families.
We brain wash good men to be soldiers, but we rarely train them back to be good men after the war is over.
Thank goodness there are some like my father and uncle who do manage to overcome the trauma but even if they do, War changes them forever.
My classmates went through Vietnam as my father’s classmates went through WWII and Korea. When you think of it, it is amazing we have so little violence in this country outside the inner-city combat zones.
“We “brain wash” good men?” You mean men like these? This is soldier speak and neither the man speaking, nor those that he is speaking to have been “brain washed”. They have been trained to do the toughest job in the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbOcJ6kqJAA#t=15
It was not the training that caused his problem. The trauma of war, organized yet chaotic mass killing, for which he trained and more than likely the injuries he sustained on the field are far more likely to have caused it. We who went through tough military training are not fools having some less level of skepticism or lack the mental capacity to understand right from wrong. And to assume that people that have fought the wars up close and personal are “brain washed” is just plain WRONG!
rah, that is why I used the word trauma not ‘brainwashed’ (thats PC twisting). But military training and war changes people. We all change with experience…. Except perhaps for the PC brainwashed parasites still living in Mommy’s basement and spamming the internet with Marxist drool.
For most military training changes them for the better from what I have seen. And war wears a person and changes them but by know means does it have to destroy who they were. My uncle was an infantry scout/FO in WW II. He was one of those that enlisted later in the war for pilot training but was switched to infantry like so many others because of the shortage in that arm. He went to war shortly after the Battle of the Bulge and was wounded twice. Once by a 20mm round and then again worse by a short round from his own artillery support. He came home and got a degree in Chemistry and worked in the rubber and plastics industry. He was the epitome of the soft spoken charming gentleman. I know plenty of guys that have seen the elephant. SF and Delta. They are current friends and others comrades that I will never forget. And many have experienced some pretty awful stuff, think Mogadishu and later fights and been wounded. Every one of them came out and went on to be productive law abiding citizens.
rah, I just wanted to make sure you knew I was not agreeing. I was an Officer’s wife during ‘Nam and hung out with the sergeants during the mandatory get togethers (Hi-Byes) I rather talk about hunting, fishing, wood working and cars than dishes and diapers therefore I heard a lot of the stories.
Both my Father and Uncle were in the Pacific during WWII. The only reason my Uncle made it back alive was because a flat tire made him miss the take-off of his plane that was shot down by the Japanese.
Not just trash dumps but the floating stuff that tends to accumulate along the shore. Very disturbing to me to think of pieces of Marines mixed in with that.
Beachrocks, beach ridge, washover and backshore deposits along the tectonically stable south-eastern Vietnamese coast document Holocene sea level changes. In combination with data from the final marine flooding phase of the incised Mekong River valley, the sea-level history of South Vietnam could be reconstructed for the last 8000 years. Connecting saltmarsh, mangrove and beachrock deposits the record covers the last phase of deglacial sea-level rise from − 5 to + 1.4 m between 8.1 to 6.4 ka. The rates of sea-level rise decreased sharply after the rapid early Holocene rise and stabilized at a rate of 4.5 mm/year between 8.0 and 6.9 ka. Southeast Vietnam beachrocks reveal that the mid-Holocene sea-level highstand slightly above + 1.4 m was reached between 6.7 and 5.0 ka, with a peak value close to + 1.5 m around 6.0 ka….
CONCLUSION
We have constructed a new Holocene sea-level curve for Oahu showing mean sea level higher than today between ~5000 and ~2000 yr ago with a maximum ~2 m above present ca. 3500 yr ago….
Abstract
Unconsolidated carbonate sands and cobbles on Kapapa Island, windward Oahu, are 1.4-2.8 (+ or – 0.25) m above present mean sea level (msl). Agreeing with Stearns (1935), we interpret the deposit to be a fossil beach or shoreline representing a highstand of relative sea level during middle to late Holocene time. Calibrated radiocarbon dates of coral and mollusc samples, and a consideration of the effect of wave energy setup, indicate that paleo-msl was at least 1.6 (+ or – 0.45) m above present msl prior to 3889-3665 cal. yr B.P, possibly as early as 5532-5294 cal. yr B.P., and lasted until at least 2239-1940 cal. yr B.P. Hence, the main phase of deposition on Kapapa Island lasted a minimum of c. 1400 yr and possibly as long as c. 3400 yr. No modern samples have been recovered from the fossil beach…Radiocarbon ages of coral and mollusc clasts from a breccia lining an emerged (1.4 + or – 0.25 m msl) intertidal notch, cut into emerged coralline-algal carbonate of presumed last interglacial age, on south Mokulua Island (15 km to the southeast of Kapapa Island) correlate to the history recorded on Kapapa Island. Calibrated ages range from 2755-2671 to 3757-3580 cal. yr B.P. (averaging c. 3100 cal. yr B.P.) suggesting that a higher than present sea level formed the notch prior to 3757-3580 cal. yr B.P….
The Authors interpret this data to agree with subsidence based on models: ” This history is consistent with geophysical models of postglacial geoid subsidence over the equatorial ocean first predicted by Walcott (1972) and later refined by Clark et al. (1978) and Mitrovica and Peltier (1991).” However if the Southeast Vietnam coast was geologically stable and showing the same type of data, that interpretation based on models is open to question.
The warmists sure will twist and turn and ignore the facts to support their believe the earth is warming,
But other papers show the lie. Such as this paper, Temperature and precipitation history of the Arctic> says: “Solar energy reached a summer maximum (9% higher than at present) ~11 ka ago and has been decreasing since then, primarily in response to the precession of the equinoxes. The extra energy elevated early Holocene summer temperatures throughout the Arctic 1-3°C above 20th century averages, enough to completely melt many small glaciers throughout the Arctic, although the Greenland Ice Sheet was only slightly smaller than at present.”
…. A multi-proxy numerical analysis demonstrates that it is possible to distinguish a glacier component in the ~ 8000-yr-long record, based on distinct changes in grain size, geochemistry, and magnetic composition…. This signal is …independently tested through a mineral magnetic provenance analysis of catchment samples. Minimum glacier input is indicated between 6700–5700 cal yr BP, probably reflecting a situation when most glaciers in the catchment had melted away, whereas the highest glacier activity is observed around 600 and 200 cal yr BP. During the local Neoglacial interval (~ 4200 cal yr BP until present), five individual periods of significantly reduced glacier extent are identified at ~ 3400, 3000–2700, 2100–2000, 1700–1500, and ~ 900 cal yr BP….
So overall, since the Holocene Optimum sea level has fallen and glaciers have grown.
Of course that does not apply to Rabaul these days. Despite years of reading WW II history and books who’s subjects included descriptions of Rabaul I can’t remember on informing me that the harbor is actually a volcanic caldera. Guess I should have figured it out just looking at the features.
I guess this may as good as time and place as any to post my short essay on the Mule Shoe. Another concentrated killing ground. Freely admitting that I borrowed a little bit from Jeffrey Shaara’s excellent Civil War history novel http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Full-Measure-Trilogy/dp/0345434811
Short summery of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
May 8th through 21st, 1864
One day of this battle was so horrible that some thought God took a day off. This is a battle that I think many don’t understand or appreciate how really bad and brutal it was. Perhaps because it came so close on the heals of the carnage at the more famous battle at the Wilderness and shortly before Grant’s disaster at Cold Harbor.
By 1864 Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was purely on the strategic defensive. Grant, unlike all his predecessors had not retreated back across a river to lick his wounds after his tactical defeat at the Wilderness. He, unlike all those that failed before him, had continued to have the Army of the Potomac advance south in a flanking maneuver around Lee’s right instead of retreating back across a river. A move that greatly bolstered the spirits of many of his veteran troops.
Grant’s strategic objective at this time, also unlike every other Union General before him, was the destruction of the Army of Northern Virginia. His maneuvers up to the time of the battle at Spotsylvania Court House were attempts to get between Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate capital at Richmond, VA in order to force Lee to fight in the open or even attack him when he had the favorable position. Grant was trying to do exactly what Confederate General Longstreet had wanted Lee to do when he invaded the north. But that invasion led the Battle of Gettysburg which, along with the surrender of Vicksburg led to circumstances that put the Confederacy on the strategic defensive for the remainder of the war.
Lee, though initially deceived by the quiet flanking maneuver, quickly recovered and beat Grant to Spotsylvania where the ground favored the defender and there he established a strong line of trenches well supported by artillery.
Lee’s line was a little over 3 miles long and established on very defendable high ground but had a major flaw. In order to deny Grant and Meade the high ground he had to configure his line to follow the contours of the land and this caused the center of the line to project about a mile forward of the flanks. At the apex of this curved line was an area which projected beyond the arc of the main line. A salient that was exposed and perceived to be the most vulnerable portion of the Confederate line and was thus the focus of attack for the Union troops. This focal point of the battle was named “The Mule Shoe”.
May 10th thru May 13th of 1864 saw some of the most brutal and bitter fighting of the war. The fighting was done in wet rainy conditions and thick mud and wet gun powder became a factor. On May 12th in the mule shoe men fought at very close quarters in mud up to their knees trampling their wounded comrades who had fallen into the mud where they drowned. The attacking Union troops in the Mule Shoe were elements of Hancocks 2nd Corp and the defenders the proud veterans that were the remnants of the now dead Confederate General Jackson’s “Stone Wall” Brigade.
For a time all reason was lost by the combatants and men fought hand to hand like animals in a morass where no quarter was given until exhaustion finally over took them. It was as if all the hate and frustrations of both sides from the whole war was for a day concentrated in that small area known as The Mule Shoe. It was as if for a short time at that place the devil reigned supreme over God and had brought hell to that little piece of earth. In fact what some survivors saw and did in that place on May 12th made them question if there was a just and loving God because they couldn’t believe that God would allow such a thing to happen.
Grant’s army of nearly 100,000, some of them new soft troops who had previously only manned the heavy artillery defenses around Washington DC, eventually took the Mule shoe from Lee’s Army of 62,000 and pushed them back. However, Lee established a new defensive line that held.
The battle cost the Army of the Potomac about 18,000 casualties of which 2,275 were killed. It cost Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia nearly 13,500 casualties of which nearly 1,500 were killed. And Grant was forced to once again try to flank Lee get between his Army of Northern Virginia and Richmond.
These high casualties coming on the heels of those at the Wilderness where the Union suffered over 17,500 casualties and the Confederates over 11,000 makes May of 1864 the bloodiest month in the civl war.
The long death lists posted in Union towns and cities from these two battles with far more to come at Cold Harbor in June and other places over the next few months, severely damaged Lincoln’s chances of getting re-elected in the fall of that year. The people of both sides were war weary and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was also losing favor at this time but only in the Union was there a presidential election that year.
In the end, it was the Union soldiers with their determination to finish the job, voting from the battlefield for the first time in history, and Sherman taking Atlanta and beginning his march to the sea, which saved Lincoln’s presidency and defeated failed General George McClellan and his “Peace Democrat” candidacy.
That article has a over a thousand comments, my span killer program will not let me see them. Does anyone know what the general flavor of the comments are? Warmist, Skeptic?
Another completely OT that some may nevertheless be interested in. In August the C-130 became the longest produced military aircraft in history. The prototype flew in 1954 and it came into service in 1956. Every once in awhile the design of a military piece of equipment is just so good that even 60 years after the prototype it remains in front line service. I suspect that by now 4 generations of US paratroopers have jumped the C-130.
Reblogged this on Catholic Glasses and commented:
Another the “Sky Is Falling ” Weather Prediction, that has not come true.
in 1952 they didn’t know that Arctic ice is floating…………
It is Ice CapS so it is both poles.
morning Sunshine!!…..Carlson was an Arctic expert…..I figured he didn’t know we had another one….. 😉
+1
And here I thought he might have crewed one of the early shipps to the Antarctic – wimp. {:>D
There is nothing wrong with sea level. There IS something wrong with the freedom these men fought for.
http://worldwartwozone.com/assorted-crap/tarawa.jpg
http://www.historyflight.com/nw/docs/tarawa_report/the_burials.htm
Betio island Tarawa atoll. “All gave some. Some gave all”. The most concentrated hell of WWII bar none. The failure of proper recon of the beaches resulting in most of the the Marines having to wade many 100s of yards just to get to the beach when their landing craft couldn’t make it over the reefs led to the establishment of the Navy UDT’s, the fore bearers of the modern SEALs.
During the massive preparatory bombardment some said it looked like a volcano. Nobody figured the Japanese could sustain such a pounding. They did so very well in their bunkers primarily consisting of sand covered coconut palm logs with some concrete reinforcement.
Afterwards Admiral Nimitiz ordered Navy engineers to diagram in detail the defenses of Betio. http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/jp-betio-island/index.html
Then a replica was built on which most surface warships bound for the Pacific theater would train in shore bombardment.
The real problem was that the Navy and USMC and Army were reactive in adapting their weapons and tactics instead of proactive. IOW they always based their weapons and tactics on the previous invasions they had conducted.
But with defenses like those on Betio and Iwo Jima no matter if every Marine assault boat team had been in a LTV taking islands like are going to be nasty. Only infantry can do it.
“The most concentrated hell of WWII bar none.”
I’ve told you a million times not to exaggerate. Kursk, Stalingrad, Hürtgen Forest, Monte Cassino, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Cologne, Hamburg . . . they dwarf Betio.
Yes, it was nasty, but your superlative doesn’t apply.
It sure as hell does. Betio is only a touch over a square mile in area. Nearly 5,000 men died in that area. “Concentrated” being the key word in my description. Now give me the location of a square mile of such concentrated fury elsewhere in WWII.
Second Cold Harbor June 3, 1864. 7000 Union, 1500 Confederate. Antietam Creek: 23,100 total. Malvern Hill: 2150 Union, 5650 Confederate. I have stood on the Malvern Hill battlefield and can hit a driver over it. Gettysburg and Pickett’s charge: 6555 casualties in 50 minutes. Total at Gettysburg for 3 days was 51,000. Hannibal at Cannae: Estimates from 50,000-70,000 Romans in ONE day. That was bloody hell.
Yes and the Wheat Field at Gettysburg is another July 2nd, 1863.. Concentrated casualties/KIA or died of wounds in a concentrated area over a concentrated period of time.
This is off topic, but I will be brief. My step-father was at Tarawa as a Marine in the first landing. He came home with a steel plate in his head and as one of the most violent men I have ever known. The fighting never stops at the end of a war; it just slows down and the soldiers coming back continue the war in their own homes and with their own families.
We brain wash good men to be soldiers, but we rarely train them back to be good men after the war is over.
Thank goodness there are some like my father and uncle who do manage to overcome the trauma but even if they do, War changes them forever.
My classmates went through Vietnam as my father’s classmates went through WWII and Korea. When you think of it, it is amazing we have so little violence in this country outside the inner-city combat zones.
“We “brain wash” good men?” You mean men like these? This is soldier speak and neither the man speaking, nor those that he is speaking to have been “brain washed”. They have been trained to do the toughest job in the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbOcJ6kqJAA#t=15
It was not the training that caused his problem. The trauma of war, organized yet chaotic mass killing, for which he trained and more than likely the injuries he sustained on the field are far more likely to have caused it. We who went through tough military training are not fools having some less level of skepticism or lack the mental capacity to understand right from wrong. And to assume that people that have fought the wars up close and personal are “brain washed” is just plain WRONG!
rah, that is why I used the word trauma not ‘brainwashed’ (thats PC twisting). But military training and war changes people. We all change with experience…. Except perhaps for the PC brainwashed parasites still living in Mommy’s basement and spamming the internet with Marxist drool.
Sorry Gail I meant my reply to go to Jason and that is why I quoted from him.
For most military training changes them for the better from what I have seen. And war wears a person and changes them but by know means does it have to destroy who they were. My uncle was an infantry scout/FO in WW II. He was one of those that enlisted later in the war for pilot training but was switched to infantry like so many others because of the shortage in that arm. He went to war shortly after the Battle of the Bulge and was wounded twice. Once by a 20mm round and then again worse by a short round from his own artillery support. He came home and got a degree in Chemistry and worked in the rubber and plastics industry. He was the epitome of the soft spoken charming gentleman. I know plenty of guys that have seen the elephant. SF and Delta. They are current friends and others comrades that I will never forget. And many have experienced some pretty awful stuff, think Mogadishu and later fights and been wounded. Every one of them came out and went on to be productive law abiding citizens.
rah, I just wanted to make sure you knew I was not agreeing. I was an Officer’s wife during ‘Nam and hung out with the sergeants during the mandatory get togethers (Hi-Byes) I rather talk about hunting, fishing, wood working and cars than dishes and diapers therefore I heard a lot of the stories.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/USMC-M-Tarawa-3.jpg
Both my Father and Uncle were in the Pacific during WWII. The only reason my Uncle made it back alive was because a flat tire made him miss the take-off of his plane that was shot down by the Japanese.
The Island is still there and doing fine.
http://www.betioraun.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/BetioMap.jpg
If they cleaned up the trash it is doing fine. http://us.yhs4.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?ei=UTF-8&type=avastbcl&hspart=avast&hsimp=yhs-001&p=Betio+trash
Not just trash dumps but the floating stuff that tends to accumulate along the shore. Very disturbing to me to think of pieces of Marines mixed in with that.
Based on Robertv’s photos and maps, a “climate change” trivia question for your Warmist and Luker “friends”:
In the last 70 years, how much have South Pacific “sea levels” risen?
a) 0.05″
b) 0.5″
c) 5″
d) 50″
e) 500″
~0
Sea level is overall FALLING!
The sea level has gone down since the highstand during the Holocene Optimum.
Another paper:
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/ericg/kap_paper.pdf
Sea-level highstand recorded in Holocene shoreline deposits on Oahu, Hawaii
http://jsedres.geoscienceworld.org/content/66/3/632.abstract
Abstract
Unconsolidated carbonate sands and cobbles on Kapapa Island, windward Oahu, are 1.4-2.8 (+ or – 0.25) m above present mean sea level (msl). Agreeing with Stearns (1935), we interpret the deposit to be a fossil beach or shoreline representing a highstand of relative sea level during middle to late Holocene time. Calibrated radiocarbon dates of coral and mollusc samples, and a consideration of the effect of wave energy setup, indicate that paleo-msl was at least 1.6 (+ or – 0.45) m above present msl prior to 3889-3665 cal. yr B.P, possibly as early as 5532-5294 cal. yr B.P., and lasted until at least 2239-1940 cal. yr B.P. Hence, the main phase of deposition on Kapapa Island lasted a minimum of c. 1400 yr and possibly as long as c. 3400 yr. No modern samples have been recovered from the fossil beach…Radiocarbon ages of coral and mollusc clasts from a breccia lining an emerged (1.4 + or – 0.25 m msl) intertidal notch, cut into emerged coralline-algal carbonate of presumed last interglacial age, on south Mokulua Island (15 km to the southeast of Kapapa Island) correlate to the history recorded on Kapapa Island. Calibrated ages range from 2755-2671 to 3757-3580 cal. yr B.P. (averaging c. 3100 cal. yr B.P.) suggesting that a higher than present sea level formed the notch prior to 3757-3580 cal. yr B.P….
The Authors interpret this data to agree with subsidence based on models: ” This history is consistent with geophysical models of postglacial geoid subsidence over the equatorial ocean first predicted by Walcott (1972) and later refined by Clark et al. (1978) and Mitrovica and Peltier (1991).” However if the Southeast Vietnam coast was geologically stable and showing the same type of data, that interpretation based on models is open to question.
The warmists sure will twist and turn and ignore the facts to support their believe the earth is warming,
But other papers show the lie. Such as this paper, Temperature and precipitation history of the Arctic> says: “Solar energy reached a summer maximum (9% higher than at present) ~11 ka ago and has been decreasing since then, primarily in response to the precession of the equinoxes. The extra energy elevated early Holocene summer temperatures throughout the Arctic 1-3°C above 20th century averages, enough to completely melt many small glaciers throughout the Arctic, although the Greenland Ice Sheet was only slightly smaller than at present.”
Another, more recent study in Norway agrees:
So overall, since the Holocene Optimum sea level has fallen and glaciers have grown.
Pr. Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner: Meeresspiegelanstieg — Fakt und Fiktion
http://youtu.be/8EMoU8OOsBs
Photographic evidence of Pacific atol and island growth have been shown since over-flying these during WWII. Also later studies show that this is still the case.
http://calderup.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/pick-of-the-pics-2/
Sorry Ms Combs, you will have to remain after class. The question stated “In the last 70 years…”
🙂
Does she get to clean the erasers again?
And you missed the very beginning of my comment.
~0
Or written out, About zero with no decimal attached because I very much doubt the measurements are any better than 1 mm.
The rest of the comment shows just how idiotic all the hand wringing over a couple centimeters is,
Taking out the minor variations, the sea level has FALLEN 4 to 6 FEET within RECORDED HISTORY.
That is a real nice factoid you can shove down the throat of some warmist and I have given you the ‘Pee-reviewed’ papers to back it up.
Let’s see…
Ostia Antica, Roman port, now about 2 miles inland.
Pevensey Castle, Roman fort, now about 1 mile, inland when in 1066 it was an island.
Many other such examples can be found.
No, no, seaports are fine. Like a lot of big-businesses they are cashing in on Green Fashion-Fads and Fetishes:
http://www.polb.com/
Scan their page. Quite a success story they are. And concerned. Saving that injured pelican and all…
But check out any good sized sea-port; they are all raking it in – and I’m not talking about rising sea-levels.
Of course that does not apply to Rabaul these days. Despite years of reading WW II history and books who’s subjects included descriptions of Rabaul I can’t remember on informing me that the harbor is actually a volcanic caldera. Guess I should have figured it out just looking at the features.
I guess this may as good as time and place as any to post my short essay on the Mule Shoe. Another concentrated killing ground. Freely admitting that I borrowed a little bit from Jeffrey Shaara’s excellent Civil War history novel http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Full-Measure-Trilogy/dp/0345434811
Short summery of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
May 8th through 21st, 1864
One day of this battle was so horrible that some thought God took a day off. This is a battle that I think many don’t understand or appreciate how really bad and brutal it was. Perhaps because it came so close on the heals of the carnage at the more famous battle at the Wilderness and shortly before Grant’s disaster at Cold Harbor.
By 1864 Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was purely on the strategic defensive. Grant, unlike all his predecessors had not retreated back across a river to lick his wounds after his tactical defeat at the Wilderness. He, unlike all those that failed before him, had continued to have the Army of the Potomac advance south in a flanking maneuver around Lee’s right instead of retreating back across a river. A move that greatly bolstered the spirits of many of his veteran troops.
Grant’s strategic objective at this time, also unlike every other Union General before him, was the destruction of the Army of Northern Virginia. His maneuvers up to the time of the battle at Spotsylvania Court House were attempts to get between Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate capital at Richmond, VA in order to force Lee to fight in the open or even attack him when he had the favorable position. Grant was trying to do exactly what Confederate General Longstreet had wanted Lee to do when he invaded the north. But that invasion led the Battle of Gettysburg which, along with the surrender of Vicksburg led to circumstances that put the Confederacy on the strategic defensive for the remainder of the war.
Lee, though initially deceived by the quiet flanking maneuver, quickly recovered and beat Grant to Spotsylvania where the ground favored the defender and there he established a strong line of trenches well supported by artillery.
Lee’s line was a little over 3 miles long and established on very defendable high ground but had a major flaw. In order to deny Grant and Meade the high ground he had to configure his line to follow the contours of the land and this caused the center of the line to project about a mile forward of the flanks. At the apex of this curved line was an area which projected beyond the arc of the main line. A salient that was exposed and perceived to be the most vulnerable portion of the Confederate line and was thus the focus of attack for the Union troops. This focal point of the battle was named “The Mule Shoe”.
May 10th thru May 13th of 1864 saw some of the most brutal and bitter fighting of the war. The fighting was done in wet rainy conditions and thick mud and wet gun powder became a factor. On May 12th in the mule shoe men fought at very close quarters in mud up to their knees trampling their wounded comrades who had fallen into the mud where they drowned. The attacking Union troops in the Mule Shoe were elements of Hancocks 2nd Corp and the defenders the proud veterans that were the remnants of the now dead Confederate General Jackson’s “Stone Wall” Brigade.
For a time all reason was lost by the combatants and men fought hand to hand like animals in a morass where no quarter was given until exhaustion finally over took them. It was as if all the hate and frustrations of both sides from the whole war was for a day concentrated in that small area known as The Mule Shoe. It was as if for a short time at that place the devil reigned supreme over God and had brought hell to that little piece of earth. In fact what some survivors saw and did in that place on May 12th made them question if there was a just and loving God because they couldn’t believe that God would allow such a thing to happen.
Grant’s army of nearly 100,000, some of them new soft troops who had previously only manned the heavy artillery defenses around Washington DC, eventually took the Mule shoe from Lee’s Army of 62,000 and pushed them back. However, Lee established a new defensive line that held.
The battle cost the Army of the Potomac about 18,000 casualties of which 2,275 were killed. It cost Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia nearly 13,500 casualties of which nearly 1,500 were killed. And Grant was forced to once again try to flank Lee get between his Army of Northern Virginia and Richmond.
These high casualties coming on the heels of those at the Wilderness where the Union suffered over 17,500 casualties and the Confederates over 11,000 makes May of 1864 the bloodiest month in the civl war.
The long death lists posted in Union towns and cities from these two battles with far more to come at Cold Harbor in June and other places over the next few months, severely damaged Lincoln’s chances of getting re-elected in the fall of that year. The people of both sides were war weary and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was also losing favor at this time but only in the Union was there a presidential election that year.
In the end, it was the Union soldiers with their determination to finish the job, voting from the battlefield for the first time in history, and Sherman taking Atlanta and beginning his march to the sea, which saved Lincoln’s presidency and defeated failed General George McClellan and his “Peace Democrat” candidacy.
De Oppresso Liber
You must understand, increasing ice means it getting worse.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/arctic-sea-ice-problem-actually-145300349.html
That article has a over a thousand comments, my span killer program will not let me see them. Does anyone know what the general flavor of the comments are? Warmist, Skeptic?
Overwhelmingly sceptical. Dare I say 97% sceptical consensus?
Thanks, Jason. Glad to hear it.
(No wonder the extreme left rags are banning skeptics.)
Another completely OT that some may nevertheless be interested in. In August the C-130 became the longest produced military aircraft in history. The prototype flew in 1954 and it came into service in 1956. Every once in awhile the design of a military piece of equipment is just so good that even 60 years after the prototype it remains in front line service. I suspect that by now 4 generations of US paratroopers have jumped the C-130.