Before the Battle of Antietam, Union troops found a document dropped by a careless Confederate with Lee’s complete battle plan. They gave it to Union General George McClellan, who bragged that he would now destroy Lee’s Army.
Then he went on to incompetently bungle everything, turn Antietam into the single bloodiest day of the war, and win a pyrrhic victory in which Lee’s army got away.
One of Lee’s aides remarked, “There was a single item in our advantage, but it was an important one. McClellan had brought superior forces to Sharpsburg, but he had also brought himself.”
It will be important to remember that, rather like Satan, destroying himself by crucifying Jesus, we have one huge ally in defeating Donald Trump:
Donald Trump.
He is a cunning predator, but he is also a stupid, stupid, stupid man. And his stupidity is magnified by his pride and his conviction that he is the greatest genius in the history of the world. Surrounding himself with toadies guarantees that nobody will ever warn him when he is doing something massively self-destructive (we are, after all, talking about a man who has bankrupted multiple casinos). That kind of incompetence has created a cult where Stupids and Incompetents feel free to never ask themselves, “Might I be making a mistake?” and that affords Normals lots of opportunities to exploit their stupidity to defeat them.
So have hope. Like the man said, “Hitler wasn’t all bad. After all, he killed Hitler!”
“Hope”, however, does not mean “Take it easy”. We are not done till he is done and all the destruction he and his Cult have wreaked is repaired:
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Trump appears to think that he is an expert on literally everything. During the pandemic, he pushed Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin,which was quackery. Clinical studies showed that these drugs did no good, but his MAGA crowd believed it because he said so. Trump has no medical training, but offers medical advice, such as injecting Lysol into people’s bodies. MAGA got angry with doctors who did not slavishly agree with Trump. Incredible.
Trump surrounds himself with sycophants rather than capable people, who will never disagree with him. Hegseth, a TV host, is now responsible for our national defense. Really? The glorification of ignorance.
The plans were found on September 13th 1862.
The viewpoint that McClellan was incompetent and would tarry the movements of his army is not congruent with the fact that he issued orders immediately and the vanguard of his army was actually on the move on the 13th.
McClellan’s army reached the Antietam creek on 15th in the evening, but the battle was delayed a day because of fog on the 16th, which gave Lee time to prepare for the battle on the 17th.
There are several reasons why McClellan stopped and lost the initiative: 1) the plan actually went too well and it made him anxious that he’s walking into a trap; 2) that continuing the assault would open up a way for Lee to invade Pennsylvania and 4) that newspapers printed information that Lee’s plans were found on the 15th.
The fourth reason is that he didn’t share his overall plans with his field commanders, so they couldn’t take initiative outside of their sectors. There is actually good reason for this: fools in the entire chain of command ran to newspapers with all the possible news and leaks and secrets so that the Confederacy didn’t even need spies in the Union, they just needed somebody who could read the news and wire them to Confederate military leaders.
You should look up Sherman’s quotes about newspapers and their role in assisting the Confederacy in the war. “Loose lips sink ships” propaganda campaign wasn’t aimed at random leaks in World War I and II. Babbling was actually the default and although government censorship at least blocked newspapers from printing leaks that would be useful to the enemy, but soldiers, sailors and officers would gladly babble to anyone who would listen to make themselves appear more important and more interesting by ostensibly being more informed. (Toxic masculinity played a crucial role here because when trying to impress a woman, they wouldn’t believe that she would be competent enough to record and relay all that information.)
But at least in the case of McClellan, you’re wrong.
One of Lee’s aides remarked, “There was a single item in our advantage, but it was an important one. McClellan had brought superior forces to Sharpsburg, but he had also brought himself.”
Note who remarked upon that ostensible mistake: Confederates and Confederacy sympathizers will gleefully point out every single mistake that Union commanders made, regardless of whether it was unavoidable.
Amateur military historians adore the CSA. Most of them do it because it was the underdog who had all odds stacked against them, but somehow had excellent commanders (with Lee at the forefront), brave soldiers, and even great politicians, but all efforts were hindered by the South’s relative lack of development as if it was somehow the Union’s fault.
They like the what-ifs of the Civil War: What if the CSA didn’t lose? What could the CSA have done to prevent its defeat?
But some of those historians adore the CSA for the reasons why Civil War happened and bemoan the fact that it resulted in the end of slavery in USA.
And while Lee was a brilliant general, other generals were just fine, and Grant and Sherman easily matched Lee. They didn’t have particularly savvy leadership, either: All of their diplomatic efforts were aided by the fact that dealing with Confederates weakened the Union’s position and allowed them to employ divide and conquer as it would always be easier to control two smaller players who are always at odds with each other and unable to exert greater influence than a single unified country — and they were right, considering that unified USA would immediately set its ambitions west right after the war (Manifest destiny).
CSA did not have particularly brave soldiers, not any braver that the Union, and for the very simple reason that it was the world before any conventions. Neither side was particularly keen to take prisoners, prisoners would be left to rot, the injured wouldn’t receive prompt medical attention, so they tended to fight to the last man.
“What if the CSA didn’t lose”?
It turns out it didn’t. Not in any real sense. They were defeated only in the most formal and technical sense. It’s leaders, who were nothing less than terrorists, were never punished and in fact have been deified in public spaces. Military installations are named in their honor. That makes as much sense as naming an aircraft carrier after bin Laden.
All that changed with Lee’s surrender is that slave owning and trading could no longer be done with formal title, but it continued unabated for a century and more after that by other means. Rather than buying slaves at auction, the planting class simply “leased” them from law enforcement, who would arrest black men on petty or fabricated charges, saddle them with impossible penal debt and then effectively sentence them to life at hard labor. Unpaid labor of course.
Voting rights for black Americans meant nothing due to Jim Crow laws and outright terror. After a few short decades of real progress in restoring those voting rights, that system is being dismantled before our eyes to make sure that white men, Confederate white men, will always retain power over blacks regardless of the will of voters.
These Confederates still claim, and exercise their perceived right to overthrow government by terrorist violence anytime they don’t like the outcome of an election. The nation is led by an insurrectionist in open violation of the 14th Amendment. The Confederate regime in Washington and the former Confederate states is outlawing the teaching of our nation’s real history regarding slavery and race relations. Black men and women in the armed forces are basically being reduced to menial labor again. Hegseth just removed all women and blacks from promotion eligibility in the Navy.
Only white men, and white men with the proper Confederate sympathies, will be allowed to hold real power in America going forward.
In other words, we are the Confederate States of America in all but formal title. The Confederates have a far firmer grasp on the nation and culture now than they ever did under Jeff Davis and the old cotton economy.
I’m really curious to know why, in the midst of this horror show, you never NEVER mention the role of Netanyahu, and the genocidal Zionists –in this monumental, possibly end-times scenario.
Truly the elephant (Baphomet) in the room.
It’s kind of making me nostalgic about the three-days of darkness.
I’m working on a book and am posting stuff way in advance. I have talked about the criminal Netanyahu regime on Facebook, but haven’t gotten round to it here. At some point I will, but I need to focus on other stuff right now and I have to make all the proper distinctions between the criminal regime in Israel and the Jewish people per se (most of whom are not Israeli and lots of whom object to Netanyahu) or anti-semites are instantly attracted like flies to shit and I don’t need the hassle in my comboxes right now cuz I have a ton or work to do.
Well I’m glad you are able to focus on other things.
I am always careful to make the distinction between Jewish people and Zionists. I just saw a powerful news piece about some Jewish kids from NY who became activists when they discovered the horrible truth during their birth rite trips to Israel.
Lots of Jews in my family! My Jewish brother-in-law and his son are literally cheering for the racial cleansing of Gaza. THAT I have a problem with. I can barely speak to my sister who turns her face from it. I send her the photos. now she won’t talk to me. My mother says it isn’t happening–won’t look at photos. Fox news seven days a week, dawn till dusk.
This time last year my son was filling me in about what’s been going on for the last 150 years. I told him he was nuts, and to keep his voice down.. Too crazy to wrap my head around. Even the demented Trump knows Bibi is a maniac.
We are occupied, and have no Democracy. Hard not to be anguished about this.
@tacoanybody:
You should also keep in mind that as an ideology, Zionism is not exclisove to jewish people; ans a matter of fact, a sizeable amount (if not the outright majority) of the most die-hard Zionists, who weild the greatest amount of political and economic power, are actually Christian Zionists.
Netanyahu is a problem, but he’s not the primary problem in the United States. He doesn’t owe any fealty to the U.S. Constitution or American interests. He’s doing what world leader do: Pursuing what he believes to be his nation’s interests aggressively and without apology.
The real problem for the U.S. is that we have a leader who is unusually vulnerable to blackmail due to his own conduct and an election system that allows unlimited bribery from foreign interests.
Bibi has got something on Trump. Something really bad. Ditto Putin. Trump is unusually vulnerable to blackmail from foreign leaders, thus his actions which are not in the best interests of the United States.