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Gettisburg Fought over shoes

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Grumpyfred (U2228930) on Wednesday, 15th December 2010

  i remember reading some years ago that Gettisburg was fought more over shoes than anything else. The Southen Army was almost shoeless, and among other things the city had one of the biggest shoe factories in the country. There was also a myth that the northen army approached from the south and the southern army north. Again the story goes that if Jeb Stewart had obeyed his orders, the battle may have gone the other way. The film has been shown on Sky, but i have missed it, but just ordered the DVD, although I have a VHS copy I recorded many years ago somewhere.
  
  GF

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  Posted by giraffe47 (U4048491) on Wednesday, 15th December 2010

  The Southern Army did approach from the North-West and West, and the Northern army from the South-East and East. Not sure if the shoes were a major factor, but they were trying to outflank the Yanks, and put the frighteners on good Ol' Abe Linclon by threatening to attack Washington.
  
  Jeb Stuart would certainly have helped if he had stuck around, but Lee almost won it without him - without a smart Yankee at Little Round top on the 2nd day, and a steady stand by their infantry and artillery on the 3rd day, the Rebs might well have won.
  
  Pickett's charge was maybe not as daft as it has been made to look with 20-20 hindsight. I have been to the battlefield, and the 'ridge' held by the Yanks is not as pronounced as one might have thought - more of a very gentle slope, that would hardly interfere with their advance.
  
  A little better artillery preparation, a little more luck, a little less Yankee steadiness. . . . perhaps a 'closer run thing' than it is often seen as?
  

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  Posted by Grumpyfred (U2228930) on Wednesday, 15th December 2010

  G, thanks for that. The battlefield is on Must do list. we are spending Christmas/ New Year just south of Charleston, so i am hoping for a visit to Fort Sumpter and the Yorktown. Sadly I may have to go on my own while my wife is dragged off shopping. But I may be able to manage..

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  Posted by Hastur1 (U14272072) on Thursday, 16th December 2010

  While Stuart may have made a difference, Lee was hampered by the lack of aggression from Ewell on the first day and Longstreet apparentely having a sulk and delaying getting into action on the second. If either of these commanders had acted with purpose, the 1st Corps and those following piecemeal may have been chewed up and Meade forced to withdraw or at least concentrate elsewhere.
  
  It was the same at Little Round Top, too much countermarching left the assaulting brigades tired before they got there - notwithstanding Chamberlain's tactical brilliance.
  
  As for Pickett, regardless of slope it was probably the lack of supporting artillery - due to ammunition shortages - as well as an advance over relatively open ground into the teeth of a determined, fortified foe meant success was very improbable and effectively meant Lee could never take the offensive again because of losses.
  
  At the end of the day, it was a battle Lee should never have entered, but driven by the forlorn hope of one last victory to get foreign intervention, he probably had no choice.

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  Posted by giraffe47 (U4048491) on Friday, 17th December 2010

  Strangely, enough, Fred, my better half was visiting friends in Philly, and I was most reluctantly forced to tear myself away for a day to visit Gettysburg.
  
  And I got to see Sharpsburg (Antietam) as well. Sat on the hill above the Burnside Bridge, and wondered how anyone had the guts to try to cross it under fire!
  

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  Posted by Triceratops (U3420301) on Saturday, 18th December 2010

  The story about the shoes appears in Henry Heth's memoirs. Why Heth thought there would still be shoes in Gettysburg when Jubal Early's division had been through Gettysburg a few days earlier is anyones guess.
  Gettysburg itself was major road junction.
  
  Re the shortages in the Confederacy,the Victor Hugo novel was used to give the Army of Northern Virginia the nickname "Lee's Miserables"

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