02/09: Random Thoughts on the Road, 10
Category: American History and Politics
Posted by: an okie gardener
We left Georgia by way of Chattanooga. Just south of the city we visited the Battle of Chickamauga historic site. Visiting Civil War battle sites is always a moving experience for me; I think of the men who died for Liberty and their suffering. Ironically, both sides fought for Liberty, each side defining it differently. I am glad the Union won, for its definition of Liberty, by the end of the war, made possible today's multiracial nation.
We drove around the site, following the tour map. I knew very little about this battle, other than it was part of the campaign by the Army of the Cumberland to secure Chattanooga for the Union. The tour map, and the signs at each stop, gave the story. The battle event that struck me most was the near rout of the Union forces. General Rosecrans was informed that a gap had opened in his lines. He ordered units shuffled to fill the gap. However, there was no gap, faulty information. Shuffling the other units created a real gap that Longstreet immediately exploited with his Confederate troops, driving Union forces back and threatening to turn the battlefield into a killing field for the Army of the Cumberland. Even Rosecrans fled. The remaining Union ranking officer on the field, Thomas, moved the troops who remained into a defensible position and held off wave after wave of Confederate assaults until after dark, then withdrew. His actions allowed Union forces to regroup and hold Chattanooga.
American voters need to know more military history. We expect today, and our media heighten this expectation, that everything will go according to plan in military operations. Never has. Never will. War is the most complex of human undertakings. Whether called the "fog of war" or the "friction of war" or by some other name, plans and decisions are based on limited information, sometimes wrong. No plan survives intact the first contact with the enemy. Armies must improvise under fire, when clear heads and stout hearts count most. Our modern media is too quick with hysterical reporting when things do not go perfectly in America's modern wars. Learn some history.
A brief summary of the battle is here. The website for the Chickamauga & Chattanooga Military Park is here.
We drove around the site, following the tour map. I knew very little about this battle, other than it was part of the campaign by the Army of the Cumberland to secure Chattanooga for the Union. The tour map, and the signs at each stop, gave the story. The battle event that struck me most was the near rout of the Union forces. General Rosecrans was informed that a gap had opened in his lines. He ordered units shuffled to fill the gap. However, there was no gap, faulty information. Shuffling the other units created a real gap that Longstreet immediately exploited with his Confederate troops, driving Union forces back and threatening to turn the battlefield into a killing field for the Army of the Cumberland. Even Rosecrans fled. The remaining Union ranking officer on the field, Thomas, moved the troops who remained into a defensible position and held off wave after wave of Confederate assaults until after dark, then withdrew. His actions allowed Union forces to regroup and hold Chattanooga.
American voters need to know more military history. We expect today, and our media heighten this expectation, that everything will go according to plan in military operations. Never has. Never will. War is the most complex of human undertakings. Whether called the "fog of war" or the "friction of war" or by some other name, plans and decisions are based on limited information, sometimes wrong. No plan survives intact the first contact with the enemy. Armies must improvise under fire, when clear heads and stout hearts count most. Our modern media is too quick with hysterical reporting when things do not go perfectly in America's modern wars. Learn some history.
A brief summary of the battle is here. The website for the Chickamauga & Chattanooga Military Park is here.
photognome wrote:
I have been enjoying your travelogue
On the topic of fallibility of military decisions - I wish I could remember something of where I picked up the following quote. I seem t remember it being attributed to a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"The majority of military decisions are wrong. The victor is wrong about 95% of the time and the loser wrong about 99% of the time"
I have not paid close attention to media vs government/military spin on this but my sense is that the hyping of "smart weapons" "precision strikes" "laser guided munitions", etc feeds the expectation for a 'perfect war'