Can someone explain to me why Gen Robert E. Lee sent 15,000 men & boys, mostly from Virginia,?
139266
Lee was a gambler. He perhaps overestimated his Virginia boys, and he often took risks that other commanders wouldn't have. That's part of what makes him one of America's best generals, but it proved his undoing at this particular engagement. Besides, Pickett's Charge was a sort of echo of the way wars used to be fought. It proved that modern technology made that type of war no longer possible. The bayonet charge was no more.\n\nAlthough other small engagements were fought on Cemetary Ridge, I think you are talking about what is commonly known as Pickett's Charge. \n\nAnd about Fredricksburg: that was a Confederate victory. Burnside was an idiot, and he fought piecemeal. Perhaps Lee thought that if he used his men in one huge attack that artillery could not budge, and his lines would overwhelm the Union soldiers. After all, if a bayonet charge suceeds in gettting close enough to the enemy, the defenders often run. No one likes the idea of cold steel in their belly.\n\nedit: You are certainly correct that James Longstreet and General Trimble played a huge role in the attack. However, Lee gave the direct order to Pickett's brigade. Besides, Longstreet has always been a mediocre commander, despite what history says about him. He lacked initiative, and it cost Lee battles numerous times. However, he was a strong and steady left hand man (well...technically thats Stuart, and Jackson is the right).\n\nI disagree that the Virginians were Lee's best men. States do not define fighting men. Texans, in my opinion, were Lee's greatest asset. It was they that shouted "General Lee to the rear! Lee to the rear!" in 1864, and they fought like demons in the whole war. But that's not really important.\n\nAlso, I just remembered this. One reason Lee might feel a bit cocky is because on the morning of July 3rd, 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia launched the biggest artilley salvo ever heard in the Americas. They actually fired more rounds then the Army of the Potomac did, but the Federals dug in well and didn't retreat.\n\nI think that if more of Lee's men had held out along the flanks, maybe Pickett's Charge would not have been such a disaster. It still would have had ridiculous casualities, but Lee wouldn't neccessarily be forced to end his first and only invasion of the North. After all, Amistead's men managed it over the walls, and there was hand to hand fighting for hours. However, there weren't enough Rebs to make the Yanks run.
15376
There are a variety of theories and no one knows for sure.   The origin I think most likely is that it came from the military.   Machine gun belts were 27 feet long, thus a target that got an entire belt of amunition would get "the whole nine yards".
198851
Sadly, there have been quite a few recipients of the Bronze Star (or - as we soldiers currently prefer to call it - the BS) who were nowhere near a theater of combat. Many people won the BS without having ever left US soil while merely serving in a support role! Mainly officers and very senior NCOs. Go figure.
356444
Not sure what the question means - I'll guess California. It probably didn't send many men east to fight.
734951
Why was he willing to help get more soldiers in the guard. I would like to say that all soldiers are doing a job. They signed up for it. If he does not like the way they conduct business don't reenlist. I think he needs to get out and shut his mouth up. We has military family are proud of our soldiers. We support them no matter what. It is something we have no say where the go and what they do.
260916
was it states rights...that is one in the books..thats not it i think it had alot to do with a power struggle.The north wanting to keep the south in its proper place. Which wud be wrong...i admit i missed something on the subject,i can find out.The north had a little known desire to not let the south persue an industial base, which was growing a  bit before the war broke out.Cotten was king n they knew it,with a strong industry the south could,and would i belief become dominant in the power sruggle.
884894
History in US has become too Politically Correct- and that is the problem.\nI also know the facts about the War of Secession, and it is indeed as you describe it.\nAnother hushed up fact is that 160 000 blacks served in the Confederate Army, most of them as free men and volunteers, about half of them as normal, armed, frontline troops. To make things even funnier, they served in integrated units alongside white men- while the Norhtern armies were segregated.\nAbout 6% of the men in "Pickett's Charge" at Gettysburg were black.\n\nAnd yes, this information is pretty hard to find. Also any information about the Islamic conquest of Christian lands- which led to the Crusades. But plenty of "history" on how the evil crusaders attacked the peace loving muslims. Also next to nothing about the Mongol invasions of Christian and Muslim lands.\n\nWhy is it done so? you might ask the same about mass media coverage of the Iraq war. \nJust too many busybodies with an agenda lying- that's my idea.
696932
One of our local National Guard units is getting ready for their third deployment to Iraq.  This unit has not volunteered for redeployment...they have been ordered.  I think if you do some research, you will find that Guard and Reserve units are being ordered back to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan more than once, and they aren't raising their hands saying, "Send me, send me".  These are men with jobs and families, and they didn't sign up to be permanent active duty.
62551
An incredible story was during WWII and the 442nd regiment from Hawaii.  They were Japanese Americans who were sent in to France to liberate a bunch of cornered American soldiers.  It was a sucicide mission, but since they were of Japanese descent, no one cared.  (Remember we were fighting the Japanese).  The story is incredible.  Here's a good place to start.  http://www.scu.edu/SCU/Programs/Diversity/442nd.html
659439
America was there to aid the French in the beginning, and then were military advisers. Ho Chi Min started a cue that led to troops coming in from China, and Russia aided with weaponry. Lindon Johnson decided to send in more troops, and America started bombing Viet Nam for ten years. The rest is history. It all started a draft, and full scale war against Communism. We lost.
833414
Hi, First Grant had nothing to do with Gettysburg he was at Vicksburg. General Meade was just appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac. John Reynolds a ranking Corp Commander was killed the first day and was replaced by Hancock who then commanded the First, Second, and Third Corps — three-fifths of the Union army and was considered by most the hero of Gettysburg. Hope this helps. God Bless You and The Southern People.
927132
Description: In May and June of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s armies converged on Vicksburg, investing the city and entrapping a Confederate army under Lt. Gen. John Pemberton. On July 4, Vicksburg surrendered after prolonged siege operations. This was the culmination of one of the most brilliant military campaigns of the war. With the loss of Pemberton’s army and this vital stronghold on the Mississippi, the Confederacy was effectively split in half. Grant's successes in the West boosted his reputation, leading ultimately to his appointment as General-in-Chief of the Union armies. \n\nResult(s): Union victory
109101
I would venture to guess they did not want a show down with the Soviet Union or China at the time. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was enough to justify escalating the war without a declaration.  You would think that sending 50,000 amercian boys and soldier girls to their deaths would've justified a declaration of war, but who am i to raise that argument.
222496
Apparently Madison, Monroe, Andrew Jackson and Johh Tyler, with Van Buren's family also owning them when he was a child.  Interestingly, of the first six presidents, four were from Virginia, and they were the slaveholders.  Of the next six, five were from the south (including 3 more Virginians).  One wonders if the history of slavery in the US would have been shorter had the White House been occupied by more northerners in its early years--or would the Civil War have come that much sooner?
883179
Predominately, America had gotten a belly full of a war in which we had no real interest.  When one now stops to consider that all parties combined, lost on average 98,000 men per month -- not to include those who died after battle or civilian casualties.  America didn't know the statistics, but the people sure felt the effects and knew only that they didn't want to involve themselves in another of someone else's war.
1110608
By your question I can tell you have no idea why the War of Northern Aggression (aka Civil War) was fought. In actuality only the north and mainly Lincoln made it a racial war. Lincoln had to have a reason for fighting his war because he had lost his biggest asset for running the government and the North was rapidly going into a depression without the tax money from the South. Lincoln provoked the war to bring back the southern states to regain the taxes he had lost with the succession of the south by putting more and more troops into Ft. Sumter against the demands of the Confederacy not to do so. President Davis sent several emissaries to Washington requesting no additional troops or arms into the fort or the Confederacy would consider it an aggressive act of war and fire. Lincoln put more troops and arms in and the Confederacy fired.\n\nIf you go to the South today you will find in almost every state that there is not a reestablishment of racial supremacy by the whites, On the contrary, especially in Mississippi the blacks are taking over city governments rapidly and most do not make any bones about it they want the whites out. I heard this myself while in MS last year during mayoral races when one black mayoral canadate said if elected she would do all she could to drive the whites out of her city. She won the vote.\n\nNow before any blacks get upset and start calling me names, I have nothing against blacks in any way. I have a number of very good friends who are black and have a cousin in the my family who is black. I consider all people equal unless an individual person creates a situation that should not be tolerated by anyone.
699965
Wait whose picture is that I use?  hmmmmm!\n\n\nI have to say a few thing Bedford Forrest did not start the KKK as we know it if you read his biography you will learn that to be true.  Burnside was a washout who destroyed the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg his actions at Antietam were even more of an embarrassment even though he had an open field he chose to make a fight over a useless bridge.  Thsi is such a hard question even for someone who is not a Southerner you have Stuart, Jackson, Lee, Gordon  and Cleburne to name but a few.  I guess I am going to have to say Gordan.\n\nAlthough the backbone of the Confederate Army's officer corps was composed of professional soldiers, many officers,including generals, were civilians turned soldier. Only a few of them gained the admiration of their professional brothers in arms. Gordon was one of these. Characterized by splendid audacity, in 1864, he was described by General Robert E. Lee in a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis as being one of his best brigadiers. His rise, says his biographer, Ralph Lowell Eckert in John Brown Gordon, Soldier, Southerner, American, from captain to corps commander was unmatched in the Army of Northern Virginia. \n\nThe Company, which called itself the Raccoon Roughs, left Atlanta for Montgomery after Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown declared that Georgia had all the troops it needed and offered its services to the State of Alabama, which incorporated them into an extra large 6th Alabama infantry. In the 6th Alabama's first taste of combat at Seven Pines, the Raccoon Roughs suffered heavy casualties. During the subsequent Seven Days Battles, as Gordon strode fearlessly among his men, enemy balls shattered the handle of his pistol, pierced his canteen, and tore away part of the front of his coat. Assigned by General Lee to hold an essential position during the Battle of Sharpsburg, Gordon's luck ran out.. \n\nGordon's men were tremendously outnumbered. Their only hope, he decided, was for his men to hold their fire until the enemy troops were practically on top of them and then all fire at once. It worked. Their first volley downed almost the entire Yankee front line. Subsequent lines of Yankees met a similar fate. However, many Confederates, too, went down at what came to be called the Battle of Bloody Lane (a sunken road), including Gordon. First, a mini ball passed through his calf. He soldiered on. Then, a second ball hit him higher in the same leg. He soldiered on. A third ball went through his left arm. He continued to lead his men despite the fact that the muscles and tendons in his arm were mangled, and a small artery was severed by this ball. A forth ball hit him in his shoulder. Despite pleas he go to the rear, he continued to lead his men. He was finally stopped by a ball which hit him in the face, passing through his left cheek and out his jaw. He fell with his face in his cap and might have drowned in his own blood if there hadn't been a bullet hole in the cap. Nursed back to health by his wife, who stayed as near to him as possible until late in the war when, incapacitated by the birth of a baby, she ended up behind enemy lines in Virginia, he returned to duty and was put in command of six Georgia regiments. He was promoted to brigadier general after the Battle of Chancellorsville. \n\nAt the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse Lee's greatly outnumbered army was threatened with being cut in two. Only Gordon and his men could prevent this from happening. Lee was prepared to lead the charge of Gordon's men when Gordon rode up and said, in a voice loud enough for his men to hear: "General Lee, this is no place for you. These men behind you are Georgians and Virginians. They have never failed you and will not fail you here. Will you boys?" \n\n"No, no, no, we'll not fail him," the men cried. Then they took up the chant, "Lee to the rear," and Gordon seized Lee's