good talk

I've always wanted to go to Gettysburg but none of the buses ran there. I slept some on the bus going from D.C. to Harrisburg arriving at 6 A.M. and got a nice rental from "Enterprise" who seem like a good outfit and drove the 38 miles. I was all over the Battlefield, the South was an Armed Camp while in the North there was never any rationing fighting the War almost leisurely. Robert E. Lee realized that the South would lose a war of attrition and that their only hope for the North to sue for Peace would be for a succesful Invasion of the North. Robert Lee is considered to be the best Battlefighter this country has had winning 6 major battles without any defeats and coming off the Rebels' greatest victory 2 months before at Chancellorsville with Lee expected to retreat dividing his army and Stonewall Jackson's Corps suprising and knocking out the Union's llth Corps made up of German-Americans (Stonewall Jackson's Flanking March), such success could never be repeated as soon afterwards Jackson was dead. The Battle of Gettysburg was July 1-3, 1863 with the Union seizing the better vantage points on July l. The North seized the Little Round Top a huge steep hill where a hundred horses' hearts exploded trying to pull the cannon to the top. There's a body of opinion that there were better men in those days compared to today as just to survive one had to be strong and tought, when the horses couldn't do it Ohioans carried the cannon to the top on their shoulders. On July 2 the Union fighting with the desperation that if they failed there all was lost held all of their positions across the Battlefield. On July 3 Robert Lee overconfident that his Army of Northern Virginia would prevail as they had before sent 12,500 men almost a mile against the Union's fortified positions while heavy cannon and rifle fire decimated them in what was known as Longstreet's Assault until 1870 when Longstreet fell out of favor and became known as Pickett's Charge (actually also Pettigrew's Charge). This began with General George Pickett posing the query....General may I advance.....to which General James Longstreet Lee's 2nd in Command gave a glum nod as he saw the futility. ......I can't tell you how funny I feel knowing tomorrow I'll see a big battle. Kind of scared inside but I'm not going to run.....Pvt. James C. David 3rd Michigan on July 2, 1863, he was killed July 3 in the Wheatfield helping repulse Pickett's Charge there were many underage soldiers on both sides Pvt. Davis was 14.