Schedules and what they mean

 

          One of the most important aspects of ranking college football teams is comparing the respective strength of schedules. How many national contenders do they play, what conference are they in and the current records are all questions that have to be answered when comparing teams that have not played one another.

          The Cincinnati Bearcats, as an example, play in a conference considered to be weak in terms of competitive teams. The conference members might all be equal to one another but they are all weaker than, say, the Atlantic Coast Conference. Cincinnati is undefeated so far this season but they have just one win against a nationally-competitive program, Notre Dame.

          Alabama, pretty much the gold standard for the last decade. Alabama has lost a game this season but is currently ranked either second or third in the country, depending upon which poll you favor.

          We did some comparable research on two schools, Alabama and Notre Dame.

Alabama has won six national championships in recent years under Nick Saban, beating Notre Dame in the title game once. The Crimson Tide plays in the Southeastern Conference, unquestionably the toughest conference to play college football in. Alabama is 10-1 and plays rival Auburn this weekend. Alabama will play top-ranked and unbeaten Georgia for the SEC title in December.

          Notre Dame does not play in a conference but is an associate member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. ACC member Clemson has emerged among the top programs in the country and that has made other members of the ACC better. The Fighting Irish have not won a national championship under the BCS or CFP formats. Notre Dame is also 10-1 and plays its final regular season game against Stanford this week.

          Alabama’s opponents are currently 66-62 this season. Eight Bama opponents have winning records, but that statistic skews your vision in the wrong direction. Mercer was horribly out-manned against Alabama, but Mercer is currently 7-3. Another Alabama opponent, LSU, routinely fields one of the most physically talented squads in the country but LSU is 5-6 and has already fired its coach.

          Notre Dame’s opponents are currently 64-62. Six of Notre Dame’s opponents this season have winning records. Navy might be the weakest team on Notre Dame’s schedule, but Toledo is 6-5 and really isn’t much better than Navy. Typically, Southern Cal is among Notre Dame’s toughest opponents but few programs are as out of whack as is USC’s. The 4-6 Trojans have also canned their head coach.

          There is no reasonable question: Alabama has played a tougher schedule than has Notre Dame. Advantage Alabama.

          Alabama’s loss is to Texas A&M, which is 8-3 and ranked among the top 20 by most ranking services. Notre Dame’s only loss is to unbeaten Cincinnati. Cincinnati is ranked in the top six by most pollsters. Advantage Notre Dame.

          Notre Dame’s most notable wins have come against members of the Big 10: Purdue and Wisconsin. Of all of the teams on Notre Dame’s schedule, only Wisconsin and Cincinnati have as many as eight wins. Alabama’s most notable wins have come against Mississippi and Arkansas. Alabama’s only game against what is now an eight-win team resulted in a loss to Texas A&M. Four Alabama opponents currently have seven wins (not counting Texas A&M). Purdue is Notre Dame’s sole remaining seven-win opponent. You could read this in any of several different ways. From a purely statistical standpoint, we go back to the win-loss records and give the edge to Alabama. From the standpoint of wins against eight-win teams, the edge goes to Notre Dame.

          Both Alabama and Notre Dame have lost players to injury this season. Both have experienced unexpected excellence from some players. Both have won close games and both have lost a game.

          Finally, you wonder what would happen is the teams flipped schedules.

          ALABAMA VS NOTRE DAME’S SCHEDULE: Notre Dame beat Florida State in game one (before FSU had its rash of injuries) and then beat Toledo. Next came consecutive games against Purdue, Wisconsin and Cincinnati and the Irish won two of the three. After that, seven games against teams who now total just 29 wins (Virginia Tech and Southern Cal, the North Carolina, Navy, Virginia, Georgia Tech and next week’s Stanford). Speedylee can’t imagine Alabama losing to any of those schools, although a theoretical match against Wisconsin would have been a great game to watch. Prediction: Alabama would go undefeated.

          NOTRE DAME VS ALABAMA’S SCHEDULE: We assume Notre Dame would have had its way in weeks one and two against Miami and Mercer. Florida would have been a tough out for the Irish (the Gators have terrific physical talent), but if you figure Notre Dame wins that game, then they’d have defeated Southern Mississippi and had a record of 4-0. Then would come a run of games against Mississippi, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Tennessee and LSU. Speedylee does not believe Notre Dame would get through that gauntlet without at least one loss. The grind of consecutive weeks against competition like that is something the Irish never have to contend with. Notre Dame would beat New Mexico in week 10 but then would have to play Arkansas in week 11. In the SEC, Arkansas is average this season but it would probably win the ACC or the Pac 12 titles. Arkansas would also do very well in the Big 10. The final week of the season would be against the unpredictable Auburn. Auburn is ALWAYS ready for Alabama, especially at Auburn. Notre Dame might well have beaten Auburn, had they played this season. Prediction: Notre Dame probably loses twice.

          WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? The truth is that neither Cincinnati nor Notre Dame belong in the College Football Playoff tournament. Neither has played a schedule representative of a team ranked among the top four in the country. Cincinnati might be a television draw – little David against three Goliaths – and Notre Dame is always a good ratings draw. But it will be their potential for helping the slumping ratings of the CFP tournament that earns them berths among the final four. It will not be their on-field victories.

          For either Cincinnati or Notre Dame to make the field, a few things will have to go right. Alabama could lose to Auburn this weekend and, less likely, Ohio State could lose to rival Michigan. A two-loss Crimson Tide is unlikely to make the tournament, even with a victory over Georgia in the SEC title game. The same is true for a two-loss Ohio State team. If Alabama beats Auburn and wins the SEC title game, we expect both “Bama and the Bulldogs to make the final four. That would be the nightmare scenario for Notre Dame and Cincinnati, especially if you assume Ohio State beats Michigan and wins the Big 10 title game. That would fill three spots. At best, only Cincinnati would have a path into the title bracket.

          While Speedylee does not favor increasing the size of the CFP, there is one argument for it: Each Division I conference champ would be likely to earn a berth in the playoff. That could be bad news for Notre Dame since the Irish are not full-time members of a conference.

          We don’t see Notre Dame joining a conference as a fulltime member for football in the near future. The rich traditions of the program begin with its independent status. But, sooner or later, the landscape of college football may force that to change. The natural league for the Fighting Irish would be the 14-member Big 10. Notre Dame’s current agreement with the ACC makes that conference another possibility. A better fit for the Fighting Irish than either the Big 10 or the ACC would be the 10-team Big 12. We say that because Notre Dame could rule the Big 12 in the same way Texas did. The Irish will have to join one conference or another and join the current direction the game is following, sooner or later.

Civil observations

There is no place I enjoy visiting more than Gettysburg but COVID issues have forced us to cancel the trip we had scheduled to the battlefield this month. At this moment in time, we can’t afford the risks that are inherent in travel. In honor of my friends at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, I offer this Civil-War themed list of observations. Check out the CWI summer conference next June: www.gettysburg.edu/civil-war-institute. 

 I wonder whether there has been an academic copyright decision by some court somewhere ruling that nobody can speak publicly about Abraham Lincoln except Harold Holzer. 

 I looked up the word ‘civil’ in a dictionary once. Then I did the same for the word ‘war.’ I’ve been confused ever since. 

 Victors have a tendency to praise the vanquished because the winners look better if the losers look really good. Non-German military historians rave about Erwin Rommel, the German field general, as an example. Robert E. Lee is generally seen as a brilliant commander who lost. But how often do you read about Pancho Villa? He led an invasion of the US once, terrorizing a town in Texas. The US Army organized a special force to chase the bandits but even George Patton couldn’t catch Villa. 

 I might be the only guy named Lee who ever enjoyed himself in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 

 Is there a more prolific Civil War author than Earl J. Hess? Maybe not. I think he writes books quicker than I read them. His book on Braxton Bragg (Braxton Bragg, The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy) is probably the most balanced treatment of Bragg in print. I am currently reading his book on Vicksburg and the depth of research seems to be outstanding. 

 The field of Civil War research, I am happy to say, is increasingly influenced by brilliant women. Carole Reardon, Susannah J. Ural, Caroline Janey, Megan Kate Nelson, Jill Titus, Ashley Lusky and Jennifer Murray are some of the many women who have done terrific work in the field. I’m happy to say that I’ve heard each of them speak at the Institute. Yes, there are brilliant male scholars, too, but that is not the point. My point is that this is a field open to gender equality and the Civil War historians I enjoy reading and listening to the most are increasingly females. 

 Is there a less relevant question in the field of Civil War research than whether the Confederates would have attacked the Culp’s Hill area on the first day at Gettysburg had Stonewall Jackson been alive?

 Four states where slavery was legal remained loyal to the Union during the secession crises (aka, The Civil War). Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single enslaved person in those states. The Proclamation freed only those enslaved people in areas where the Union army chased the Confederate army away in Confederate states. The Proclamation was, basically, part of martial law in those areas. Was the proclamation important? Of course it was, but only an amendment to the United States Constitution could free the enslaved in those four states. Three amendments relating to the matter were added to the Constitution shortly after the war and the enslaved were not emancipated until that happened.

 Don’t bother looking it up. The four slave-holding states that remained loyal to the Union were Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri. 

 The secession crises began when some leaders in some states where slavery was legal somehow convinced themselves that Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 spelled the beginning of the end of slavery. Those leaders were kidding themselves. There was as much bigotry in the north as in southern states. Abolition had very little support in Congress for that reason. Slavery would have lasted a lot longer without the Civil War. Slavery probably would have remained legal, in some form, as late as 1900 without the War. It might have lasted longer than that.

 Grant me some Lee-way here as I attempt a little Civil War humor: While attending a junior college, I used to sit on a Stonewall between classes and wait for my pals to head for lunch like they were shot out of a cannon. Then we’d Charge around a Pickett fence into the commissary to buy our rations for the day. I don’t like to Bragg, but I had my own news show on the student radio station twice a week. The campus was near the Pacific Ocean so there were plenty of Gray days, which always made us feel Blue. I liked to tell people then that I was a conscientious objector because I didn’t want to go to college. Still, I completed two years of basic training (my freshman and sophomore years) and transferred to another command and served two more years. I sometimes wish I transferred to Gettysburg College and made one of the apartments near campus my Gettysburg Address. I didn’t attend the College then but I enjoy falling in the ranks of the Civil War Institute now. I recently wrote them and said, “It is all together fitting and proper that I shall attend the CWI in June of 2022.”

Thanks for reading.

Of peaches and cream: SR Johnston's Gettysburg recon ride

 

          The news that this year’s Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College would be conducted virtually was a cause for celebration here. Your Loyal Blogger was worried that the CWI would not be held at all. The Institute is an annual, five-day gathering of the top Civil War scholars and about four hundred others who love to study and talk about the topic. It’s a crash course with lots of company and the company is the big thing. The CWI, for all of its scholarship and debates, is about the people. The ‘people’ includes fellow attendees, the scholars and, especially, the cast and crew who host the thing every year. The College is a wonderful host and the perfect location for such an event as the CWI.

          Once the CWI ends, I get to begin my own research. I’ve been stumbling around for several years now, trying to figure out the truth about a incident during the battle of Gettysburg. I love exploring Gettysburg and any chance to roam the battlefield is a welcomed opportunity. I usually bring with me a list of questions I want to explore and one question has been on my list for several years now.

          The question is what route did Captain Samuel R. Johnston take when he was ordered to recon the left side of the federal line on Cemetery Ridge at about four in the morning on July 2, 1863?

I do not believe Johnston
got to the top of LRT. There
were no signs to direct him.

          The eminent historian Noah Andre Trudeau wrote a brilliant volume: The Battle of Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage. In that book Trudeau says Johnston reached the Sherfy peach orchard before turning south and heading for the Round Tops.[1] I have not found any quote from Johnston where he specifically claims to have reached the Sherfy peach orchard. But say for the moment that he did get there.

          Many students of the battle scoff at the idea that Johnston reached the peach orchard without being discovered by union scouts or pickets. I am tempted to give Johnston the benefit of the doubt in that it is possible that Johnston and the men with him approached the Sherfy peach orchard. Remember that Daniel Sickles had not yet advanced his line. It was still mostly dark at the time Johnston went on his ride. It is possible that he reached the area of the Sherfy peach orchard during the outbound leg of his recon without getting caught.

          Most of the Union soldiers in the area at that time were not bedded down on the Emmitsburg Road or anywhere near it. They were much closer to the Taneytown Road. The rolling topography and darkness would have made it impossible for Johnston to see conditions along the Taneytown Road from the locations he wrote that he reached. Johnston could have neared the Sherfy land that morning without any union videttes discovering the group.

The Bushman Farm. Little Round Top in the
background a mile away.

           Was it possible for a small group of Confederates to get near the Sherfy land that morning without getting caught? Yes and I believe Johnston did reach a peach orchard that morning on the outbound leg of his recon ride. But I believe he reached the peach trees on the property belonging to the Bushman family along Warfield Ridge. The property is along today’s West Confederate Avenue. From there, Johnston and his small party rode to Round Top and skirted the base of Little Round Top before turning back.

          Johnston reported that the only union soldiers he saw were in a four-man party that was riding north along the Emmitsburg Road. Those men were seen as Johnston and his men cautiously waited before crossing the road on the way to report to Lee.

          In a June 27, 1892 letter to McLaws, Johnston wrote, “It was about 4 AM when I started out, my general route was about the same that General Longstreet took when he made his march. I crossed the creek on the same bridge that he did and turned left at once and turned to the left at once and got on the ridge where you subsequently (got a view of the enemy) … following that ridge in the direction of the round top across the Emmettburg (SIC) Road and got up of the slopes of round top, where I had a commanding view, then (unclear handwritten note) road along the base of round top beyond the ground that was occupied by General Hood, and where there was later a cavalry fight. When I thought I had gone far enough, I turned back, of course moving with great caution, and when I again got in sight of the Emmettburg Road I saw three or four troopers moving slowly and very cautiously in the direction of Gettysburg (north, LE). … I recrossed the bridge and took the most direct route regardless of fences to where I had left General Lee.”[2]

From LRT, looking west and a little north. Note
Seminary Ridge in the distance and the area Johnston
would have had to cover in the open had he approached
the Sherfy property. I believe Johnston came toward
LRT from a position further south along Seminary Ridge.

          The route Longstreet’s column took later that day did not travel to the Sherfy peach orchard. When Longstreet reached Seminary Ridge and deployed his men, he could see the Sherfy peach orchard in the distance. By that time, Dan Sickles had advanced his division to his position in the Sherfy peach orchard. It should be noted here that even if Johnston did ride to the Sherfy property on his recon ride, he could not have seen Sickles’ force. Sickles did not advance until long after full daylight.

          The bridge Johnston wrote about twice is probably the bridge on today’s Millerstown Road near where the road intersects today’s West Confederate Avenue, not far from the modern-day Eisenhower Tower.

I believe Johnston and his party turned right shortly after crossing that bridge and headed in a southerly direction. They continued south after passing by the Bushman farm before eventually turning left and heading in an easterly direction. The route would take them toward the Round Tops. Approaching from the Confederate side of the hill, that is to say from the west, they would have been less likely to encounter Federal soldiers. This was in the area where General John B. Hood’s men would later begin their attack. Hood was wounded on a dirt lane that led from the Bushman farm to the Slyder farm and it is very possible that Johnston followed the same little lane toward the Round Tops.

In a June 28, 1875 letter to James Longstreet, Hood wrote that, “… about twenty minutes after reaching the peach orchard I was severely wounded in the arm, and borne from the field.”[3]

I believe Hood was wounded on this road.
The Slyder Farm is in the distance. The Bushman
property to to photographer's right.

Johnston wrote of having a “commanding view” while on “round top.” The hill we now call Big Round Top had more trees on its north-west-facing slopes than did what we call Little Round Top. The most commanding view from either hill is what we call the face of Little Round Top. If Johnston did not ride up the side of Little Round Top, he certainly recognized the potential for watching the battlefield from there.[4]

At the point of the recon where the Johnston group was at the Round Tops, the sun was starting to make itself known.[5] Johnston and his men had to leave the area. He describes skirting the base of “round top” and then his desire to get back on the friendly side of (correctly) Emmitsburg Road. Then came the forced delay while the four riders went slowly down the road. Later, when Lee asked Johnston directly whether he reached the Little Round Top/Big Round Top area, Johnston answered that he had done so. I believe that he did.

The description of crossing the bridge that Johnston said Longstreet’s march later crossed is an important note. Longstreet’s march should have crossed that same little bridge as his men moved to get into position to begin their attack as they marched on Millerstown Road that day.

To ride south on Emmitsburg Road from the Sherfy property that night probably would have meant Johnston being discovered by Union troops. But riding south along Warfield Ridge, passing the Bushman farm and its orchard, would have meant staying within the safe confines of Confederate lines. It would lead to the safer side of Big Round Top and give him a familiar path back to his own lines.

I believe that’s the path he took. Johnston did not leave a record of the recon ride that was written near the time of the battle. The letters I have read are type-written translations of his hand-written letters in answer to various letters asking about his ride that night. Since that time, the version of events sets forth in those letters have gone under great scrutiny. Johnston’s words were written thirty years or so after the war.

 

Can I prove my assertion? No, but the evidence leads me there. Others, including Trudeau, might disagree. But I believe my summation of events fits the known facts – that Johnston was ordered to make a recon, he did so without getting caught and he reported to Lee that he reached the Round Tops – and agrees with what Johnston wrote himself.

 

One final point. When Gerry Prokopovich was nice enough to interview me about my Chickamauga book for his podcast, he asked me why it mattered whether we knew the exact series of events during the fighting on Horseshoe Ridge. It was a great question and the same question could be answered here. Does it really matter what path Johnston’s recon party took at Gettysburg around dawn on July 2, 1863? Yes, it does matter. It matters because historic accuracy matters.

Even if we argue about it.

---

[1] Trudeau, Noah Andre, Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage, page XX. Of all the books the author has read about Gettysburg, this book stands out for its excellence. Great read.

[2] Samuel R. Johnston letter to XX McLaws. The author found a type-written translation of the letter in the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitors Center archives.

[3] John B. Hood letter to James Longstreet, June 28, 1875. The author found a type-written translation of the letter in the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitors Center archives.

[4] Samuel R. Johnston letter to McLaws. The author found a type-written translation of the letter in the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitors Center archives.

[5] Johnston’s ride began around four in the morning. He reported to Lee about three hours later. Sunrise on July 2 is typically ten to fifteen minutes before six in the morning at Gettysburg.

 

Dodging bullets: Our families and the Civil War

           In April of 1865, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to the United States Army of the Potomac at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. After the formal surrender, the Confederates marched past the victors and stacked arms – handed over their rifles – as the federal army saluted respectfully.

          The day the AoNV stacked arms remains among America’s most momentous days. The War had not ended. The South still had armies in the field. But the most capable, not to mention celebrated, Confederate army was done fighting. Other surrenders followed.

          Few moments in American history top Appomattox for drama and big-name stars. Robert Edward Lee. Hiram Ulysses Grant. A geeky professor from Maine who turned out to be a heckuva military man, J.L. Chamberlain. Confederate general James Longstreet. AoP commander George Gordon Meade. The list goes on.

          But two men who were technically on the list weren’t there.

          One of my great-great grandfathers was listed as a member of the 23^rd Battalion, Alabama Sharpshooters. The 23^rd, what was left of it, was at Appomattox. My ancestor was not there. He had been wounded at Chickamauga, when the men of the 23^rd Battalion were still part of Hilliard’s Legion. He never rejoined the Confederate army. His wound did not recover sufficiently for him to return to the military. He was still on the muster rolls because the red tape was slow to connect in those days. He had been discharged from service long before the surrender. So, his name was among the members of the AoNV, but he never served in that outfit.

          And it gets better. My wife has an ancestor who served in the 17^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The 17^th Ohio was at Appomattox as well and Amy’s ancestor was on the rolls as a private in that outfit. But it appears this soldier was in a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky at the time of the surrender. He was ill.

          My ancestor never surrendered to my wife’s ancestor.

          More to come: The 17^th OVI was at Chickamauga. Hilliard’s Legion, was part of Brig. General Archibald Gracie’s brigade and helped push the union defenders off of Horseshoe Ridge at Chickamauga. Elements of the 17^th were on the Ridge for part of that fighting. But it turns out that Amy’s ancestor did not join the Union Army until 1864, well after the slugfest on Horseshoe Ridge.

That means my ancestor did not chase my wife’s ancestor off that bloody hill, nor did my wife’s ancestor shoot and wound my ancestor.

Both men survived the war and they died within a month of each other in 1908. They never met.

What does history have for us to study? Lots of stuff. Check out your own ancestors.

Thanks for reading.

Decisive actions

                 Civil War students argue frequently about which event/battle/decision was the key moment or most important battle of that four-year struggle. The American Civil War Museum recently hosted a two-day seminar on the topic. Six presentations, six learned speakers, six different answers. The same topic is frequently discussed during the Civil War Institute and attendees are treated to the same variety of topics.

          Now, opinions are like mud. You can find mud anywhere. Sometimes the

consistency is different, sometimes the color is different. You find more rocks in your mud in one area than you might in another. Still, the one constant about mud is that it is messy.

          So it is for debates over finding specific events that decided the fate of the American Civil War. There are many, many candidates for such a moment: The results of the siege of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863; the ascendance of General Ulysses S. Grant (whose actual name was Hiram Ulysses Grant) to Commander of the US Army; the botched Confederate siege of Chattanooga; Sherman’s march to the sea; the Battle of 7 Days and the re-election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Oh, and one other: Gettysburg.

          Dr. Gary Gallagher has argued that the siege of Vicksburg did not even eliminate Confederate use of the Mississippi River because that little chore was completed when the Federals reasserted US control over New Orleans. Gallagher can be very persuasive. The Battle of 7 Days, he said, was more important.

Some would argue that Grant’s appointment was important but not the key because plenty of fighting was still ahead. Eliminating the Confederate choke-hold on Chattanooga allowed Sherman’s march to the sea but was not so important as Sherman’s march. And the march to the sea ruined one Confederate army but not the most important one. The Battle of 7 Days was important, but did it seal Union victory? Lincoln’s re-election, it can be argued, effectively closed the future for the practice of slavery but did not decide the course of the war.

That leaves us with that tidy, little military action in southern Pennsylvania covering the first three days of July, 1863.

Your Loyal Blogger would argue that Robert Edward Lee, Commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, lost the battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863 and then lost the war the next day when he ordered the attack we have come to call Pickett’s Charge.

The abbreviated version of the Readers Digest summation goes like this: Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania went through Maryland, where he hoped to gain some volunteers to join his army. He then wanted to throw a scare into the northern populace by spending time threatening key cities, such as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. Lee was pandering to the insurgent peace movement then growing in the northern states. Lee wanted the fighting to be on northern soil long enough to allow farmers in Virginia and other Confederate states to plant and harvest enough crops to feed the Confederate people and his army.

Lee’s supply train straggled to the point that it was as much as eighty miles long by late June, so he slowed his advance to allow for a contracting of his lines. While that was supposed to be happening, parts of Lee’s army ran into George Gordon Mead’s federal Army of the Potomac on July 1 and the great battle started. The Confederates were successful on the first day. A grand Confederate attack came close to succeeding on July 2 but it failed. The Confeds actually seized parts of the battlefield during that attack, but the two most important locations, the Union flanks on Culp’s Hill and both Round Tops, remained in Union hands. Those two elevated positions were reenforced overnight and Meade owned them for as long as he wished. The Battle of Gettysburg was decided.

Lee’s army was the best led and best fighting army the Confederates had. The attack on July 2 left that army damaged and bleeding. The officers’ corps had been thinned and replacements had to be found. As was later proven, the replacement officers were not always of the same capabilities as the officers lost. Officers can lose a war but it takes rifle-carrying foot soldiers to win one and the southerners lost a lot of those guys, too, in the heavy fighting of July 1-2 at Gettysburg. What Lee had hoped to do to the northern army was done to his instead.

When Lee ordered the attack on July 3, he took an injured beast and turned it into a dying animal. Lee’s reasoning for the July 3 attack has been debated every time two or more students of the war happen to cross paths. I believe I understand his thinking: His army had usually delivered when called upon, he might never again have such an opportunity on northern soil and his army had come so close to succeeding the day before that one more solid punch might win the fight.

That’s what might have happened, what Lee hoped would happen. Instead, as history tells us, elements of Lee’s army breached the Union wall in spots on July 3, but not so seriously as to force a retreat. The Confederates suffered terrible losses and the integrity of the federal wall was not seriously threatened. The losses on July 3 were horrible, especially when you lump them atop the gory story from the first two days.

That sealed the deal. The war dragged on for nearly two more years, but the Army of Northern Virginia was never the same. It was the south’s most important army and it was fatally injured.

That’s a pretty decisive event.

Thanks for reading.

 

2021 SPEEDYLEEWAY AWARDS

 

THE POISON IN THE WELL AWARD: To the COVID-19 Virus.

THE NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR AWARD: To the COVID-19 Virus.

PERSON OF THE YEAR AWARD: First responders, medical professionals and others who faced the virus every day on the one hand and treated those who became infected on the other. A Speedylee thanks for everything you’ve done and are still doing.

CALM IN THE STORM AWARD: No question, this one goes to Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio. This one wasn’t even close. DeWine was head and shoulders above the crowd. His even-keel demeanor, his evident pride in his state and his ability to forge a government-private sector partnership that enabled Ohio to respond to problems brought on by the virus crises with solutions that were within Ohio’s borders all combined to make him a winner here. It was can do and he did.

THE UNITED STATES FOOTBALL LEAGUE TRAIN WRECK AWARD: Donald John Trump, soon-to-be former President of the United States.

PERFORMING WHEN IT COUNTS AWARD: The United States Census Bureau, which completed its job despite a world-wide pandemic and a growing national distaste for governmental functions.

THAT BLOODY HILL AWARD: To Susannah J. Ural, Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Ural is a tenacious researcher and a brilliant speaker. This annual award goes to Civil War historians of note.

DRIVER OF THE YEAR AWARD: Co-winners, Takuma Sato for his thrilling victory in the Indianapolis 500 and Lewis Hamilton for setting numerous records on his way to his seventh Formula One championship.

THE GOLDEN BOOT AWARD: To Vanderbilt University kicker Sarah Fuller, who volunteered when her school needed her. Nice job. This is a reoccurring, but not annual, award. Fuller is the second person to win this award. The first was kicker Ella McDonald of Imperial (California) High School in 2019.

BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD: Bullets, Babes, and Baseball by Lee Elder and Buck Weber. Available on Kindle.

BOOK COVER OF THE YEAR AWARD: To Sean McEntee for the cover of Bullets, Babes, and Baseball.

MOVIE OF THE YEAR AWARD: To the gritty World War I epic, 1917.

INTERVIEWER OF THE YEAR AWARD: Caren Glasser on her podcast, Caren Glasser Live.

SPORTS PODCAST OF THE YEAR: Sports Forgotten Heroes, hosted by Warren Rogan.

I CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT I JUST SAW AWARD: To the LA Dodgers for their first World Series victory since broadcaster Jack Buck said those immortal words in 1988.

WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING AWARD: To everyone involved with the storming of the field at Notre Dame Stadium after the Fighting Irish’s football victory over Clemson. From the people in the grandstands to the (mostly absent) security personnel to the fools in state government who elected to allow attendance at sporting events to begin with, this was among the dumbest things Americans did after the arrival of the virus in the US.

NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE IT AWARD: The motorcycle rally in South Dakota. The dumbest thing Americans did after the arrival of the virus in the US.