What if A. P. Hill's Light Division had bicycles at Antietam?

[Rocketman]

The thought of the Confederate Army riding into battle on bicycles is just plain awesome.

[ole]

And just a tad silly.
Ole

[whitworth]

is where in the industrial poor Confederacy would they build bicycles?

The whole truth of the Confederacy was its total inability to build enough to support the war. Not enough cannon;not enough ammunition; not enough shoes; not enough horseshoes; not enough rail lines; not enough rails; not enough wagons; not enough horses and mules; not enough steamboats. On and on!

If bicycles were used at Antietam, the Yankee army would be using them and the Confederates would use a smaller number, captured from those same Yankees.

And a lot of Confederates would be pedaling in bare feet.
Industry in the Confederacy was a sorry sight.

[gary]

Originally Posted by whitworth

is where in the industrial poor Confederacy would they build bicycles?

Why build them when they could buy them from China with the cotton they had laying around?

Early arrival of A. P. Hill's Light Division to Antietam would have resulted in a greater Confederate disaster. Thankfully, they had no bicycles, horses, trains, auto-bahn or commuter jet could they use to arrive there in time. The jet wouldn't work - TSA would make them leave their powder behind.

[cw1865]

Actually its not a bad 'what if' - ie. if hill had bicycles what would've happened? (or if he had just gotten there sooner). Now, kind of as an homage to the Southern soldiers, I actually walked from Harper's Ferry to Sharpsburg (not to Burnside's bridge). I did this by crossing the current railroad bridge and then walking up Harper's Ferry Road back to the bed and breakfast I was staying at in Sharpsburg.

As it is, AP Hill making that march with many barefoot soldiers, getting in line and repulsing Burnside is, in and of itself, one of the better feats of Southern arms in the war, because I assure you that making that walk, in sneakers, on paved roads, without carrying much of anything was pretty tiring.

Nevertheless, I am not sure of the actual condition of the roads connecting Harper's Ferry and Sharpsburg were at the time, but we can't assume that the roads existed for AP Hill to utilize bicycles effectively. We have to remember that the sunken road at Antietam is sunken because literally the carriages slowly and surely eroded away the dirt road beneath!@!

In retrospect, Hill not being there at the start of the battle is kind of negated by Burnside's focus on that bridge which will forever bear his name. So, of course the natural corollary to 'What if AP Hill had been there sooner' is 'What if Burnside fords the creek?' - Does McClellan shatter Lee?

[whitworth]

Recently saw a Finnish movie, Ambush, on the WWII war against the Soviets. The Finns sent out a scouting unit on bicycles.

[ole]

The Finns had a greater industrial capacity than the CSA.

ole