Civil War History - "What if..." DiscussionsWhat if they had attacked instead of digging in...? What if he was in charge of the army instead...? Did you ever have a "What if..." question, and you weren't sure where to post it? Here's the place to ask these speculative questions!
There are many accounts of companies and regiments losing contact with those on their right or left after entering a heavily wooded area ( Wilderness and Shiloh). I had a hard time envisioning that; How could you not keep the guy a few yards next to you in your sites? After visiting Shiloh and seeing the "heavily wooded" areas and such I changed my mind and couldn't help but think "How in the world did they fight here". The fog of war became very clear. So, what if the yanks and rebs had modern communications such as hand radios, cell phones etc. at their disposal. Which battles would they have had the most impact? How would have the cavalry's main function as the eyes of the army been effected? Would the iphone have made the fast hard hitters such as Forrest and Mosby even more or less effective? Lastly, what effect would that type of real time communication have on the over all strategy of the war?
It would have made Command and Control easier, but you still have to have a warrior willing to cross the field and kill his fellow man. True then and true now.
I can see it now. Yank: "Hey Johnny Reb, you have to come over here and look at this nudie pic... this girl is so hot!"
Reb: "Who is she, your sister?"
Yank: "No, yours!" And the shooting would commence w/ great gusto.
Then of course there would be the very real possibility the war would simply boild down to who had the high score on WOW or some such.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
Sometimes. Ridiculous can be fun. Thanks, guys and gals, this has been a treat.
ole4
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Many thanks, Pinckney, USMC retarded. Technology hasn't yet figured out how to replace the boot.
We can destroy planet's, but that soldier, in that boot, cannot be replaced. He is us. Golly. I'm getting misty. This is not the way it is supposed to work. Will go away now.
p;e
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Thanks Ole, I will say that in talking to some of the Marines at Pendleton who were at Falluja and comparing it with what we did at HUE indicated that all this new fangled technology made command and control easier and probably reduced casulaties. When you do that, it is a good thing.
Just another thought, real time communication would also meen the news would be disiminated faster. if the folks in the south really knew how bad it was going, it could have shortened the war. Or vice versa early on if the north had know how bad they were doing they might have sued for peace. Would have saved a lot of lives.
Then again you never seem to be able to get comm up when you need it most. So "Any Station this net." and "No Joy" would have come into military parlance much sooner.
You have probably read many references in Civil War battles where the commander of an army gives an order to a subordinate to launch an attack when he begins to hear the guns somewhere else on the battlefield. How many times was that messed up? Plenty! Look at how jumbled up the Seven Days gets.....
Ultimately the Civil War commander can't be everywhere on the battlefield; he has to rely on his subordinates to essentially interpret what his intent would be as the situation develops; BUT how can the subordinate do so without knowledge of what is happening outside of his sector?
In any event clearly ******** radio sets would've had a massive impact on the tactics of the battles, it would've clearly resulted in a more cohesive force.
Great example are the German tanks in the early stages of WWII which are outfitted with radios which were lacking in their French counterparts.
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