Video Discussion 46: A Season of Slaughter, Battle of Spotsylvania Courthourse

Watched the video tonight and plan to be in on the chat Monday. Spotsylvania Courthouse is a battle I have not read about yet and at the same time is one of the battlefields I so want to visit. His description of it is the same kind of battlefield I love to visit. Cold Harbor is the same way. I have been there.
 
No problem with sound here. Pavel, make sure the volume on the Youtube screen (at lower left) is not set on "Mute." Also make sure the sound at the top of your screen is turned up. I hope you can get it to work for you!

Wow, this guy is a wonderful storyteller!!!
 
transcript

eb 6, 2017 9:28 PM - JerseyBart: Hi pat
Feb 6, 2017 9:29 PM - Pat Young: Hello
Feb 6, 2017 9:29 PM - Pat Young: How are you
Feb 6, 2017 9:29 PM - JerseyBart: Hi bd
Feb 6, 2017 9:29 PM - bdtex: Checking in
Feb 6, 2017 9:30 PM - JerseyBart: Good Pat. How about you?
Feb 6, 2017 9:30 PM - bdtex: Hey gang. Watched the video Friday night and only took a handful of notes. Posting mostly from memory.
Feb 6, 2017 9:31 PM - Pat Young: It has been hectic, lets put it that way
Feb 6, 2017 9:31 PM - JerseyBart: I'm betting the presenter could go on forever about spoysylvania
Feb 6, 2017 9:31 PM - Pat Young: Just watched the video
Feb 6, 2017 9:31 PM - MaryDee: Hi, everyone--I almost didn't make it again!
Feb 6, 2017 9:32 PM - bdtex: Hectic for me too Pat
Feb 6, 2017 9:32 PM - MaryDee: The guy is certainly a great storyteller--I was enthralled!
Feb 6, 2017 9:33 PM - Pat Young: Hi bdtex
Feb 6, 2017 9:33 PM - JerseyBart: Even his invisible maps ( the room) were good.
Feb 6, 2017 9:33 PM - Pat Young: Hi MaryDee
Feb 6, 2017 9:33 PM - bdtex: Hi Pat.
Feb 6, 2017 9:33 PM - MaryDee: Hi, Pat!
Feb 6, 2017 9:33 PM - Pat Young: I did call up the maps in the Wiki article to keep up with him
Feb 6, 2017 9:33 PM - Pat Young: Those are very good representations
Feb 6, 2017 9:34 PM - Pat Young: the wiki article is here
[...]

Feb 6, 2017 9:35 PM - bdtex: He called when Lee moved by the left flank from The Wilderness to Spotysylvania "the turning point".
Feb 6, 2017 9:35 PM - JerseyBart: As good a description as was given, I still cannot imagine the carnage
Feb 6, 2017 9:35 PM - bdtex: Grant I mean
Feb 6, 2017 9:36 PM - Pat Young: Have you folks been to Spotsylvania
Feb 6, 2017 9:36 PM - bdtex: Not yet. Wanna go badly
Feb 6, 2017 9:36 PM - JerseyBart: It certainly caused many more losses than lee could afford
Feb 6, 2017 9:36 PM - MaryDee: No
Feb 6, 2017 9:36 PM - JerseyBart: I would love to go, but haven't yet.
Feb 6, 2017 9:37 PM - Pat Young: The combination of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, which were really about a dozen battles, is facsinating
Feb 6, 2017 9:37 PM - Pat Young: I went two years ago and was overwhelmed.
Feb 6, 2017 9:38 PM - bdtex: His description of the current site is why I wanna go so badly. It is a lot like Cold Harbor which I have been to.
Feb 6, 2017 9:38 PM - JerseyBart: By what specifically Pat?
Feb 6, 2017 9:38 PM - Pat Young: The scenery is so close to how it is described in contemporary sources
Feb 6, 2017 9:39 PM - JerseyBart: Got it. Thanks.
Feb 6, 2017 9:39 PM - Pat Young: and the ruins of the fortifications give you the feeling that you are seeing these dead men's work
Feb 6, 2017 9:39 PM - Pat Young: So should we start discussing the video?
Feb 6, 2017 9:40 PM - JerseyBart: Sure
Feb 6, 2017 9:40 PM - Pat Young: I really liked his emphasis on the impact of terrain
Feb 6, 2017 9:40 PM - bdtex: I thought we were. :smile:
Feb 6, 2017 9:41 PM - Pat Young: When you are there you can see how a brigade could suddenly become invisible.
Feb 6, 2017 9:41 PM - JerseyBart: Yes, it made an offensive awfully difficult,
Feb 6, 2017 9:41 PM - Pat Young: He did a good job of recreating that.
Feb 6, 2017 9:42 PM - bdtex: His description of the weather and ground conditions really made me feel for the troops. Miserable fighting conditions.
Feb 6, 2017 9:42 PM - JerseyBart: 22+ hours in buckets of rain in a smoldering forest
Feb 6, 2017 9:43 PM - Pat Young: The fact that the fighting was day after day meant the soldiers were constantly among the decaying dead.
Feb 6, 2017 9:43 PM - JerseyBart: Bodies that looked like sponges more than deceased humans
Feb 6, 2017 9:44 PM - bdtex: Rained down the barrels of stacked Confederate arms and their first volley was misfires.
Feb 6, 2017 9:44 PM - Pat Young: I didn't realize that
Feb 6, 2017 9:44 PM - JerseyBart: He made another good case for JEB Stuart, infantry corp commander.
 
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:45 PM - Pat Young: lol
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:45 PM - Pat Young: that Muleshoe salient is not a very large area
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:46 PM - bdtex: In the beginning he said Meade's lack of cavalry going in to Spotsylvania cost thousands of lives but I don't think he followed up on that.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:46 PM - JerseyBart: And that Phil Sheridan was awful
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:46 PM - Pat Young: Yes, without a lot of backing for his argument
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:47 PM - MaryDee: Yes, nice to know that somebody besides Eric Wittenberg and myself think that!
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:47 PM - bdtex: "Most overrated general of the war"
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:47 PM - JerseyBart: He and/or his men were asleep in the field.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:48 PM - MaryDee: He took off after JEB Stuart and then took the long way around coming back; the battle was over before the cavalry returned.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:48 PM - Jamieva: hello all
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:48 PM - Jamieva: sorry im late
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:48 PM - MaryDee: Hi, Jamie!
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:49 PM - Jamieva: chris writes a lot for the emerging cw series and does lectures with them so im sure he and eric know each other
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:49 PM - Pat Young: I wondered why he didn't say more about the failure to exploit the breakthrough by the IICorps at the Muleshoe.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:49 PM - bdtex: Weigh in Jamie
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:49 PM - Jamieva: i laughed when he made his sheridan comment
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:49 PM - Jamieva: i thought it was a really good talk
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:49 PM - JerseyBart: Hi Jamie.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:49 PM - bdtex: The "most overrated" comment?
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:49 PM - Jamieva: hey jb
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:50 PM - Jamieva: yes the overrated comment
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:50 PM - bdtex: It was funny
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:51 PM - Jamieva: his commentary on the state of the battlefield is very accurate
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:51 PM - Jamieva: spotsylvania is pretty much untouched, very few monuments
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:51 PM - Jamieva: very quiet
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:51 PM - bdtex: I had' known the part about Ewell convincing Lee he could hold the Muleshoe with more artillery.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:52 PM - bdtex: That is what I like K
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:53 PM - bdtex: Jamie not K
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:53 PM - JerseyBart: Another quiet battlefield, as it should be now.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:53 PM - Jamieva: and that is in contrast to the wilderness and chancellorsville which are very close by but have a lot of traffic and car noise at many of their spots
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:54 PM - Jamieva: jb if you have never been there i recommend it. you can go to bloody angle and its eerily quiet
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:55 PM - bdtex: Making me wanna plan a trip this year.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:56 PM - Pat Young: If you study a soldier who fought there it is pretty easy to figure out where he was
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:56 PM - JerseyBart: I definitely want to tour Virginia's battlefields soon.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:58 PM - Jamieva: you should jb but we have a lot of them so plan plenty of time
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:58 PM - bdtex: I recall from the video that it was the piecemeal nature of the attacks that thwarted Meade
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:58 PM - JerseyBart: I will...waiting for my daughter to get a big older
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:59 PM - JerseyBart: Bd...brigade by brigade.
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:59 PM - Jamieva: yes because they could not deploy the full force of their weight due to the terrain and woods
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:59 PM - bdtex: And the mud
Feb 6, 2017 at 9:59 PM - Jamieva: if they had been able to throw the entire v and vi corps at once they wouldve pushed stuart and anderson aside easily
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:01 PM - bdtex: Several times he said "I'll die a Colonel or come out a Brigadier".
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:03 PM - bdtex: Don't remember who all that was in reference to.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:04 PM - JerseyBart: A lot of spoken irony
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:05 PM - bdtex: At one point in the talk he described a Federal assault being obliterated by artillery and it gave me a cold chill.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:07 PM - MaryDee: Me too. A lot of it gave me cold chills!
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:07 PM - bdtex: And the descriptions of the closeness of some of the action was chilling too.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:07 PM - JerseyBart: I cannot even imagine the hell on earth.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:08 PM - JerseyBart: Guns, cannons, bayonets and bodies way too close to be hitting bodies
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:08 PM - JerseyBart: Sponges corpses
 
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:09 PM - bdtex: I don't remember but did he talk about where most of the casualties went for their final resting place.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:09 PM - Pat Young: Fredericksburg Cemetery for the Union
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:09 PM - JerseyBart: Many on the field and a cemetery was created
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:10 PM - bdtex: Thank you Pat. That's right.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:11 PM - bdtex: What about the Confederate casualties. I thought he mentioned 2 cemeteries.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:11 PM - MaryDee: He did, and I don't remember. Should have taken notes.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:11 PM - bdtex: A Confederate Cemetery at Spotsylvania JB?
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:12 PM - JerseyBart: I think so.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:12 PM - bdtex: I was kinda sick when I watched it and didn't take many notes.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:12 PM - Pat Young: Here is a link to the NPS site on the Confederate cemetery https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/photosmultimedia/spotscemetery.htm
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:13 PM - bdtex: Thank you Pat.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:13 PM - JerseyBart: Thanks Pat.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:14 PM - JerseyBart: Say we call it a night?
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:15 PM - Pat Young: Yes. Just getting over a chest cold
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:15 PM - Pat Young: night
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:15 PM - bdtex: I'm good with that. Still lingering with me Pat.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:15 PM - Pat Young: get well
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:15 PM - MaryDee: I'm just plain tired. Not enough sleep last night Thank you all!
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:15 PM - JerseyBart: Good night all. Thanks for joining me tonight. See you next week and feel better Pat.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:16 PM - JerseyBart: You too bd.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:16 PM - bdtex: You too. Nite all. Enjoyed this one. Great topic.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:16 PM - MaryDee: Good night! Especially thanks to JB--it was a really great video!
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:16 PM - JerseyBart: Agreed Mary.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:16 PM - JerseyBart: Thank you Mary.
Feb 6, 2017 at 10:17 PM - PeterT: Just got home. Missed it. I'll enjoy reading the transcript though.
 
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