...Killer Angels

Well, it looks like this is going to be my CITADEL blog for when I go up to Charleston in 3 weeks. I think I'll use this to keep everyone updated on how I'm doing. Although we'll see how well I keep to that promise, time will tell. That is, if I have enough time. I might just have to relay all the information over to my parents and they can delegate that to others, of course, from those closest on out.

I finished Killer Angels by Michael Shaara yesterday. I must say, terribly good book. Very sad, but very true. So many brave men died in that war, I can only imagine. I also watched the movie "Gettysburg" last night.. and of course it doesn't come close to doing the book justice, but it was fairly accurate, almost word for word in the dialogue sequences. General Longstreet, Lee's "Old War Horse" was probably my favorite character. Man, what a neglected, forgotton figure of the south. He pushed for withdrawing from Gettysburg because of the lack of good ground and terrible positions. Lee's "tactics" in the battle were Napoleonic, very bad. Pickett's charge, while one of the most remembered, respected, and honorable charges in all of American history, was probably the worst tactical decision anyone could have made. It spelled total disaster, and that's what it was. Pickett's entire division was dessimated, all of his officers were either killed or wounded. That battle destroyed many men's lives, not just physically but mentally. At a reunion of Southern Generals almost 20 years after the end of the war, General Longstreet, Lee's 2nd in command, was NOT invited, but of course showed up anyway in his old uniform. The man deserved the respect of every Southerner... he nearly won the war. Lee, the most beloved and cherished general, in perhaps all of American history, was not the most brilliant tacticioner. Longstreet was right, his strategy was way ahead of his time, and for that reason, no one listend or payed any attention to him. He's from South Carolina, one of the few main generals in that battle to not be from Virginia. But anyways, I love how books inspire you to want to read more and more and more. I'm going to read God's and Generals, and I would like to read a good biography on General Longstreet, we'll see if I have enough time before school starts.

"I was trying to warn you. But ... you have no Cause. You and I, we have no Cause. We have only the army. But if a soldier fights only for soldiers, he cannot ever win. It is only soldiers who die." --Killer Angels


"To be a good soldier you must love the army. But to be a good officer you must be willing to order the death of the things you love. This is... a very hard thing to do. No other profession requires it. That is one reason why there are so few good officers. Although there are many good men." --Killer Angels