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Thursday, June 28, 2012

A Question of Courage, or Incompetence?

This is Steven Petrick posting.

We know a great deal about Gettysburg, but it seems there are always new little tidbits of information popping up that provide "food for thought." Several books have turned up here in the office of late. One of these is an accounting of every brigade of infantry, on both sides, that fought at Gettysburg. Another is a history of one particular North Carolina regiment that took part in the first day's fighting, and then was committed as part of Pickett's charge.

What is interesting is that the regimental history refers to the concept that Anderson's division was supposed to support the charge with four of its five brigades. Two of these were the brigades of Colonel Mahone and Colonel Posey.

If you know anything about Gettysburg, you know that on the second day of the fighting when Lee launched his grand assault on the Union Left, the assault eventually broke down because two consecutive brigades failed to attack.

One of these Brigades was Posey's, which had endeavored to run out of ammunition in an exchange of fire with union Skirmishers while waiting to participate in the assault. Lacking ammunition, Posey declined to attack.

To Posey's left was the brigade of Mahone, who refused to step off because Posey had not.

Many believe the assault would have carried the day, won a resounding victory for the South, had this attack not faltered. The failure of these brigades to move, and the wounding of the general officer commanding the next division in line, may have cost the South the victory.

The thing is, if these brigades were supposed to support Pickett's charge, why did they not? The brigades are reported as having stepped off, but they did so at a time when Pickett had already been repulsed, and so were recalled before they went very far.

There is a feeling (to me) of some terrible error in timing. And I cannot but wonder if these two men had something to do with.

Mahone seems to have always been "erratic." He performed brilliantly with great courage on some days, but on other days seems to have been the most useless brigade commander in the Army of Northern Virginia (albeit, he was never removed from command, perhaps for political reasons.

The upshot to all this?

The Brigades of Posey and Mahone have a unique distinction. They are the two two brigades in the Army of Northern Virginia that participated in the battle of Gettysburg and suffered losses of less than 10%. A casualty rate compared to that of other brigades that, to my mind, suggests that these gentlemen may not have been as active as was needed.

But was it courage, or competence that was lacking?