Back to Writing.

Hello all!
Thanks for checking out the blog, I know it has been a few months since I have written, but that is common during basketball season. Being a full time teacher,coach and father of three leaves little time for my creative side, but now that spring is near, it is time for my writing to pick back up again. I thought I would write about a topic that often goes overlooked when people study the American Civil War, winter campaigns. I have just recently finished my latest book about the Bloody Seventh West Virginia Infantry and they fought at one of the most famous winter battle of the war, Fredericksburg. It is that battle that I would like to investigate and discuss today.
19th Century warfare did not lend itself to winter campaigns, it was difficult enough to get thousands of men from point A to B in perfect weather, let alone in the wet winter season. Usually, an Army would enter Winter Quarters around late autumn and would mostly stay in that area until March or April. The most interesting, and ultimately fool-hardy, exception to winter action was the aforementioned Fredericksburg.
After the tactical draw at Antietam, Commander of the Army of the Potomac, George B. McClellan, refused to pursue the beleaguered Army of Northern Virginia. McClellan's refusal to take the fight to the enemy ultimately cost him his command. Lincoln finally fired McClellan for that second, and final time in November. Lincoln pegged General Ambrose B. Burnside as McClellan's replacement. Burnside was under pressure to act and begin a campaign immediately. It didn't matter to Lincoln and other politicians that it was November. Burnside designed an offensive and picked a strategic town on the Rappahannock River, Fredericksburg. Burnside ordered his army to head south towards Falmouth, Virginia, a town adjacent to Fredericksburg.
Burnside's plan called for pontoon bridges to be sent from the War Department, and hopefully, arrive in November, but Head of the War Department, Henry Halleck, drug his feet on Burnside's request. Burnside's Army would wait weeks in Falmouth for the pontoons to arrive, and eventually, the Confederates start amassing an army on the heights above Fredericksburg. Burnside's initial plan was not a bad one, but the failure to beat Lee to the punch and cross before the Rebels could re-enforce killed the plan. Burnside showed a major command flaw, he refused to change his initial plan, even when it became obvious that the attack should not be made.
The Army of the Potomac spent the first week of December on 1862 waiting for the pontoons to be built and trading with the Rebels across the river. Both sides knew that death and suffering was imminent, but they chose to put that aside on an individual level and meet for little swapmeets and other exchanges.
Finally, the Union Army crosses into town and sets about burning major structures throughout the area. All of this angers the Rebels on the heights and draws the ire of Jackson and Lee. When Burnside does order his attack of the Heights, it becomes a wholesale slaughter. Wave after wave of attackers are mutilated by entrenched rebels and, time and again, Burnside refuses to change the course. Burnside continued pushing the fight until, finally, he was convinced to call off the waves of attackers and quit for the night. Laying on that frozen battlefield, men were forced to use corpses of their comrades as protection and warmth from the elements.
Burnside failed miserably, but compounded the failure by forgetting it was winter. He immediately orders a march away from Falmouth, and the roads are so wet and terrible due to the season, that his wagons sink in the mud. It was this "mud march" that would destroy Burnside for good and cost him his command.

Book review

Blogger Mark Mason has written and funny and honest view into human foibles entitled The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life 

I found it An honest, and funny view of life and all the mistakes we have made. I love his scientific investigation of the failures of participation trophies and positive thinking. Sometimes we fail, sometimes we are assholes, and sometimes we overcome, it is the journey to overcoming our shortcomings that make us human and help us grow.