Coming in May, 150 years ago: The Battle of Chancellorsville

Jackson sizes up Hooker's vulnerable right flank

 

In his centennial history of the Civil War, Never Call Retreat, Catton titles his chapter on Chancellorsville, "The Darkness, and Jackson, and Fear".

"Jackson's flank attack"

 

This battle was not so much a battle of the Army of Northern Virginia vs. the Army of the Potomac as it was a moral struggle between Robert E. Lee and General Joseph Hooker. Lee had total domination over Hooker (as he did most other northern generals). Union General Darius Couch, one of Hooker's senior corps commander saw this at the time and expressed his contempt for Hooker in his report, which ended with these words:

In looking for the causes of the loss of Chancellorsville, the primary ones were that Hooker expected Lee to fall back without risking battle. Finding himself mistaken he assumed the defensive, and was outgeneraled and became demoralized by the superior tactical boldness of the enemy.  

Here is a wealth of study links

The map below shows troop dispositions at the final stages of the battle when Hooker (blue) planned his retreat back across the river in defeat. Those of you interested in military tactics and strategy may see here signs of the moral dominance Lee held over Hooker. What does this map tell you?
What would Lee have done here if he commanded the blue formations instead of the red? What would you have done with the two Corps of Reynolds and Howard?

Stephen Crane's book, The Red Badge of Courage is based on this battle.

Soldiering:The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull

A soldier's account:  "Among the rank and file of largely uneducated Union Soldiers in the Civil War, Sergeant Rice C. Bull was an exception--a sensitive and perceptive man whose diary vividly describes the training, daily routine and combat that was the life of an infantryman. Among the memorable passages are those of the Battle of Chancellorsville and of marching with Sherman through a devastated Georgia to the sea."
Review of this book:

 Rice Bull's regiment: 123rd New York


West Point study of the Battle of Chancellorsville  Quick View of this study

From Student of the American Civil War: The Chancellorsville Campaign

Video tutorial of the battle

 

Mark Steyn: Did we all fail the Tsarnaevs? Shame on America for making these young men do what they did.

bokertov

OC Register  "The Tsarnaevs' mom, now relocated from Cambridge to Makhachkala in delightful Dagestan, told a press conference the other day that she regrets ever having gotten mixed up with those crazy Yanks: "I would prefer not to have lived in America," she said.

"Not, I'm sure, as much as the Richard family would have preferred it. Eight-year-old Martin was killed; his sister lost a leg; and his mother suffered serious brain injuries. What did the Richards and some 200 other families do to deserve having a great big hole blown in their lives? Well, according to The New York Times, they and you bear collective responsibility. Writing on the op-ed page, Marcello Suarez-Orozco, Dean of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and Carola Suarez-Orozco, a professor at the same institution, began their ruminations thus:

"The alleged involvement of two ethnic Chechen brothers in the deadly attack at the Boston Marathon last week should prompt Americans to reflect on whether we do an adequate job assimilating immigrants who arrive in the United States as children or teenagers."

The Celebrity-in-chief; President Slams Media But Conan Softballs Obama At Lame WH Correspondents Dinner

Deadline Hollywood   "O’Brien’s best line of the night was comparing the relationship between Obama and House Majority Leader John Boehner  to a blind date between Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow. (“In theory they understand each other’s positions. But deep down you know nothing’s ever going to happen.”) Obama got in the nastiest media dig. Noting that CNN has “taken some knocks” – because of errors during reporting on the Boston Marathon bombings -  he said, “Fact is I admire their commitment to cover all sides of a story – just in case one of them happens to be accurate.” Obama even stabbed his liberal media cronies. He said saying seeing David Axelrod going to work for MSNBC was “a nice change of pace since MSNBC used to work for David Axelrod”.

....
Obama "also made this media comparison: “My job is to be president. Your job is to keep me humble. Frankly, I think I’m doing my job better.” He did receive a big laugh with this line: ”These days I look in the mirror and I’m not the strapping young Muslim Socialist I used to be.” Swaggering to the podium accompanied by rap music, he began by self-congratulating himself."

Obama jokes openly jokes about this! "David Axelrod now works for MSNBC, which is a nice change of pace, since MSNBC used to work for David Axelrod.  "Said Obama last night, making funny at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. His comic routine lasts over 20 minutes. I just pulled that one line out because it actually almost corresponded to the truth about correspondents."

The Federal Aviation Administration is not collapsing but the White House is.

Jennifer Rubin  "The latest FAA gambit was a somewhat desperate effort to revive the issue. Once again the president, seemingly with no back up plan, had no choice but to give up when the public became outraged and it was obvious that Democrats were trying to wield their inconvenience as a club against Republicans. Really, did the president expect any different result than occurred when he was threatening to lay off first responders?
"The president has been deeply unserious of late — about our debt, about the Syrian chemical use (not such a “red line” after all), about the identity of our enemy (jihadists) and about the depth of our economic woes. He would rather pursue a largely frivolous anti-gun bill or demagogue about the FAA. For the sake of the country, he needs to raise his game and start facing up to our real challenges."

School Counselor Fired for Alleged Racist Rant on Texas Explosion Victims

Big Government "The comment was posted under the Facebook account of public school counselor Karon Wright on the Facebook page for a local news station. The comment stated:

It's amazing how the 'whites' get angry when Obama speaks. Oh well....its most of the whites who is getting blown away. So they will soon be wiped from the earth. Lol

"The comment was not the only angry words from liberals directed at relatives of the killed or injured victims of West. Several local officials in the city and county have had voicemails left for them blaming the prominence of
“conservative” political ideologies in the area for the explosion, according to Toby Marie Walker, a county resident who also heads up the Waco Tea Party. “They blame a belief in free-markets for the explosion,” she said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News."

She plans the Anthony Weiner defense:
WFAA Dallas reports  "She closed her statement saying her goal "has been and will always be to support my students in a professional manner."
"Wright said she has filed a complaint with Facebook about the comment, and hired an attorney."

Tom Brokaw's criticism of the White House correspondents dinner and the blowback you would expect

Big Journalism   "For those of you who might not know or care, the White House Correspondents Dinner is an annual orgy of narcissistic self-indulgence where the biggest stars in media, Hollywood, and politics gather to become even more corrupt and insulated than they already are. It is also a decidedly left-wing affair where the media hoot, holler, and applaud as Barack Obama attacks his political opponents, and do the same when Stephen Colbert rips George W. Bush."

...".Last year Brokaw surprised many when he made this statement about the event on "Meet the Press":

What kind of image do we present to the rest of the country? Are we doing their business, or are we just a group of narcissists who are mostly interested in elevating our own profiles? And what comes through the screen on C-SPAN that night is the latter, and not the former.

"This year, Brokaw doubled down with this statement to Politico:

But I think any organization… has to have a kind of self-policing instinct and what we’re doing with that dinner, as it has been constituted for the past several years, is saying, ‘We’re Versailles. The rest of you eat cake.’

 

White House correspondents partiers say Tom Brokaw’s got it wrong

 "Look at what we publish,” he said. “Does it seem like it corrupts us?”
Over the years, Remnick noted that the New Yorker has published groundbreaking stories on torture, drone strikes and other sensitive topics in D.C.
“If one party can corrupt you,” he said. “You probably shouldn’t be in the game.” 

Would You Sign to Rid U.S. of 1st Amendment? These guys would.

Conservative Daily News  "Clips from this video were shown on Fox and Friends Friday. The creator, Mark Dice, wanted to challenge the knowledge of Obama supporters by offering a petition to rid the US of its pesky First Amendment.
"Is it okay for those mean right wingers to criticize the president? Want to stop those haters?
"Watch as the majority of these naive voters easily sign away their rights.  They have no idea the importance our forefathers placed on free speech nor it’s role today.
"This will make you shake your head."
 As he said, "This is so easy!"

 

What do you know about the First Amendment?   "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Lock up the interns, the Clinton's are headed for the White House again!

TheComicalConservative

 

Hat tip to Bob Hope, Sacramento, CA

Syria's gas attacks and Obama's red line

Obama Not Rushing to Act on Signs Syria Used Chemical Arms  "But Mr. Obama is also trying to preserve his credibility after warning in the past that the use of chemical weapons would be a “game changer” and prompt a forceful American response.

" “Knowing that potentially chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria doesn’t tell us when they were used, how they were used,” Mr. Obama told reporters in the Oval Office. “We have to act prudently. We have to make these assessments deliberately.”

" “But I meant what I’d said,” the president added. “To use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses another line with respect to international norms and international law. And that is going to be a game changer.”"

 White House Wants Syria ‘Red Line’ to Be Determined by UN
"Capitol Hill pounced on the Obama administration’s flailing rhetoric about red lines after a slip of admonition that the Syrian regime most likely used chemical weapons.
"“We cannot have a situation in which chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people,” Obama said in August. “We have been very clear to the Assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is, we start seeing a whole bunch of weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my equation.” "

The Bush legacy; “He kept us safe.”

"Not quite right. With Bush’s legacy being reassessed as his presidential library opens in Dallas, it’s important to note that he did not just keep us safe. He created the entire anti-terror infrastructure that continues to keep us safe."


After that the Obama administration sought to prosecute those who had kept us safe.

Charles Krauthammer
"Moreover, Bush’s achievement was not just infrastructure. It was war. The Afghan campaign overthrew the Taliban, decimated al-Qaeda and expelled it from its haven. Yet that success is today derogated with the cheap and lazy catchphrase — “He got us into two wars” — intended to spread to Afghanistan the opprobrium associated with Iraq.

"As if Afghanistan was some unilateral Bush adventure foisted on the American people. As if Obama himself did not call it a “war of necessity” and Joe Biden, the most just war since World War II."
Emphasis added.

From Affirmative Action to Diversity

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Victor Davis Hanson  "The idea of diversity, racial and otherwise, is deeply embedded in politics. President George H.W. Bush was not especially lauded for appointing an African-American Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas, apparently because Thomas was considered conservative. Liberal Attorney General Eric Holder was seen by the media as a genuinely diverse appointment in a way that a conservative predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, was not."

U.S. female sailor beats Dubai rapist bus driver into submission

Don't you love stories like this?
The Washington Times
"An off-duty U.S. navy sailor wrestled a Dubai bus driver to the ground and beat him into submission after he tried to rape her at knifepoint on Jan. 19, a courtroom heard Wednesday.
"The woman, 28, was on 24-hour shore leave in Dubai when she was attacked by a bus driver after he picked her up from the Mall of the Emirates shopping center."

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SEE RELATED: Islamic cleric decrees it OK for Syrian rebels to rape women

http://www.israpundit.com/archives/33807

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" “I noticed he did not take the main road and when I asked him he told me not to worry,” she said, according to the Daily Mail.
"He then stopped where several other buses were parked and tried to kiss her. After she refused, he pulled out a knife and tried to rape her.
Prosecutors said that she knocked the knife from his hand, broke it in two, bit him in the hand, forced him to the ground and locked him between her thighs, the Daily Mail reports."....