Ultimate General: Gettysburg - Buford's Fight and the Black Hats - Union LP (1/6)

The video is the first part in a series of Union Let's Play videos focusing on the new game, Ultimate General Gettysburg. In this video I discuss the importance of General Buford's cavalry engagement on the morning of July 1st compared to popular myth and the role General Reynolds had on the Battle of Gettysburg.

[galoon]

Excellent commentary on all of your Ultimate General Gettysburg videos!  It's great to listen to someone who's well-versed in the history of the period.  I'm enjoying playing this game, too.

[AgrippaMaxentius]

Wonderful as always man! I just started a Union LP myself :D, curious to see which of us gets farther. I got off to a somewhat rough start.

[RTSGAMER]

Your historical ramblings are entertaining in my opinion

[smittywerbenjaegermanjense]

I have _never_ had the Iron Brigade arrive before the rest of Heth's division. Oh my.

[donaldblankenship]

In this case, the North wanted the remaining Southern soldiers to know they had lost the war. That is why Meade did not attack when the Southerners were trapped against the Susquahanna river for 7 full days before messengers could get back to their lines to build boats. During those 7 days, the Southerners had to drink river water without fires, be eaten by mosquitoes, and starve, all the time on post waiting for blue-suiters to bayonet them. No ammo to shoot squirrels, no way to get across that brown river. Some tried and drown. Two or three out of thousands made it across. Horses can swim. But mostly they were eaten.

[mpspcbristol]

I enjoy your explanations of the history behind each battle.  I'm being a bit nit-picky, but having a military background it somewhat irks me each time you call one of the engagements during the battle a battle.  Just a bit of a pet peeve.  Other than that, great job each time.  Really, really do enjoy the history.

[Falcon]

and why are you holding in an open valley when you could be using cover and the better position on the ridge?

[Anvilarm]

Good vid. I liked the history lesson but i would have liked a little more discussion about what you were trying to do in the battle we were watching. There were a couple of times where it looked like you could have flanked a Confederate regiment or deployed your artillery a little better. I look forward to the next battle.

[banzaitankrunner]

A beautiful remake of Sid Meiers Classic Gettysburg.
100/10

[ovinusgaming]

i think defending the ridges means you will get attack from 3 sides. on Oak ridge, Falling back to Seminary means you lose oak ridge but you can form defenses at seminary and next to the city.

[Seve]

I think you could have had that 500 vp if your had sent the northernmost unit to recap (perhaps with help of skirmishers/cav) that spot and just moved your line back a bit with rest as the AI was his usual passive self...

[donaldblankenship]

Second guessing Gettysburg is all that we do. The only thing that I say that could have changed the outcome was if Lee had passed the sword to Longstreet, after the first day. But the confederates won the first day, so that wasn't going to happen. On the third day, things were so much a mess it would not have mattered. In other words, it is incredible how much advantage Lee had in the beginning, and that the North had in less than 72 hours. It was over. The North won the war there.

[stonewall]

Something that gets on my nerves, and it is not you it is just in general, is people looking at Gettysburg as the turning point of the war, and after this battle the end of the Confederacy was a given.

It wasn't.  You mentioned the battle of the Wilderness.  Like you said it was very close to being a complete rout of the Union army.  There and later at the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, the Union army suffered massive casualties.  Those two battles and much needed reinforcements for the Confederacy gave the two armies near equal numbers at the battle of North Anna.

Surprisingly the Battle of North Anna is a battle virtually nobody ever talks about.  The two armies were fighting at the North Anna River, Lee rearranged his lines and the move did what was intended and fooled Hancock into thinking the Confederates were retreating.  He pursued and the Union army had effectively been split into two.  Lee was too sick and bedridden to take advantage of it but he could have destroyed one half of the army and then turned to attack the other half.   It was the best opportunity the Confederates had in the entire war, and Lee couldn't take advantage of it.

After North Anna, you have Cold Harbor.  All of these battles resulted in massive casualties of the Union army.  And that leads me to the next point that is very under appreciated.  In Democratic societies, Public Opinion means much much more than it does in other societies.  There were multiple objectives to Lee's two Northern invasions.  To relieve Virginia farmlands which had been essentially harvested bare, in effect to simply get the fighting out of Virginia for a little while, get some much need supplies, and to turn Northern public opinion against the war. 

In 1864, the presidential election was going to have a profound impact on the course of the war.  If Lincoln was reelected, the war would continue.  If McClellan was elected, the war would have likely been ended.  Things had not been going well for Lincoln, he kept replacing generals, that ended up being poor commanders, excellent administrators but poor generals.  Also the Union casualties inflicted during Grant's "Overland Campaign", were turning opinion against Lincoln, Grant, and the war.

Things finally started going right for Lincoln in 1864.  Sheridan's campaign in the Shenandoah valley, Grant's siege of Petersburg begins, and the greatest thing to happen for Lincoln was Sherman's capture of Atlanta.  Those things gave public opinion a boost, which had been near the lowest point of the war, and gave Lincoln the victory. 

Honestly, if there is a single point where the end of the war was certain, I think it would have to be the Election of 1864.  Anyway that was very long, and I apologize about that but I think it is important to not look at historical events like this in hindsight.  Because everything you mentioned, the last time the Confederates would invade the north, etc. they didn't know that.  They didn't retreat from Gettysburg saying that "well the war is over now we haven't got a chance. 

[Falcon]

please try to flank and use all your units. its just a little dumb to have a unit do nothing when its its in a perfect flanking position

[Heyevizzle]

I like how you just stopped fighting after the last Confederate assault failed. You just let your troops deploy where they will. I enjoyed your sit and watch tactic. Although you seem to have forgotten your mounted unit to the north until you noticed oak ridge fell to the confederates.