December 2012 Rear Ranks Entry

From the Rear Ranks:  

 

Greetings Members!

 

I hope you are all well and from what I have heard our musical presentation by Mike was well received last month.  This month we are lucky to have Don Ernsberger, one of our repeat speakers discussing one of the Union’s many lost opportunities at the Battle of Fredericksburg.  As many of you know Fredericksburg was one of the costliest and perhaps without the perceived victory at Murfreesboro would have much greater political consequences for the North.  Regardless, the debacle at Fredericksburg led to Congress calling for the resignation of several high ranking members of President Lincoln’s cabinet.   In addition Fredericksburg would lead to another re-shuffle in the command of the Army of the Potomac.  Below I have included a couple of great articles by Don Pfanz which are excerpts from a series of articles he wrote for Fredericksburg.com exploring some little known facts about the battle as well as debunking some myths.  I hope to see you all on December 5^th!     

 

Respectively,

Chip Crowe
President,
Brandywine Valley Civil War Round Table