h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The article contains a number of errors:

"The counterattack didn't come from the Union that day, thanks mostly to the incompetence of the Union's General Meade (a mistake which would see him demoted from control of the main Yankee army)"

This is a common misconception that springs from the fact that Grant was brought east and promoted to Commander in Chief of all Union armies, but spent most of his time with Meade's troops overseeing the campaign in the east. General Meade was never demoted from command of the Army of the Potomac, he retained it until the war ended. Furthermore to describe Meade as incompetent is a stretch. He was certainly cautious (although nowhere near as bad as MacCellan who had a tendency to inflate Lee's army so much that he counted it as having more men than the entire Confederacy had under arms) but the fact that Grant kept him in command for nearly two years doesn't suggest incompetence. Bear in mind that Meade had only been in command of the Union army for barely 6 days when Pickett's charge took place, he was still getting the feel for what it was capable of.

"Pickett went on to a commendable service during the remainder of the Civil War, even as the Confederate cause lost all hope and the Union triumphed in 1865"

Pickett in fact spent most of the rest of the war away from the main fighting. His next major battle was in command of the defense of a vital crossroads called Five Forks during the closing stages of the war. Instead of overseeing its defense he went off to a shad bake with other senior officers without telling anyone where he'd gone. Whilst he was away the Union army attacked and captured Five Forks, destroying nearly a third of the Confederate forces there. Lee was furious and sent Pickett away from the army but Pickett refused to go. When Lee later saw him he is supposed to have said "I thought that man was no longer with the army." This hardly suggests commendable service.

"A war-weary Abraham Lincoln sat scribbling on the back of an envelope as the brightness of the countryside scrubbed the dirty windows of his train. He was writing a short speech to deliver at the dedication of a new cemetery for veterans who died at the already-famous battle of Gettysburg"

Lincoln did not write the Gettysburg address on the back of an envelope. Several drafts on Executive Mansion stationry exist that predate his train journey. He did a few last minute edits whilst staying in Gettysburg but the core of the address was already formulated before he travelled.

Hello sirvimes, thanks for reading and responding Your comments are interesting, but I think in most cases, it boils down to a difference in opinion.

I don't think there can be any argument that Meade fell out of favor as a result of a failure to pursue Lee following Gettysburg. I know that Lincoln personally felt betrayed by his failure to do so. Perhaps "demoted" wasn't the proper word, but if Meade was no longer effectively in control of the Army of the Potomac, and was no longer the most powerful General in the Union, could that not at least be called a *relative* demotion?

You're right that Meade had only been in command of the army for a few days, but I would only respond that because of his swift promotion and lack of experience, he could be considered "not yet competent" for the job at hand.

I'm afraid I don't have time just now to check on Pickett's service after Gettysburg (and I wrote a majority of this entry a year and a half ago, so the memory is not quite fresh), but I don't believe he did anything to tarnish the rest of his service. Perhaps "commendable" is generous, but as a Northerner myself, I feel magnanimous in victory .

The story of Lincoln's composition of the Gettysburg address remains a bit muddled. There are, however, witnesses who claim to have seen Lincoln writing on the back of an envelope during the train ride. The tone of that portion of text you wrote is rather narrative, and would have been considerably disrupted with a discussion about this minor controversy. There's some discussion of this on my entry on the Address here - A306965

"I don't think there can be any argument that Meade fell out of favor as a result of a failure to pursue Lee following Gettysburg. I know that Lincoln personally felt betrayed by his failure to do so. Perhaps "demoted" wasn't the proper word, but if Meade was no longer effectively in control of the Army of the Potomac, and was no longer the most powerful General in the Union, could that not at least be called a *relative* demotion?"

I don't so much see Meade as being demoted for doing anything drastically wrong as Grant being picked for the top spot for doing a lot right. Meade certainly could have done better on the third day and should have pursued Lee harder but pretty much anything (short of destroying Lee's army in the Gettysburg campaign) would have left him trailing Grant in terms of contribution to the Union cause when it came time to choose a new commander in chief in late 1863.

I do agree that Grant's presence sometimes made Meade uncomfortable and was akin to replacing him at least initially. Meade certainly felt that way (hence his initial offer to resign the command and serve elsewhere) but they did eventually work together reasonably well. Even assuming that Grant's presence acted like a deliberate effective demotion though you do have to question whether this was done by either Grant or Lincoln based just on a lack of a 3rd July counter-attack. I suspect that Lincoln would have looked at the larger picture including the failed pursuit and lack of offensive action in the months following the battle. Grant on the other hand seemed willing to give Meade a chance to prove his mettle and if he did ever intentionally supplant Meade it was probably based just as much on the latter's performance in the overland campaign as what happened at Gettysburg.

"You're right that Meade had only been in command of the army for a few days, but I would only respond that because of his swift promotion and lack of experience, he could be considered "not yet competent" for the job at hand."

Agreed, but as the statement appears in the article without any clarification or context though it implies that Meade was incompetent so I felt it needed a comment.

"I'm afraid I don't have time just now to check on Pickett's service after Gettysburg (and I wrote a majority of this entry a year and a half ago, so the memory is not quite fresh), but I don't believe he did anything to tarnish the rest of his service. Perhaps "commendable" is generous, but as a Northerner myself, I feel magnanimous in victory"

Well... put it this way if you had been told by your commanding officer to hold a crossroads "at all hazards." would you:

A) Remain at the Crossroads and ensure it is fortified to the best of your ability.
B) Go off 2 miles to have a meal with some fellow officers without bothering to tell your staff where you will be in case they need to find you.

I suspect that if you were sitting an officer's exam and you answered B) you'd probably fail

I'm not saying Pickett's presence would have made that much difference but his actions were outrageous. He was given a crucial assignment and completely ignored his duty. If Lee hadn't been rather busy at the time with the minor matter of having to evacuate the Petersburg defenses (due in no small part to the failure at Five Forks) he'd probably have thrown Pickett out of the army or had him sent to some backwater theatre. Fortunately for Pickett by this date there was no backwater theatre to send him to since the Conferacy was in its last death throes.

"The story of Lincoln's composition of the Gettysburg address remains a bit muddled. There are, however, witnesses who claim to have seen Lincoln writing on the back of an envelope during the train ride. The tone of that portion of text you wrote is rather narrative, and would have been considerably disrupted with a discussion about this minor controversy. There's some discussion of this on my entry on the Address here "

I think there's a difference between editing or studying the text on the train and actually drafting the text for the first time on the train. Its a matter of semantics perhaps though, I just feel "he was editing a short speech" would have sounded better.