Texas realignment
Dean Webb
Wow. Not a hoax. In my Region X, it's good-bye most of DISD and Coppell and
hello Allen, McKinney, and Frisco. I'll miss my buddies there in the
regional meet, and will welcome the new teams. Maybe we'll toughen up with
EVEN MORE competitiveness and get a Texas team that can take CA on.
With bragging rights at stake, :-)
Dean Webb
Berkner HS
Richardson, TX
Susan Embler
This is going to drive our management team CRAZY. What if DISD sends ten
schools next year? We've had a big drive for all schools to have a team.
Does SOC go with Hillcrest for medium sized? Does TJ go with Skyline for
large school?
Holy moly. . . .
Susan in Dallas
Dean Webb
REGION I: Leander now has a looooong drive to the Panhandle.
REGION II: Looks like you are all in El Paso.
REGION III: Takes in the RGV, Corpus, and the southern Coastal Bend.
REGION IV: It's all San Antone. 26 schools, too.
REGION V: 26 schools in the Greater Houston area.
REGION VI: More in Houston. 25, including Bryan.
REGION VII: YET MORE in Houston. Well, 21 schools in areas considered "near
Houston".
REGION VIII: Tarrant and Denton counties.
REGION IX: Large schools near DFW, medium schools from Mesquite, Waco,
Kilgore, and Copperas Cove... a number of big commutes in the medium schools
there.
REGION X: Collin, Rockwall, and NE Dallas counties. Morituri te salutant.
REGION XI: A number of small schools covering from Marfa to Sinton. Now THAT
is a massive range to travel... I guess they'll meet in the middle around
Lago Vista.
REGION XII: Dallas ISD, southern Dallas county, and East Texas, plus some
Collin county medium schools.
There remain some big commutes for schools in Texas, but I don't think it's
as many as there were in the previous alignment we had.
Dean Webb
these choices based on scores? If so, then that'll be the answer to your
question, Susan.
Our team in Region X loses DISD and Coppell people, so I'd hope the
McKinney, Frisco, and Allen folks are happy to step up.
Susan Embler
coach briefly tonight and she's bummed. The five A teams that we are
pitched against now are certainly more able for us to beat. We've been
dumbed down. The Mesquite teams are worthy certainly, but we've been
pitched into a less competitive region.
I'm serious that our management team is going to throw a gasket (Judy
Johnston). This means that she may have to do more work.
I don't think the realignment is based on scores. I think it is about
balancing 4A teams with 5A teams. We've just had such an attrition of 4A
teams in our region lately. We had what 3? this last time at our region.
The balancing may be based on scores. (second thought) putting the Dallas
five A schools in with some of the lesser successful five A schools in the
Dallas region.
I don't know how I feel about this. I'm trying to build a program in a huge
district that has not supported such building. I think that there is an
initiative to do so now (boy howdy) and I regret that the system is just now
figuring out that we need to support the programs.
There is locally a push for EVERY school to have a team (duh?) which should
be the status quo. Sadly, so many schools in DallasISD have dropped the
program. The attrition rate over the last five years is abominable. I can
only hope that the gesture of support is genuine.
I'm at my current school because my dean wanted me for decathlon and art
history and jewelry. We have 40 kids as apposed to the four when I got
there. However, I learn that he has failed to order our materials yet. I'm
supposed to meet with my kids to distribute stuff and I have nothing to give
them! I guess I will meet with my kids and ask them all to have read the
novel and be willing to discuss it. They have nothing else to work with
other than the art basic guide and the music basic guide and the econ basic
guide that they retained from last year.
That doesn't take into account the new kids that made the team that don't
have the resources. Magnet schools are a booger. Our kids are spread over
a large metropolitan area and can't easily meet.
Oh joy. This is going to be fun this summer. . .
David Gear
Irish, John
Just to put an end to the rumors, the realignment had nothing to do with scores. I was at the meeting, a rough draft was done by a geography teacher of an AD coach on his own based solely on geography and looking at numbers of schools in each region, the coach presented this to us and we discussed it and voted on it. While he had access to the scores, his motivation was to realign regions based more on common sense and location.
It hurt my region as well, we go from basically Seven Lakes and Friendswood getting most of the medals, to now having 3 other schools scoring in the mid to upper 30K, with Foster finishing in the top 10 in the State! This means much less medals for my kids. There is no question that there are some weaker regions and tougher regions, that was the case before the realignment as well. But none of these factors went into determining the geographic regions.
The Frisco region will get even tougher once Wakeland and Liberty move up to 4A, which they will do after this year. So things are only going to get tougher in that region. There really is no way of getting around that, the same thing happens in the UIL regions as well, that is just the nature of the beast. Once Seven Lakes moves up to 5A, which we will do after this year, me and my wife will be competing against each other with the UIL Social Studies (she coaches at Katy Taylor - and is the new AD coach there as well), we both won state this year - I won 4A and she won 5A! We will basically have to beat the other teams out for the wildcard slot.
I am sure after a couple of years these will make sense to everyone and you all will adjust.
John
Spartan Decathlon
Seven Lakes High School
Katy, Texas
________________________________
Dean Webb
Susan Embler
t.zab...@sbcglobal.net
realignment came from certain schools who competed in regions well
outside of any geographic sensibility. There was no official process
for a school to move into a region. A request was made and permission
to move granted for some. The meeting produced someone whose husband
happened to be a geographer. Using geography as the criteria, teams
were placed into regions. The status quo saw teams from Corpus Christi
area competing in San Antonio while some medium teams from the San
Antonio area traveled to places such as Marfa. Additionally, schools
that had not competed for years were counted as being part of Region
IV. Two or three years ago, a medium school that was across the
highway from the regional host school being forced to travel to Marfa
to compete. From my perspective, effective communication of concerns
and issues remains a challenge. Additionally, the previous years
produced a large school regional winner (not IV) who only competed
against one other school. That circumstance prompted the Texas board
of directors to require a minimum of five schools to compete in order
to qualify for the automatic regional winner state berth.
On Jun 13, 5:58 pm, "Susan Embler" <silver...@usa.net> wrote:
> This was certainly the first I'd heard of it and apparently our Management team member didn't know either. The Hillcrest coach contacted her today and Dr. Johnston didn't believe her.
>
> Ask me if I'm surprised. . .
>
> Susan in Dallas
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Gear
> To: acadec...@googlegroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 10:00 AM
> Subject: Re: Texas realignment
>
> What I would say about unhappy management team members is that they should have been at the meeting to represent their respective regions. Rather than freaking out in a reactive manner, they should be more involved in the programs in their respective districts and they should have attended the meeting. I'm not criticizing one particular district or region but rather all of them that failed to send a representative (my district and region included).
>
> David
> AcDec Coach
> Rockwall High School
>
> >> Richardson, TX- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
David Gear
Dean Webb
Dean Webb
same region as Houston-area small schools and Marfa and Sinton are still in
the same small school-only region.
Now, if we had more schools doing AcDec, maybe Marfa and Sinton wouldn't
have to meet halfway at Lago Vista for their meets... so what is the Texas
Academic Decathlon doing to get more schools to give it a whirl? Austin,
Temple, Killeen, Abilene, Victoria, Corsicana, Sherman, Wichita Falls: where
are you on the regional list?
I think I'm starting a few other threads here, but that's just chaotic
little me. I'm writing a FTROU book AND reading Ambrose Bierce, so that gets
me in a bit of an acerbic mood.
Just so I don't get into any more trouble with the state people,
Name and address withheld.
(I don't think they can trace email addresses, so I'm safe there)
Susan Embler
Rather than ten.
I'm not overwhelmed by the state office's ability to keep up. They still
show me as the coach of a school I left 3 years ago, and show people who now
live in Oregon as the coach at my school.
I think they need to pay attention to the registration forms that we submit.
How many teams compete in Texas? That's a lot of money in registration
fees. I will have to say that I think Shonna is a love. She has been very
good to me personally.
Why would they put us (every Dallas school but Hillcrest) in Aubrey and
Hillcrest that is 12 miles closer to Aubrey in a different region? I
understand the need to realign and don't disagree that we should be in with
some of the schools that we have been put with, but why split our district
and split Frisco? The region that has a "management team" concept has ONE
school left in that region. Does our management team member have to clone
herself (oh GOD)?
I actually CAN understand splitting a district as large as Dallas, but not
in such a random way. Our region had grown pretty large. I'm happy for my
inner city school to have a chance at some medals at region. I've thought
we should be in with the Mesquite schools for a while.
Well this all goes to show that you can't please all the people all the
time. Go figure. . .
I'm just pissed beyond belief that my dean hasn't even ordered my materials
yet. I usually have them by now.
OY!!
Susan in Dallas
Todd Decker
What's your address? I was in a similar predicament as you until one of the
other coaches on this email list sent me a packet of materials. Well, my
order just came in, and in the spirit of cooperation, I would like to "pay
it forward" and send you a set.
Todd Decker
South Mountain High School
Phoenix, AZ
Rex Howard
pitful way to communicate. The website is mostly useless, so I do not
use it. I do not think I am alone in this.
Rex H. Howard
Plano East Senior High School
Science - Academic Decathlon
469.752.9000
voice mail extension 39043
rho...@pisd.edu
>>> "David Gear" <dwg...@gmail.com> 6/13/2007 9:25 PM >>>
The all-call invitation was posted on www.txacadec.org website for
weeks.
I'm a nut and check that site regularly for these things that's how I
knew.
Go to Txacadec.org and check out the "Dates to Remember" section.
David
On 6/13/07, Susan Embler <silv...@usa.net> wrote:
>
> This was certainly the first I'd heard of it and apparently our
> Management team member didn't know either. The Hillcrest coach
contacted
> her today and Dr. Johnston didn't believe her.
>
> Ask me if I'm surprised. . .
>
> Susan in Dallas
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* David Gear <dwg...@gmail.com>
> *To:* acadec...@googlegroups.com
> *Sent:* Wednesday, June 13, 2007 10:00 AM
> *Subject:* Re: Texas realignment
Gary Fortenberry
I was selected to represent my region (I) at a meeting that was held in Houston last September, at which time this discussion about realignment was broached. It was the consensus among those there that realignment was needed for a couple of reasons:
1) To make the regions make more geographical sense with regard to travel.
2) To try and balance the number of medium size schools in each region. The problem is that unless a region has 5 competing schools in it, the region winner doesn't get an automatic bid to state. Of course, the point was made that region winners shouldn't necessarily get an automatic bid anyway, but that the best 30 schools should be the ones to advance. In my opinion, that argument has merit, but of course the other side of the coin is that the automatic qualifier rule can build momentum for AcaDec in areas of the state where it isn't so established. Regardless on the opinions on that issue, this was a motivating force behind this realignment.
For those of us out west, AcaDec unfortunately isn't growing, but rather contracting. Since I first started coaching 11 years ago, we have lost large schools from Abilene (Abilene High and Cooper), San Angelo (Central), Amarillo (Amarillo High, Tascosa, and Caprock), and medium schools from Snyder, Andrews, and Plainview, and some small schools as well. So our regional competition is getting smaller and smaller. I keep wondering when they will collapse our region altogether and send us either to El Paso or the Western part of the Metroplex. But that hasn't happened yet. In short, many of the districts out here have pulled their support for AcaDec, so that's part of the reason (I suppose), that poor Leander is being faced with a drive to Odessa next January.
With regard to the transmission of information. Each region was to select a coach from each division, to represent that region at the aforementioned meeting, and then the coach was to report back to their region what was decided. So perhaps a coach wasn't selected, or that coach didn't go to the meeting, or perhaps they went but didn't pass on the information to the other coaches.
Anyway, I thought that a little more information might be in order.
Gary D. Fortenberry
Science Dept. Chair
Academic Decathlon Coach
Monterey High School
________________________________
From: acadec...@googlegroups.com on behalf of Dean Webb
Sent: Wed 6/13/2007 10:02 PM
To: acadec...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: Texas realignment
Yeah. That's not the best way to get the word out. (Notice my use of litotes...)
For a whole lot of us to be going, huh? Whodunnit? Wha'hoppen?, it shows a failure of communication at the State level. That may be the real issue at play here. Sure, we got the split up districts, but they're along large/medium lines. The state did not get the word out effectively - there should have at least been an email opt-in list for us to subscribe to.
I used to help manage corporate communications systems in a previous career. This sort of thing wasn't excusable even before email: there were fax machines and telephones and phone trees to get the word out.
HERE'S HOW IT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE:
1. Sue Edwards calls the 12 region coordinators.
2. The 12 regional coordinators call the district representatives for the school districts in their region.
3. The district reps contact their coaches.
WOW THAT WAS EASY TO DO.
Well, we got the realignment... at least until DISD explains its situation... of course, if I was running DISD, I'd ask for all the schools to go to Region XII. Region X is a massacre waiting to happen, as I well know.
Dean
-----Original Message-----
From: acadec...@googlegroups.com [mailto:acadec...@googlegroups.com]On Behalf Of David Gear
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 9:25 PM
To: acadec...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Texas realignment
The all-call invitation was posted on www.txacadec.org <http://www.txacadec.org/> website for weeks. I'm a nut and check that site regularly for these things that's how I knew. Go to Txacadec.org <http://txacadec.org/> and check out the "Dates to Remember" section.
Dean Webb
Dean Webb
Dean Webb
I would like it, though, if we were dealing with growing pains rather than
contracting cramps. It's a great program and I'd like to know what's being
done to reactivate the program where it used to be and to grow it where it
isn't currently.
-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Fortenberry [mailto:acadec...@googlegroups.com]On Behalf Of
Gary Fortenberry
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 9:51 AM
To: acadec...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: Texas realignment
From: acadec...@googlegroups.com on behalf of Dean Webb
The all-call invitation was posted on www.txacadec.org website for weeks.
I'm a nut and check that site regularly for these things that's how I knew.
Go to Txacadec.org and check out the "Dates to Remember" section.
Gary Fortenberry
Gary D. Fortenberry
Science Dept. Chair
Academic Decathlon Coach
Monterey High School
________________________________
she...@aol.com
subject.
Kim Peters
San Antonio, TX
David
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.
David Gear
she...@aol.com
Zablocki, and I believe Brian Lawrence (but don't hold me to the last
citation).
Kim Peters
San Antonio, TX
David
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> >
>
from AOL at AOL.com.
=0
t.zab...@sbcglobal.net
asking for concerns/ points of view to all who attended our regional
meet. Originally, the meeting was not open to coaches or
administrators. One had to receive an invitation from state
director. I had major concerns about the process, and asked our
district administrators who sit on the TAD board to follow the issue.
Subsequently, the "invitation" was published on the webpage to include
any coach or administrator. Fortunately, our district was kind
enough to send a top level adminstrator to attend the meeting. This
administrator will also be present for the follow up presentation at
the TAD board of directors meeting June 25 (Austin, I believe.) If
anyone wishes to ensure the realignment holds, any reinforcement of
your positions by your school district reps. on the TAD would be the
most effective route. The Texas website does state that changes to
the plan would only be considered if school districts had been split
or if UIL classification changes.
Background: I am a former debate coach who was stunned at last
year's coaches representative meeting. TAD does not publish agendas,
minutes, etc. There are no governing by-laws that I could
ascertain. Ad-hoc, on-the-fly decisions appear to be the norm. Our
region has consistently lost participating schools and districts.
On Jun 14, 1:17 pm, shea...@aol.com wrote:
> I got it from the state office and from the large school rep., Terri
> Zablocki, and I believe Brian Lawrence (but don't hold me to the last
> citation).
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Gear <dwg...@gmail.com>
> To: acadec...@googlegroups.com
> Sent: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:57 pm
> Subject: Re: Texas realignment
>
> From whom? I'd love to get my name on that contact list.
>
> For the record: I wholly support the realignment as it is right now
> and hope the state office stays resolved to keep it this way.
>
> David Gear
> AcDec Coach
> Rockwall High School
>
> On 6/14/07, shea...@aol.com <shea...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> For what it's worth, I was sent several emails and invitations on the
> subject.
>
> Kim Peters
>
> San Antonio, TX
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rex Howard <Rex.How...@pisd.edu>
> To: acadec...@googlegroups.com
>
> Sent: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 7:27 am
> Subject: Re: Texas realignment
>
> I did not know about the meeting either. Using the website only is a
> pitful way to communicate. The website is mostly useless, so I do not
>
> use it. I do not think I am alone in this.
>
> Rex H. Howard
> Plano East Senior High School
> Science - Academic Decathlon
> 469.752.9000
> voice mail extension 39043
>
>
> >>> "David Gear" <dwg...@gmail.com> 6/13/2007 9:25 PM >>>
> The all-call invitation was posted onwww.txacadec.orgwebsite for
> weeks.
> I'm a nut and check that site regularly for these things that's how I
> knew.
> Go to Txacadec.org and check out the "Dates to Remember" section.
>
> David
>
> =0- Hide quoted text -
David Gear
Dean Webb
bigger to accomodate more schools. I know Dallas ISD has a district
competition to determine which ten of their schools will advance to a
regional competition. Why not have DISD be its own region, along with
hosting the small schools from Region XII? The other large schools from
Region XII could be partitioned among Regions VIII, IX, and X.
Are there any other districts that limit the nuber of their schools they
send on? If we're complaining about limited participation in regional meets,
why not have all the schools with teams go on to regionals? I'll grant that
most don't have a shot at making state, but if all AcDec is about is getting
high points, then I'm coaching the wrong extracurricular.
If getting judges or proctors is difficult, then perhaps the state
organization can lend a hand at collecting judges. Or am I unschooled in the
subject of how burdened the state organization is already? If so, then I
humbly ask for an education. At any rate, the program should be growing.
Rather, the program should have *been* grown and it should be maintaining
right now.
Make the pie bigger. That's what makes a negotiation more successful.
Todd Decker
We (Arizona) usually have between 90 and 100. Every school gets to compete
in a Regional Competition (we have four Regional Competitions in the State),
and the top 40 schools compete at the State Competition.
When I started coaching 18 years ago, we did not have a district
competition. So, when our kids went to the Regional Competition, we did not
know what to expect. After a few years of that, we (two other coaches and
myself) started up a district competition so that our kids would get more
experience and have a fighting chance, and that certainly helped. We did it
all ourselves, organizing judges, volunteers, food, etc. Sheesh! I was a
lot younger and had a lot more energy back then, and I also didn't have
three boys yet! About seven years ago, I was finally able to convince my
district to allocate funds and help to put on our annual district
competition. Just in the past couple of years we have finally been able to
get all 10 of our district schools to field teams. It's been a long road,
and it has taken a lot of work. I still put in a lot of time helping to run
our district tournament every year, but I have gotten (you can tell I'm NOT
an English teacher, right?) SO MUCH out of doing this all these years--I
have learned FAR more as an AD coach than I ever learned in college, and I
know our kids have benefitted from our time and effort.
We also go to various "Invitational" tournaments that some schools have at
different times of the year (usually in-between our district tournament in
November and Regionals in February). That's been fun, too. It keeps the
kids fresh, and gives them more to do.
Oh, I almost forgot. We let every student in each of our 10 district
schools compete at our district tournament. Some schools have over 30 kids
in their programs, some only have 6, but everyone gets to compete, and
everyone has a chance to medal. The team scores are still computed by
taking the top two scores from each of the three levels, so it all comes out
in the wash. There is usually a medal winner from every school, which is
quite different from our State Competition where it is extremely difficult
to medal.
Todd Decker
South Mountain High School
Phoenix, AZ
Dean Webb
give it a go. I know some interested alumni, as well.
Shanon Blosch
I know our state director took names for those who wished to judge at nationals. After that, I do not know.
Shanon
Scott Greenwood
Lakes. I saw the invite on the TAD website back in early May and just
assumed that everybody else would know about it (I know, silly me!).
We started the meeting going round and round about how to go about the
process of geographically realigning and it was going nowhere. We
took a short break, and then we were made aware of a suggestion from
one of the coaches (I know who she is but don't have her permission to
speak for her) whose husband had voluntarily set up an alignment based
on geography. We discussed the possiblility of using that suggested
alignment, there was consensus that we should look at it, and so we
began going through the suggested alignment document region-by-
region. Some of the splits you mention were there at the request of
regions with a representative at the meeting. Most of the splits
occur because the district has teams in both 4A and 5A and the
traditional region they attend does not accomodate both size brackets
(see Region 12). Other splits occur because some regions are 5A/3A
and some are 5A/4A and the districts' schools will not fit into one or
the other. Frisco's schools are in 3A and 4A next year (just like
this past year) and there was no way to have them in the same region.
Ditto with Hillcrest (4A when most DISD participating schools are 5A)
and Mesquite (some 4A, some 5A). We also had to take into account the
fact that if everybody was exactly where they needed to be
geographically, you would have about half the regions with 35-45
members and the other half with 15-20. Leander reps were at the
meeting and they volunteered to go to the panhandle for their region
competition. Our information was that Dalhart preferred to fly into
Houston for their region competition as well--something about the
district would pay to fly to Houston but not to DFW...
Like John, I am not a big fan of where the regional medal counts for
my kids are heading in our new region, especially when Wakeland and
Liberty hit 4A size in 2008-09. At the same time, the decision to
realign CAN'T be made to protect someone's medal count--that's
politics at its worst, and I've been the victim of it in alignment
decisions in the past. If decisions are being made by districts to
stop supporting acdec based on money, those decisions are made much
more easily by an administrator who has a huge travel expenditure to
point at. It only makes sense to reduce travel costs as much as
possible.
Expect the regions to change slightly again after next year as many
schools in the area will be moving up in classification (Frisco's 3A
schools, CFB Ranchview, JJ Pearce?, Arlington Seguin, etc.). Don't
know if any of this helps--probably not as most of the dissatisfaction
seems to be from not having a voice--but you now have more of the
inside thought process behind the decision. Scream at me if you wish--
I don't mind. :o) It can't be any more frustrating than not having
your study materials yet--I am in the same boat as Susan--hopefully
they show up today!
Scott
David Gear
Scott, we're glad to have you in Region X where life is a little sunnier than anywhere else.
Dean Webb
The Civil War was fought with the wrong tactics for the weapons they had. Generals tried to use maneuvers that worked well enough in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, but the weapons available in 1861 made those maneuvers obsolete. Even so, the generals on both sides ordered suicidal attacks on strongly-held positions all through the war and those attacks were carried out using those obsolete tactics. No wonder the body counts from the battlefields surprised the people at home. Some battles resulted in 20%-30% or more of both combatants' armies killed or wounded.
The obsolete tactics involved having soldiers march towards an enemy position at about 85 paces a minute, or perhaps 150 paces a minute in a double-quick step. Each defender could fire his weapon two, maybe three times per minute. If the charges had to cover several hundred yards, the defenders could lay down a murderous fire even at that rate. As repeating weapons entered usage, soldiers could fire seven or eight times per minute, increasing the casualty rates all the more. And yet, generals chose impossible terrain for their troops to attack across for weapons of their day.
Here's Graveyard Road at Vicksburg. It's called that because of all the soldiers who died along this route while assaulting the rebel positions.
Those markers are to show how far a Union regiment got towards the enemy line in a charge. Some are no more than a few yards outside of their own lines. Others are just short of the Confederates'' positions, right where they could be destroyed by grenades and lit shells. All charged across an empty field, barren of any sort of protection, against a well-made defensive fortification.
This is the Hornet's Nest from Shiloh.
Confederates charged into this line by crossing a huge, open field eleven times over eight hours, taking terrible casualties each time. It wasn't until the Confederates brought up artillery to blast the line apart that they were able to take the site. The Union commander held this position as long as he could, even though the artillery could shred his forces which, except for the fence, were all in the open.
This view is from Orchard Knob, from the battle of Chattanooga:
Union forces charged this hill and actually took it, but at great loss. Later on, the Union forces would try to assault a strong Confederate position on their northern flank: 2000 of the Union's 3700 casualties would come from that charge. Union forces also tried to take out this position on top of Lookout Mountain in the Battle of Chattanooga:
I went up that mountain. It seemed insanity to attempt to storm such a position from the side, yet that is what the Union tried to do.
There was a scene in Chickamauga when Longstreet's Confederate soldiers charged into a hole in the Union line. As they did, a Union force armed with repeating rifles fired into the flank of the Confederate force, inflicting severe casualties. How were such high losses possible? See what the Confederates ran across:
Nowhere to hide on that killing ground... and yet they fought on in the obsolete tactics.
These are scenes from the major battlefields I've visited so far. The National Park Service takes care of these battlefields, but the minor ones do not fall under NPS care. They are noticed only by their historical markers and by their graveyards, such as this one from Jonesboro, Georgia:
Every battlefield has its graveyard for the men who died on the field and soon afterward from their wounds. Most of the grave markers are blank, or marked with only a number. The soldiers are unknown, unidentified, massed in formation with their kindred dead. The Confederates and Union soldiers may be buried in separate fields, but they are buried near where they fell with the rest of their host. They were all men who were willing to give their life for their nation. They could have deserted if they so desired: many did desert each army in this war. But, instead, they chose to stand, and that choice proved fatal for them.
These men were one of the most precious resources a nation could have: true patriots. It is always a shame to see how they are wasted by wars. Had the war not divided the nation and plunged it into blood, these men would have lived productive lives and rejoiced in peace.
Of all the plagues that infest a nation, a civil war is the worst. Famine is severe, pestilence is dreadful; but in these, though men die, they die in peace. The father expires without the guilt of the son; and the son, if he survives, enjoys the inheritance of his father. Cities may be thinned, but they neither plundered nor burnt. But when a civil war is kindled, there is then forth no security of property nor protection from any law. Life and fortune become precarious. And all that is dear to men is at the discretion of profligate soldiery, doubly licentious on such an occasion. Cities are exhausted by heavy contributions, or sacked because they cannot answer exorbitant demand.
Countries are eaten up by the parties they favor, and ravaged by the one they oppose. Fathers and sons, sheath their swords in anothers bowels in the field, and their wives and daughters are exposed to rudeness and lust of ruffians at home. And when the sword has decided quarrel, the scene is closed with banishments, forfeitures, and barbarous executions that entail distress on children then unborn. May Heaven avert the dreadful catastrophe! -- "Philanthropos," from an Anti-Federalist PaperHull, Leonard
>towards the enemy
> line in a charge. Some are no more than a few yards
>outside of their own
> lines. Others are just short of the Confederates''
>positions, right where
> they could be destroyed by grenades and lit shells. All
>charged across an
> empty field, barren of any sort of protection, against a
>well-made defensive
> fortification.
>
> This is the Hornet's Nest from Shiloh.
>
>
>
>open field eleven
> times over eight hours, taking terrible casualties each
>time. It wasn't
> until the Confederates brought up artillery to blast the
>line apart that
> they were able to take the site. The Union commander
>held this position as
> long as he could, even though the artillery could shred
>his forces which,
> except for the fence, were all in the open.
>
> This view is from Orchard Knob, from the battle of
>Chattanooga:
>
>
>
>at great loss.
> Later on, the Union forces would try to assault a strong
>Confederate
> position on their northern flank: 2000 of the Union's
>3700 casualties would
> come from that charge. Union forces also tried to take
>out this position on
> top of Lookout Mountain in the Battle of Chattanooga:
>
>
>
>to storm such a
> position from the side, yet that is what the Union tried
>to do.
>
> There was a scene in Chickamauga when Longstreet's
>Confederate soldiers
> charged into a hole in the Union line. As they did, a
>Union force armed with
> repeating rifles fired into the flank of the Confederate
>force, inflicting
> severe casualties. How were such high losses possible?
>See what the
> Confederates ran across:
>
>
>
>fought on in the
> obsolete tactics.
>
> These are scenes from the major battlefields I've
>visited so far. The
> National Park Service takes care of these battlefields,
>but the minor ones
> do not fall under NPS care. They are noticed only by
>their historical
> markers and by their graveyards, such as this one from
>Jonesboro, Georgia:
>
>
>
I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to put
all of this material together and e-mail it to us. Thank
you for sharing some awesome photos with us. The quotes
and your relections really make one think how important
and reverent these battle sites are.
Again, thank you for sharing.
Leonard Hull
Taunton High School
Taunton, Massachusetts
> >