GDG- Neither this Capital nor Harpers Ferry could long hold out agains...

[CWMHTours at aol.com]

[The forts] "not fully manned."
 
Up until Grant pulled out the Heavies from the circle of forts  they were 
fully manned.
 
As can be read in Benjamin Franklin Coolledge's "Sword and  Shield"  and 
"Mr Lincoln's Forts" it was decided by the Union high command  that 30,000 men 
were sufficient to man the forts and they maintained that number  through 
until June/July 64.
 
Actually I am not sure what you mean by "not fully  manned".   There was no 
reason to maintain a full active gun crew for  every cannon in the forts, 
which if you consider that there were at least a  dozen cannon in every fort 
if not several dozen in the case of Ft Sumner, Reno,  or Stevens.  There 
were 68 forts roughly and times a dozen guns that's a  minimum of 800+ gun 
crews.  Times 6-8 men per gun crew and that's a lot of  men.  Plus 100 empty 
field arty positions.
 
But when you say "not fully manned" you don't need to  mantain a full 
active gun crew for each cannon when there's  no enemy around to shoot.  What you 
needed was to move the Heavies to any  points that were threatened,  
leaving a lookout force at the remaining  forts.
 
What they did was keep a barracks near each of the forts and  the Heavies 
either maintained or added to the forts or practiced their artillery  skills. 
 The rest of the time they either skinny dipped in the Pot R or  enjoyed 
horizontal refreshments in the 600+ bordellos of DC.   Cushy  duty.
 
As for Andy's statement that DC could be captutred by  siege.  I can't see 
the Conf's getting enough men to surround the city, lay  siege AND fight off 
outside attacks by  the AoP and other forces.   Consider Grant had over 
100k men and really didn't break through into either  Richmond or Petersburg,  
he had to go around the end of the Conf  line.   So I can't ever see a Conf 
siege of  DC.   
 
A  Loyal Neo-Anti Unionist,
Peter  

 
In a message dated 1/27/2012 8:29:36 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
amills at jplcreative.com writes:

Esteemed  GDG Member Contributes:
Thanks Jack...

-----Original  Message-----
From: gettysburg-bounces at arthes.com  [mailto:gettysburg-bounces at arthes.com] 
On Behalf Of Jack Lawrence
Sent:  Wednesday, January 25, 2012 4:28 PM
To: GDG
Subject: Re: GDG- Neither  this Capital nor Harpers Ferry could long hold 
out against a large  force

Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
Andy,

Meade had  construcyed a multiple fort defensive line of some 33 miles 
around DC.
It  is my impression thoyugh that it wasa not fully manned, rom Coddington 
we know  that defending Pennsylvania was the bigger concern than DC though, 
with  Stanton establishing the first ever National Reserve with a commanmd 
center i  Harrisburg, under Curtain (even though it was a flop).

A I read your  blurb (did not go into the OR you cited), Halleck was just 
pushing Hooker,  whom he did noot like, a little harder.

Obviously, the AoP was the DC  first line of defense, which is that Halleck 
is saying.

But who  knows.

To respond to some earlier speculation about a what happens if  Lee defeats 
the aoP in detail, which means renders it militarily ineffective  as a 
fighting force, obviously they exfiltrate to Dc and see if Bobby lee  wants to 
test his luck.

Lee, if he is smart, goes home anyway. He might  try Philidelphia or 
baltimore though, as the British learned, it was  defensible to a fault.

The Harrisburg thing is, IMHO, militarily  unsound.

More certainly though is Lee is not going to defeat Meade in  detail, but 
rather drive him off the fish hook. In which case he goes back to  Pipes 
Creek.

And Lee gets degeated in  detail.

Regards,

Jack


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