We discuss civilization: history, language, archaeology, and books.
The major subjects covered are:
Mapping History: history discussions with maps and historical photographs! History Discussions: discussing important events and people Learn Koine Greek: learn ancient Greek! Great books: classic fiction and nonfiction Language Learning: discussing Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, and other programs
Let me know if there is a topic you want me to cover. I have had a lot of positive feedback on certain topics, so I will produce more Civil War and colonial-era video programs.
Jeffrey Meyer has worked in parks, museums, and libraries in a number of states. I have master's degrees in library science and archaeology, and I enjoy talking about a variety of topics. Check out my website at jeffreythelibrarian.com
My Spreadshop product page is here: jeffreythelibrarian.myspreadshop.com/
First time viewer. Excellent job. Great pace & clarity of your narrative. Excellent use of visuals to illustrate a very fluid, rapdly changing situation. I will be watching more of your work. I spent a day at the battlefield. It was an incredible experience, realizing what took place there. Thank you!
This is so well done. I can appreciate the work you put into this, and I have been watching. I'm very visual and your graphics make history very clear. Thank you.
Attacking one mile in open land straight into a defensive line?! Pickett's charge has got to be the dumbest attack in US history! General Lee clearly shows he didn't learn a damn thing from all the mistakes the Union made before Gettysburg and seemed to think his men were supermen!
Its crazy to think that the maneuver that saved the day at little round top was used in an identical way on the same day on the other flank. This puts lee's actions later in the battle in a different context imo. Both flanks were nearly overrun and held by what must have seen as by the seat of their pants. Until learning this I had always considered the day three charge to be a pure out of character blunder for lee.
Yes, Pickett's charge makes no sense unless you understand that Lee was also planning on hitting Culp's Hill simultaneously. I do think he met his first impasse on July 2. He hadn't really been in a situation where he had attacked, been stopped, and the blue lines stayed. McClellan could stop Lee, but McClellan always retreated despite achieving a strategic victory. Meade did not leave. After Day 2, Lee had used up most of his men with the exception of Pickett. I suppose he could have decided to hold his ground, and make Meade attack him at the Peach Orchard or somewhere else, but the reality is these giant armies ate all the food in an area, and they couldn't just sit there and "wait and see." Somebody had to flinch. Lee was not a man to wait around.
The first day at Gettysburg was a media engagement and no one really knew what was going on. At the end of the day the Confederates drove the Yankees off of oak Hill and they retreated back to cemetery ridge the fight was over to the next day. Lee should have understood like like Longstreet news that they could not fight a heavy engagement that far from Virginia. He knew that when he left Virginia but somewhere along the line he forgot it. The Yankees were pinned down on cemetery ridge without any supply line that could not be cut by the Confederate army. Play miss this opportunity to destroy the army of the Potomac because he had their way to Washington blocked and was able to cut their supply line. The rest is up to subjection but usually in this situation it don't work out too good
With the loss of Stonewall Jackson, Lee was a different general. His Civil War performance could be split into "with Jackson" vs "without Jackson." And not long after Gettysburg, Lee also had to deal with Grant.
I have ancestors born in America dating back to 1611 or 1612. Jonathan Negus from England married Hannah Poole,who begat Issac Negus I believe that he resided in Swansea,Mass.,and had a son who was died in Freeport Mass in 1720.
For people who were told not to bring on a general engagement.....they sure were engaging. Cutlers just in time brigade, put on a very stubborn defense. Rarely given due credit, much like Stones, Baxter, Pauls brigades Union forces did a great job, it was just a matter of timing that more forces converged on them than they could realistically handle.
Last week I was with my daughter at University of Mary Washington. while driving around Fredricksburg, I saw a sign mentioning "Marye's Heights" and I remembered it was a scene of the battle. I made a note to keep my eye out for it. We toured the campus of UMW and went to eat in town. But I didn't get to look for any memorials. It turns out, the UMW campus IS Marye's Heights! Marye House still stands, in the middle of the campus between Madison Hall and the Sunken Road. On your modern map of the battle, you show a large white building along the Sunken Road near where it intersects Hanover St. I think that is their sports complex.
Another victory like this in the army of Northern Virginia would 2:11 cease to exist. The combat before the Union army occupied cemetery Hill was inconsequential. The is Southern attacks against cemetery ridge brigade mistakes because casualties were irreplaceable and the one that could not be transported back to Virginia army of Potomac when they were on cemetery ridge were in a trap. We could have shifted the second and 3rd Corp RU-vid cover the Baltimore railroad. The first core could have led to their rights and covered in tiny Town road in emmitsburg Pike. The army of the Potomac would have been cut off from Washington and could not have been super resupplied to Wrightsville. They would have had to attack the army of Northern Virginia who would have been in entrenchments,
Meade's caution worked at Gettysburg. He patiently waited for the rebels to attack. Other generals would have lost their cool as the hours passed with no sign of enemy movement. But Meade knew he had good ground and was ready to wait. As for supply routes, remember the old stereotype then about Yankees being a bunch of mechanics. They would have found a solution, especially with all the rail lines they had available.
Thanks. Been to Gettysburg battlefield twice. I was ble to go up in the Seminary cupola where Buford and Reynolds stood. It was a thrill. Last week I happened to be at Fredericksburg. The Sunken Road forms a border of my daughters college. I really enjoy learning more about the ACW. In CT, at a Civil War reenactment and talks , a lecturer explained that all the land battles were inconsequential, and that the real end of the CSA was the naval blockade.
Wrong. It was explained the troopers had Sharp's carbines & their rate of fire was about 20 rounds per minute. Four times as fast as the rebel muzzle loaders.
The events between 20:40 and 22:00 are crazy to me. Colonel Smith, commanding the 71st PA, showed up to fight with his men and just noped out of there. He was quoted as saying, "he would not have his men murdered". They had been fighting already that day against Wright's Brigade. His men were replaced by Dawes' 6th WI from the Iron Brigade, who had fought the day before and defeated the 2nd Mississippi. Dawes' men fought even though they had lost half their officers the day before. I'm surprised nobody noticed that Colonel Smith had chosen not to fight and to leave the 137th NY to fend for itself. Seems cowardly to me. "That evening the 71st was detached and sent to support the defence of Culp’s Hill. They were led in the darkness to a position in the saddle between the upper and lower summits of the hill, where they engaged in a brief firefight. Then, remarkably, Smith pulled the regiment out and marched it back to Cemetery Ridge, remarking that he would not see his men murdered. He even mentions in his official report that he did so without orders, but there seems to have been no repercussions." The very next day, Smith ordered his men to retreat from their positions if the enemy came "too close" before he himself moved back to the rear. WTF? His men were facing Pickett's Charge and his subordinates, following orders, ordered their men to retreat. Brigadier General Webb had to rally the men and lead a counter attack to retake the positions they had abandoned. It seems like a terrible unit with a terrible commander. On the other hand, throughout the course of the war the 71st had a 91% casualty rate, with 15 companies (unusually large) of 100 men each taking 1,512 casualties. By Gettysburg, they only had 331 men left. I'm sure the survivors were disconsolate. Who wouldn't be? Colonel Smith died in 1887. Evidently retreating from trouble and commanding from the rear extended his lifespan.
The first interaction occurred because a small rebel detachment was sent to Gettysburg to "look for army supplies--shoes especially." The ensuing battle occurred as the armies then gathered. They were likely about to collide imminently, and one thing led to another.
Live about 15 minutes east of Gettysburg near Hanover Pa. Familiar with the creeks, roads, towns, and terrain features referenced in the video and its humbling to be driving around and look out the window and imagine lines of men engaged in a deadly fight. Incredibly humbling. May God bless the United States.
Shoes 1st time I heard this I knew about the guns the guys from the south had rocks and sticks and bare feet believing proudly in their cause having been driven into war to defend home fam. the tax of the north killed the south forced war lee did well with what he had but it was matter of time aka devil t pay eh'
Bragg never performed well. The only reason he rose to high command was the blind loyalty of Jefferson Davis. The south was not blessed with solid leadership.
Australia was connected by land to Asia 40,000 years ago and so was Britain with Europe and America with Asia until 9000 years ago. First water crafts were certainly not canoes, but log rafts, unable to withstand waves for long. I am sure, primitive floating devices were made by hominids as early as 1 Million years ago, but not for oceans, but for calm rivers and lakes to cross. We will never know for sure.
Brigadier General John Buford is one of the greatest heroes. I am so saddened to hear that he died of typhus later that year. Sam Elliot played him well in Gettysburg.
That's interesting. I wouldn't use the word "sail," because that implies a sail boat technology that--as far as we know--nobody had in the Pleistocene. However, human populations had canoes. Maybe Neanderthals canoed to Crete? If so, that's a long way from the mainland, and it would likely be a similar situation as the Polynesians in the Pacific. Perhaps an accident or someone got thrown out during a storm, etc.
@@JeffreytheLibrarian colloquially used term. Not necessarily defining the method of propulsion. I suspect we’ve known things can float for a long time. Imagine children playing in a body of water when a dead tree floats down, they’re bound to try and climb on top of it and I don’t suspect Neanderthal or Denisovan children would be any different
You've got such a great style of video/presentation/explanation. I'm wondering if any other youtube channels were your inspiration or how did you develop your style? I love your Civil War material. The battles are great but this grand theater was absolutely amazing as well. Love your stuff! Keep up the good work!
The practice of referring to the US Army as "The Yankees," "The Federals," "The Union" etc in these videos, as well as in tours of the Gettysburg National Park, misdirects attention from the historical reality that a war was being waged against The United States. Meade, Hancock, Howard, all the enlisted personnel el al were The United States Army defending the United States of America. They fought under the flag of The United States. As good as many of these videos are they are almost always based on a false equivalence between The United States and The Confederacy. In their way they perpetuate the propaganda of The Lost Cause.
United States citizens called themselves "the Union" at this time. "Yankee" is a really old term for northerners that goes back to the Dutch at New Amsterdam. "Federals" was a term in use at the time because the Union advocated a federal system as opposed to a confederacy. These terms were used then and today by people in the north. I have been a resident of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Iowa, and I've never thought of these terms as negative.
@@JeffreytheLibrarian My comment is not about semantics. To open up discussion, why do these videos studiously avoid identifying the “Northern Army,” by its proper name: “The United States Army?” Why do they refrain from identifying “The North,” as “The United States?” It’s not a bad idea for a future discussion.
I would recommend the book "Young Washington" by Peter Stark, which I just read earlier this year. It covers this whole period of Washington's life in great detail. Ironically, I read the book during a long day of flying back to Atlanta, having stopped for breakfast two days earlier in Cumberland, Maryland. It was in the airport that I discovered that Wills Creek was probably visible from where I had breakfast that day.
