The Confounding of Dan Sickles - Gettysburg Battle Walk with Ranger Chuck Teague 

I've been trying to figure out where they are at the beginning of this video. I've gone through Google earth but for the life of me I cannot orient myself. What is that intersection? I'm assuming the barn in the background is the Sherfy barn?

Was fortunate enough to join Ranger Teague on an Evening Battlewalk on McPherson Ridge this past July. He truly puts his soul into his work, his allowing us into the McPherson barn was both eerie and one of the historical high points of our trip. A true gentleman!

Did multiple battlefield walks last summer. Managed to get one of Matt Atkinson's walks and Ranger Teague's as well. I must say these men love their work and make every effort to tell the individual stories of the field. One day, I hope my kids will learn to love history the way I do.

Don't know if Chuck reads these at this point but that was phenomenal.

Sickles's actions caused practically every Gettysburg Casualty from NH because two of the three Infantry Regiments at Gettysburg (2nd and 12th) were in his own Corps and the 5th Infantry had to go into the Wheatfield after the Red Diamonds were pushed. However, the question to this day is whether or not it was the right move. If you talk to James Longstreet, Sickles move to the higher ground of the Peach Orchard made Longstreet act sooner than he anticipated look at what happened to Kershaw's Brigade, as a prime example. Three of the SC regiments were torn apart by the excellent placement of artillery and the placement of the 2nd NHVI and two other infantry regiments which tore those units apart to make them ineffective and though pushed back off the Orchard helped to keep Longstreet from taking the Round Tops and Cemetery Ridge.

I watch several videos by Gettysburg rangers and this video kept popping up. Dan Sickles, Dan Sickles, Dan Sickles. The three reasons I avoided this video. I broke down this morning and watched. Darn it, Chuck!!! You did exactly what I was afraid you were going to do. You got me to fully see his reasoning. Now, I can no longer stand on my anti Dan Sickles soap box. Most of me is grateful to you, but there is a part of that is very angry with you. Not a mean angry. A frustrated angry. Good job.

FINALLY somebody smart who's not just regurgitating the crap from the "Its easy to hate on Sickles" crowd....finally something more informed and balanced and thank gawd that mic gave out halfway through lol the feedback was just too much lol

Good presentation. The Fog of War descends..

This is THE guy to learn about this battle from....he's gone BEYOND just endless names and unit designations...he's ADDED information and changed, for the better, our perception/understanding of this falsely "controversial" aspect of the battle

congrats on video;good work,boy...even though,sometimes,sound a bit confusing...hope i can visit G. one day.Best wishes for you Rangers.

Pretty sure the reason his speaker is feeding back is because its too close to his mic. If you notice it feeds back worse when he lowers his head. Tell the Ranger to move the speaker lower on his body

For online viewers, this would have been better as a lecture with slides because the camera only films the Ranger, we are not able to see what the Ranger is pointing to or the land they are looking at.

Can we get photocopies of That map at 1.02-1.03. [ Capt. W. paine's map.]

I have been searching the internet for what now is YEARS to find this map... Anybody have any luck to find it? Thanks to any and all~~

If Sickles doesn't occupy the peach orchard, longstreet rolls his battery's right up to the emmitsburg road unabated.....Pickett's division need not apply.

I've not long returned from the US and a Tour of Gettysburg while over there from Australia ......... would say if you have a interest in the Civil War/Gettysburg put aside 2 days here to take it all in.................. I found it a little overwhelming as I put aside only one day to try to see and get a feeling for it all.

Picture if you can: McClaw's division with artillery, about 18 guns, on the line Sickles Occupied, and Hood's division with artillery, on Little round top...we'd have an L shaped ambush of the Union left, had "Ol' Dan" not moved forward and delayed Longstreet's corps.. basically a repeat of Buford's delaying tactics the day before. He did 'wear em down'..

Meade was sleep deprived because through the whole Getty campaign besides shuttling men to where they were needed he also had never received the supplies to feed both his entire army and livestock for the whole army. By the end of the campaign the army of Potomac would lose 16,000 horses and thousands of mules because they went days without food. This is a situation that Meade inherited the very first day taking command a mere 5 Days before the battle starts. I can understand sickle's feeling of not getting enough support to hold his position but Meade was in the saddle during the whole 3 days of battle plugging the holes of every leak. After the battle ended he still had horses and mules dying left and right. The western Maryland railroad the only supply source 22 miles away. Since the Baltimore Pike was in danger of Confederate attacks during the battle supplies could not be brought up. If you want a fair honest appraisal of of Meade's difficulties please listen to Kent Masterson Brown's appraisal of of Meade's logistical nightmares to discover the full truth. That Gettysburg was wonderful by the army of the Potomac is entirely won was because of the managerial skills of Meade. Any criticism is based not on genuine information but based on lack of information and sheer selfish arrogance. Thank you for your video but to paint Meade as anything less than capable.

I've Always thought much of the problem on meade's left was BECAUSE OF MEADE....he didn't assign enough men to the far left till almost too late, he didn't INSURE the holding of the high ground at the Round Tops...Sickles conducted a Forward Defense (just as Buford did on day 1) with the assumption of more troops arriving (and it's NOT Sickles job to insure that those troops are coming, it's MEADES job) Gen Sickles' requests for assistance that were ignored as well as the paucity of troops sent to the extreme left shows Meade didn't hold his left in high priority...a Mistake It seems clear Meade didn't know WHAT TO DO....the rebels made his mind up for him Meade didn't even bother to go look at the ground he was being REPEATEDLY WARNED about.... Thank goodness that guy just sat there and used the weapons and terrain to allow the confederates to smash themselves to pieces Many of the troops thought the west pointers were very incompetent but the west pointers were like a gang, you see it over and over again

The Army War College used to bring sessions to Gettysburg, to the Peach Orchard, and pound into their future generals and staff not to get into the situation Sickles did. Professional soldiers with years of experience pan this position and Sickles decisions.

WOW! This is thoroughly fascinating to me. However I'm not sure what exactly we can make of Captain Paine's map other than to say at the very least even Meade was impressed with terrain and elevation offered by the Peach Orchard area on the battlefield. However, despite the implications of the map I would caution against drawing any conclusions and don't necessarily think it can be used to exonerate Sickle's unilateral decision to advance his III Corps forward to center on the Peach Orchard's high ground. Captain Paine's sketch map was after all a sort of "snap shot" early musing of Meade's thought process at the time that he was trying to figure out how best to use the terrain and base the AOP's line and cannot be seen as his final decision on where to deploy the III and eventually the VI Corps when it arrived later in the day. What I draw from this that there was likely an evolution of different deployment ideas he was coming up with as he got a better idea about the geography of the area as well as information on the estimated time of arrival of the VI Corps and other detached units coming up from Maryland. I purposely left V Corps out of this early battle plan of Meade's as the evidence strongly suggests he was planning to use them in some way to open up an attack on the Confederate left until Lee's attack-in-echelon began in earnest around 4:00 PM on the 2nd Day of Battle. With respect the the Confederate reconnaissance group led by Captain Johnson, I really do believe he made it all the way to the Round Tops, likely arriving much earlier than had originally been assumed. At the time he arrived Sickle's III Corps was largely strung out in bivouac in the area between Emmitsburg & Tawnytown Roads North of Wheatfield or Millerstown Road. However, this would not be an indication of where they were ultimately supposed to deploy. Having said that I think there is ample evidence that has survived the battle which suggests that Sickle's did not get the clearest direction from the commanding general as to just exactly where he should deploy his Corps and this map added to the mix would seem to show that there was likely a confused jumble of contradictory orders coming from Meade that Sickle's had to make sense of. At best his knowledge of this map and the ideas it expressed could have been seen by Sickle's as enough of a justification for advancing his Corps towards the Peach Orchard with thoughts of the nightmare his Corps went through at Chancellorsville when Rebel artillerist Edward Porter Alexander used Hazel's Grove as the ultimate artillery platform to deliver a punishing fusillade against his men. This was a really awesome battlewalk but I agree with some of the other comments which I don't just direct towards Teague but to all other battle walks that are filmed...it would be very instructive if somehow a "You Are Here" map could be shown for the benefit of those watching this on RU-vid! Keep up the Good Work guys!

I would recommend everyone to read last chance for victory. Thus end of the line did not lose for the south. Is was north of this line. Little round top meant nothing. Read the book

I'm the great great grandson of Daniel e Sickles and ur Wong with ur knowledge of him u need to read his book

I'm confused why the Paine map is considered definitive when it obviously misses huge chunks of the terrain the 3rd Corps was supposed to occupy. There is no high ground at the Peach Orchard and it looks like Sickles is supposed to deploy in the Plum Run swale. Meade would have never ordered that.

I agree. When the ranger gets to a certain point the cameraman needs to pan around so we have some sort of idea where we are. Ranger Matt and and this ranger need to get together to agree to disagree about sickles decision to place his troops.

Something about the Gettysburg battle that this cleared up for me about the sycles debate. Very confusing situation and many overlooked variables such as the 5thand sixth corp, the heart of the army not being involved earlier. Sycles was a politician who was personally not such a good guy but a brave and competent commander who was a patriot. He was also from New York. Reminds me of a modern politician from New York

What's fascinating to me is that the Union army ate at the Lincoln diner

Sickles is one of the reasons of leadership we learned not to follow at Benning, the other is Joseph Stillwell

why don't they say where they are on the battlefied?

On day two longstreet sent a staff officer to recce the line of march for his corps, but when they emerged ftom the civer of the woods there was sickles corpsoccupying the very ground longstreet was supposed to launch his attack from and roll up the union left..thus the fight late in the day for tge peach orchard ,devils den andwas occupied at the end of what longstreet said ,was the best fighting ever seen,, and rhe union line was still unbroken ,despite barksdales brigade s great effort.that led to lee returning to his determinedplan to break the line and see off the army of the potomac,,,,,,discuss i could be completely off.

1.05 mark: Johnston's scout. I do believe capt. Johnston saw what he was.. yup. However I believe he didn't see everything , the morning had been described as foggy earlier..56 minute mark.

Interesting. Is the Park Ranger saying Sickles didn't know he was supposed to occupy the ridge "fishhook" or is he saying Sickles disagreed and put the troops where he thought was best? Sounds like Meade is partly to blame for not taking word of an imminent attack seriously. I don't entirely agree that Meade was sleep deprived at least to the point that he couldn't think clearly. He correctly anticipated Lee's moves and on the map had the troops placed in the best position. Excellent video. It does somewhat exonerate Sickles. He asked repeatedly for clear orders from Meade.

What if Hood and Sickles were in place of Grant and Lee ?

Interestingly, Barksdale was also a 'political general', like Sickles...he raised his own regiments, very outspoken. You can see who was the better military commander, in the context of Day 2 at Gettysburg...lol

Meade was SCREWING UP. Gen. Dan Sickles salient DID "blunt" the CSA attack. Meade SHOULD have BACKED UP Sickles move EARLIER & QUICKER after he DEPLEATED the position !

Look at it from Lee's perspective, obviously he deemed Sickles was failing to protect the Union flank.

Sickles was a genius

When studying the civil war you must have an open mind. If you dont IT(the civil war) will open it for you .. lol

Meade was FIRED a bit after this engagement , we KNOW why!

This is silly, Sickles was a more than competant commander for 3 years,, did a nifty bit of generaling at Chansolersville, it was Sickles getting hit at the wheatfield and Devils den

One of THE most important talks on Gettysburg and it's sad the sound at points is SO bad.

This Ranger is great! The chatty Kathy in the audience needs to kick bricks.

Good talk. Dan Sickles was a politician not military at all. He ignored orders so lost men.

MOVE

Before the battle is very easy to say,Meade was correct,he was the comander and Sickles did not follow the orders,if they loose the battle he will be in a court marcial,I believe that everybody is trying to makinf fun of Mead,but he was the winner of the batlle of GETTYSBURG,if Meade was wrong,what to say about Lee,the looser....

For Goodness sakes!! Ranger Teague, bless his soul, points this way and that. But without the comprehensive map---handed to the participants---the video fails totally.

No disrespect in tended but being a Gettysburg scholar I am having trouble following this guy. He's confusing in his presentation.

Too much of a micro look. That's what all these guys do.

Chuck Teague great - thanks. You Mr Video Man are disgustingly incompetent! As usual. You're camera is pointing at the sky, Chuck Teague is a shadow and when he points at something do you go with it? Hell no! You keep the camera pointed to the clouds while he's pointing out something maybe we'd like to see. Ya think?? You are taking so much away from these great presentations. Fire this guy - he does it every time. Damn I like these but what a lousy backdrop almost always.