European Visitors

[Note: In case you're wondering why all of my input seems to come in at once, it's because I have been attending workshops and been away from computer access. I've been doing the reading but the blogging has had to come in bunches.]

I was particularly struck by the number of European visitors who were accompanying the Confederate troops. I knew that the South was negotiating with the British for supplies and other things but I had no clue that there were actually Europeans here on the battlefields as observers. Freemantle, Ross the Austrian, Scheibert the Prussian, and Maury, Cullen, Barksdale in the medical, with Lawley the correspondent were all hanging around the Confederate units. On page 174 the section where Freemantle talks about the differences between the North and South (from an Old World perspective) was really interesting to me. I plan on using it with my students next year because it presents such a clear picture of the differences other than slavery.

I also really enjoyed reading about Longstreet and how he disagreed with Lee but was a good soldier and followed orders anyway. Yet, he demonstrates that he is a smart officer and makes decisions on his own when he turns his troops around and refuses to march them through open ground.