Little Phil.

This is coolbert:

Thanks to Professor Al Nofi of StrategyPage and his CIC entry # 312:

"Testimony of the Witnesses - 'There is nothing to be learned here professionally.'"

"I may, in conclusion, say that I saw no new military principles developed, whether of strategy or grand tactics, the movements of the different armies and corps being dictated and governed by the same general laws that have so long obtained" - - Phil Sheridan as reported to General Grant.

"Apparently 'Little Phil" was so busy observing the war that he failed to notice the little things that made for the Prussian-German victory, such as the general staff system, with its detailed and constantly updated mobilization and deployment plans and railroad section, its conscription-based compulsory military service system" - - Professor Al Nofi.

General Phil Sheridan, the American official observer of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 NOT so totally impressed with the performance of the French or German during the war. According to Professor Al, Phil having "dropped the ball" NOT cognizant of those factors contributing to German victory?

Let me play the devil's advocate and suggest that Little Phil had something other in mind when he said: "nothing to be learned here"!

Both during the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War, those combatants on the OFFENSIVE from time to time suffering horrendous and unacceptable casualties, troops advancing across open ground in closely-bunched packed formations as was done during the Napoleonic Era "mowed down" in prodigious numbers by the defender- - instances of such slaughter not common but not that uncommon!

Instances from the American Civil War to include:

* Gettysburg - - Pickett's Charge! 5,000 Confederate casualties in thirty minutes!
* Franklin - - 7,000 Confederate casualties in five hours!
* Cold Harbor - - 10,000 Union casualties in ten minutes!!

And instances from the Franco-Prussian War to include:

* Mars-la-Tour - - 5,000 Prussian dead in fifteen minutes!!
* St. Privat - - 8,000 Prussian casualties in twenty minutes!!

The attacker during the American Civil War facing a defender using a muzzle-loading rifled musket firing a conoidal round. That rifle musket capable of firing more often and more accurately at a much greater range that the smooth-bore weapon as used by infantry of the Napoleonic Era.

That attacker of the Franco-Prussian, advancing across open ground in closely-packed dense formation having to face even MORE INTENSE fire from the defender, the breech-loaded single-shot rifles of that period even again a magnitude of "deadliness" beyond those weapons used during the American Civil War!!

To the extent that the commanders of both the French and German troops continued to use outmoded and out-of-date tactics, much to the detriment of those infantry attempting to close with the well-armed defender - - Little Phil was right - - "nothing to be learned here"?

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - - A. Einstein.

coolbert.