Cherry.

This is coolbert:

Cherries Jubilee it is not!

Here from several Internet web sites some material I was not familiar with until yesterday. Aspects of the Gettysburg Campaign and eventual Confederate defeat controversial at best!

That Army of Northern Virginia not having an adequate system of sustained and organized supply it necessary to requisition and confiscate supplies while on the march, foraging freely sometimes with bad consequences.

1. "How Pennsylvania Cherries Tried to Win the War"

"Ewell's men and the Confederate army that followed found the cherry trees that lined the roads irresistible. Many soldiers grabbed handfuls of the luscious fruit to eat as they marched. Some diaries tell us that many suffered stomachache. Some suffered worse. Those who recovered in time went on to fight at Gettysburg."

"It wasn't only enlisted men who suffered from eating too much fresh fruit . . . [it is suggested] that General Robert E. Lee's partial indisposition on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg might have been caused by an overindulgence of cherries and raspberries."

HUNGRY CONFEDERATE TROOPS EN ROUTE TO GETTYSBURG HAVING GORGED THEMSELVES ON RIPE CHERRIES AS PICKED FROM LOCAL ORCHARDS SICKENED AND AT LESS THAN 100 % FIGHTING CAPACITY PRIOR TO THE BATTLE? LEE ALSO AT LESS THAN 100 % REASONING FACULTIES A CONSEQUENCE OF HAVING CONSUMED TOO MUCH FRESH FRUIT HIS SYSTEM UNABLE TO HANDLE?

2. "Robert E. Lee may have lost Gettysburg because of a heart attack"

"In July 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee hatched an audacious plan to invade the North, defeat the Union Army, and force an end to the war – with a Confederate victory. Everything – perhaps the entire Civil War – depended on the outcome at Gettysburg."

R.E. Lee a man not in the best of health from heart disease his "audacious plan" that went awry during the third day at Gettysburg. Massed attack doomed to failure from the start [??] a result of less than 100 % correct reasoned and thinking?

"Despite his [R.E. Lee] relatively good medical condition from 1864 to 1867, by the end of the decade, he suffered from exertional (stable) angina – chest pain from blocked arteries caused by activity. By 1870, his angina became unstable and he died at age 63.

"His heart disease may have affected his judgment in all areas of life, which would explain some of the inexplicable and uncharacteristic decisions he ordered that day, namely Pickett's Charge."

It can be reasoned and understood quite easily that the ability to plan and conduct operations of R.E. Lee evidently unimpaired at Wilderness [1864] and Spotsylvania [1864]. Even to the end R.E. Lee still at the top of his game which was outstanding.

coolbert.