and other narrow misses

One of the things I like about military history, in fact, is that battles may be the place where flukes and freak incidents have the greatest effect on history as a whole.

Numerous speculations are possible about the U.S. Civil War. My favorite is this… If Stonewall Jackson had not accidentally been hit by friendly fire at Chancellorsville in May 1863, he would have been commanding his corps at Gettysburg in July, rather than his more timid sucessor Ewell. Whenever I read about operations on the Union’s northern flank early in that battle, I am thankful as that Stonewall wasn’t there that day. I suspect he would have rolled up and shattered the flank.

Sure, there were plenty more soldiers in the North where those came from, but Lincoln would have been in an almost impossible position politically if he had taken a major defeat on Pennsylvania soil. Besides which, the Confederates could have pillaged and sacked in the state for a good while longer before leaving, and the Union would have been in very difficult shape.

There are dozens of these from military history, and that’s perhaps what I most love about it.