Fremantle on Gettysburg Part 1
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- Arthur Fremantle was a British observer during the American Civil War. He wrote a detailed account about his journey through the South and its military leaders. He even witnessed the bloodiest battle on the North American continent, the Battle of Gettysburg. The 1993 movie Gettysburg brought his time with the Army of Northern Virginia to the minds of its viewers and in this video, I read his first hand account about the Battle of Gettysburg on the first two days of the conflict. Part 2 that covers July 3rd and Pickett's Charge will release in two days.
#americancivilwar #Britain #Gettysburg #BattleofGettysburg #PickettsCharge #CivilWar #History #HaveHistoryWillTravel #Historynerd #Historygeek #HistoryCritique #historymemes #historyofart #historyinthemaking #historynerd #historychannel #historybuff #historylover #historylesson #historyfacts #historygeek #historyinpictures #historymaker #historylovers #historyteacher #historymakers #historymeme #historytour #historymade #historytv18 #historymuseum #Historymatters
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He wasn’t an official observer sent by the British government that was (officially) neutral
He was more of a tourist who happened to be a Coldstream guards 💂 officer and thought he would watch a war whilst he was on holiday (vacation)
Sorry I didn't see your reply and repeated the same information. I only added his book.
I really resented how he was portrayed in Gettysburg as if he was some sort of hapless individual rather than a veteran in his own right.
@@williamclifford4441 Freemantle was certainly a pro Confederate person and a RE Lee loving observer. The movie portrayed him as a fop. I have no idea if this was a fair assessment of the man.
This video is fantastic. To see a battle, which I have studied for so long, through the eyes of a European warrior offers a depth of understanding previously unimaginable. Thank you, Doctor Wilder.
well now this is an interesting take on Gettysburg. Freemantle may not have been completely
unbiased, as he had decided, after initially being sympathetic to the north, he found his feelings had been changed by, as he put it, "...a sentiment of great admiration for the gallantry and determination of the Southerners, together with the unhappy contrast afforded by the foolish bullying conduct of the Northerners, caused a complete revulsion in my feelings, and I was unable to repress a strong wish to go to America and see something of this wonderful struggle."
From my understanding, he wasn't really an observer, but just a tourist.
I did not care for the way Fremantle was portrayed in Gettysburg. The constant ‘I’m overly impressed by everything I see’ just seemed unrealistic to me.
He admired the bravery and fighting spirit, maybe if lee didn't have a heart attack and he listened to longstreet the Army of Northern Virginia maybe could put up a better fight by getting in between meades army and Washington thats what he agreed with in the conversation between fremantle and longstreet
If you or I were there we’d be similarly impressed. Also, a diplomat, it was his job to ingratiate himself with his hosts to get them to tell him the most.
So in that role, he serves as an excellent character for the plot and novel.
Is it mentioned if he’d seen similar action before?
@@Snarflelocker he was also at the harsh battle of tamai, during the Anglo-Sudanese war
@@jollyswashbuckler wow! what a life
I've read his book. Fremantle was not "sent" to observe the war by anyone. He was there for his own purposes, and was a tourist.
The research as always detailed and delivered very well.
So interesting to see the battle through an objective observer's eyes. Gettysburg holds a very special place in my heart as I have walked those grounds. I always enjoy listening or reading about Gettysburg. It never gets old for me. Thank you for another excellent video
Freemantle certainly favored the Confederate point of view. His opinion about the alleged Confederate success on Day 2 was overblown. I can't wait to hear his opinion about Day 3.
There were significant Confederate successes on Day#2 with the captures of Devil's Den, and The Wheatfield & Peach Orchard, Mr. Schlackman. Of course, sir, it was at a cost of very heavy casualties to both sides troops😟 Day#3.....well, we all know that tragic outcome for The Confederacy
Interestingly, 1 of my former co-workers had a brother-in-law (his wife's brother) eho was a Confederate cannoneer in the movie Gettysburg. He has about 3 seconds of screen time when he yells 'Fire'
Sorry....who
@@michaelvaughn8864 True but there was no overall success. In the end Day 2 was at best a stalemate. Day 1 was the Confederate advantage because their troops came up much faster. The Confederates had some success on Day 3 but like Day 2 they had no reserves to follow up. Credit RE Lee for a failed battle plan. "It's all my fault" certainly was correct.
@@steveschlackman4503 That is quite correct if one does look at the overall picture.at the end ofDay#2 , Mr. Schlackman. The Confederates failed to take the high ground concerning, Cemetery & Culp's Hills, and Little Round Top. It was deemed a draw
It's peculiar... The more I learn about the Civil War, the more I come to favor the CSA.
Why would you want to favour the side that fought to retain and indeed expand slavery? It would be like declaring your support for Nazi Germany in WW2.
So many of us have developed similar opinions after a long period of study and research into it
Excellent video! Thank you!
I enjoy these video your making. Thank you. I'm using it for my kids homeschool to help them understand the Civil War.
I'm so glad to hear that. Please check out all of my videos, I think many of them can be useful for your purposes.
The guy in the movie couldn't have ever sniffed the Coldstream Guards. That mustache would have his butt kicked.
I love your work Dr.
Most impressive was the fact that James Lancaster is an American actor. Well done, indeed.
Thank you for this Fremantle is an interesting character I admire, It's amazing how just 2 years before the civil war broke out is when the San Juan Island affair took place, if it led to war the north and south could of united to fight the British just as George McClellan said, and now heres a brit observing the two go at eachother
I think that was Blair, not McClellan.
@@odysseusrex5908 who is blair blair who??? , and no you are wrong, skip to 4 33 on this video czcams.com/video/_FNwBiUBu_g/video.html, this isn't the only place I've heard this be said by him, McClellan afterall wad in the same class as him
@@jollyswashbuckler I mean Preston Blair although, now that I think of it, his idea was for North and South to team up to drive the French out of Mexico and then, somehow, settle their political differences.
@@odysseusrex5908 thats something to look into, thanks
One of the best accounts of the events of days 1 and 2 at Gettysburg I have heard.
What's your background music called? I absolutely love it, it has a very civil war/ old tim-ey theme, fits the video well!🔥
I'm trying to figure that out too. It reminds of Hans Zimmer's Solomon
Every source on Freemantle states that he was not sent to observe the war, but came on his own whim. The guy was basically a tourist.
Sorry.....Mr. Stoverink
Excellent video!
Thanks
The general reason that the Civil war had such a high casualty rate. Tactics had not caught up with the advancement in firearms.
Just started listening to Fallen Angles again, try to do it always around 4th
Thank you for this - perfect!
Arthur Freemantle, a British aristocratic who never saw any active duty with his own army before becoming commander-in-chief of the British Army. He was fundamentally nothing more than a 19th century war tourist dandy. Just read his 1864 book Three Months in Southern States. Too bad he didn't stay until 1865 to see how the war of the rebellion ended.
I’m good with “Slaveowners Rebellion” which was Frederick Douglass’ characterization of the unconstitutional attempted secession.
@@balrog322 thats a good one!
I have always wondered if Freemantle was a good observer. I guess he was.
1 atta-boy.
Great stuff. I'm a bit surprised Lee didn't express disappointment or something visually that this man would have noticed over his frustration of not taking Culps hill. I would imagine he was quite a restrained man, but unless he didn't understand the situation completely due to Stuarts absence? The books don't reflect that he was ignorant to this failure of this 2nd day, but how accurate are memoirs really?
Contempt for your enemy will come back and bite you every time.
It’s understandable that men in the ranks would underestimate the Union fighting man, but the generals should have known better. It’s a general’s job to think, analyze, and evaluate.
Outstanding
The Railroad cut was the only union victory on the first day. Wisconsin iron brigade, westerners. Lead by Ruffus D.
Have you watched my animated battle map covering the first day at Gettysburg?
Was there more to this then him being described as a battlefield tourist as some have said .. We all know who's side Great Britain were on and he was obviously there observing .... it's been mentioned that if Gettysburg had gone the other way that 10k British Troops were ready to assist and invade from Canada.
Imagine how different the world would be.
There was absolutely no chance of Britain getting involved militarily. Their electorate was strongly against the Confederacy because of slavery, Egyptian and Indian cotton was becoming more readily available, and there was zero desire to take on the burgeoning might of the American navy. The British still remembered the carnage American privateers wrecked on their merchant marine in the war of 1812, and they wanted nothing to do with an encore of that song...let alone tangling with ironclad warships. It just made no sense for Britain given all their other geopolitical commitments and challenges.
*"becoming an offensive/becoming a defense"* absolutely. In no way was the Battle of Gettysburg a set piece battle but a place where General Lee's *"Army of Virginia"* suddenly found itself giving way to the sound of ahem "some type of scrap" ahem very similar to the Battle of Stalingrad and a *"wandering Army problem."* Presuming complete freedom of movement make no mistake given the change in Command for the Union Army of the Potomac from Hooker to the far more capable Meade just days prior the fact of a great Battle be upon the South was well now known to Union Fighters with immediate order given to President Lincoln by General Meade that he was going forward to accept Battle. General Lee though physically present at this massive conflagration was never mentally *"there"* (of the terrain knowing and certain) and allowed a skirmish to explode into an engagement to explode into an all out *"War within a War"* within mere hours of First Contact. It was clear no one was in charge of the Army of Virginia as it was in fact retreating from an odd approach to the Susquehanna River and now found itself stumbling into a very well defended overwatch of a very well built Town which could be supplied by both road and rail indefinitely with the first offensive operations coming against the retreating forces of the South from the North heading South against a seemingly unimportant Hill that did not in any way impede manouver of said retreat. This not being understood the Confederates in good order formed up to repel the first Northern attack which would succeed though at great cost and with the realization that there was a second Hill *"the Yankees"* behind the first had decamped from that was now very heavily fortified and with reinforcements pouring in to especially include Artillery though of course far more than just that. Having lost control and now as some form of ahem *relief* ahem the Army of Virginia began relieving the fully engaged General Ewell in the shape of a fish hook as that is what the Yankee Defense was being made to be due to Southern aggression heedless of the risk and a long way from home let alone supply as well.
The name of the force commanded by Robert E. Lee was the Army of *Northern* Virginia. Most of the rest of your essay is similarly inaccurate.
Hi
We were taught in school that the battle of Sharpsburg was the bloodiest.
The bloodiest single day
@@chadrowe8452 Thankyou you know your history.
The biritish Army never had sack coats for any rank. certainly an officer such as this would not have worn a garment such as this during a battle. I imagine the US film makers didn't wish to have the British Army looking better equipped than the American officers and troops.
The British were anxious to get back on the American continent and to get/maintain their access to Southern cotton for their textile industries.....part of the Southern empire's ambitions was to take over the lands and nations south of the Mason-Dixon line, i.e. Mexico and Central America....slavery was the economics and slavery was the issue....
@Sheffield steel No offense to Canada but the current population is about 40 million and they don't grow cotton or the textiles raw materials and Canadians would never make good slaves....juat ask Trudeaux.....
@Bruce Robertson no. The confederacy was very unpopular in Britain because of slavery, and there was no profit for Britain in military intervention. They had cotton coming from India and Egypt...why tangle with the American iron-clad navy just to get cotton a bit cheaper?
@Bruce Robertson as it happens, I’ve done enough research to know these three things:
1. Despite the closure of textile mills due to early cotton shortages, the British working class remained staunchly opposed to the confederacy on moral grounds.
2. Increased imports from Egypt and India were starting to make good the shortfall as early as 1863.
3. Despite having a puny navy in the war of 1812, the US issued letters of marque to many privateers, who savaged the British merchant marine across the globe. The government and admiralty in 1861 was well aware of that fact and wanted no part of a repeat performance...especially since the US was now a burgeoning naval power with vast industrial power and a capacity to build ironclad warships at a dizzying pace. The US was in an existential war and obviously determined to exert its whole might in the conflict. Despite Britain’s naval superiority, a war with the United States would have been a bruising affair that would have left Britain exhausted even if victorious. Britain had a global empire to steward and several major rivals who would have been delighted to see her bloodied in a silly war over cotton. Further, Britain was making a good deal of money as a neutral power, and the US was an important trading partner for far more than cotton. The cost and geopolitical risk was nowhere worth the short-term gains of cheap cotton, which would be available in just few years regardless of who won the civil war.
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He did not wear his uniform at Gettysburg and his class bias is blatant. He saw the Southerners as gallant and the Northerners as what, middle class? Just a reflection of the caste system that existed in Jolly OLD ENGLANd. Drinking a cup of tea?. That movie has its moronic parts
.In reality Day 1 won the battle for the North. With very few troops they delayed the Confederate Army until the AOP could come up. Yes the Union was pushed back Then they fell back to a tremendously strong position. Which Lee stupidly assaulted head on. Freemantle didnt even know Picketts charge had happened. He missed it. How could u miss that? The man was an idiot.