13 June 2013 Ranald Shepherd - Battle of Gettysburg

Pivotal battle that no-one wanted to happen

To mark the forthcoming 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, fought during the American Civil War (1861-65), club member Ranald Shepherd gave a fascinating insight into the dramatic and unforeseen events that led to the Union army triumphing over the Confederates in July 1863.

           "Until that point the Confederates had been successful to the east of the Mississippi and their confidence was sky-high." he said. "However the Union successes west of the Mississippi were coloured by a number of command issues - Lincoln had already sacked two of his commanders - which led to low morale. The Union army had to protect Washington at all costs, while the Confederate commander Robert E Lee's strategy was to win the war in the east, travel north, then put pressure on the Union army before finally suing for peace."

Neither commander had expected, nor wanted, an engagement to take place at Gettysburg - around 80 miles north of Washington, an important position where nine roads intersected. The Confederates believing there was merely a handful of Union militia nearby, thought they would use the opportunity to re-supply, whereas in reality, the Union had numbers of dismounted cavalry and carbines in tow, with thousands of reinforcements a few hours away. So what began as a skirmish ended the day with both sides committed to the battle.

"Day Two finished inconclusively but the Union commanders held a meeting and after taking a vote, decided to continue," he said. "By the end of Day Three, the Union had won but both sides were exhausted emotionally and their ammunition drained." And even though the war lasted until 1865, Ranald said that Gettysburg was a high-water mark for the Union fortunes - but at a terrible cost to both sides: casualties were exceptionally high with each side suffering 23,000 casualties out of a combined total of 150,000 men. It is estimated that almost as many Americans were killed during the battle than the number killed throughout the Vietnam War.

In other news: a Past President of the club during its 25^th year, Ed Campbell was awarded a prestigious Paul Harris Fellowship (named after the founder of the organisation) to recognise his outstanding 24-year contribution to Rotary. Among his many achievements were leading a Rotary group study exchange team to Gujurat India in 1995, completing the London Marathon and raising £1,900 for the Parkinson Society, competing in the Munro Challenge for Help for Heroes as well as the Three-Peaks 24-hour Challenge, which raised £5,000 for the Sight Savers International.

A RotaKids club (for primary school children) is to be inaugurated at the Queen Victoria School (QVS), Dunblane in August. This follows the successful QVS Interact club that was formally chartered in February.