Harpers Ferry: la plus grande victoire de Stonewall Jackson?

Débat pour les maniaques d'histoire et/ou les historiens consciencieux, la plus belle victoire du général Stonewall Jackson pendant la guerre de Sécession se serait déroulée à Harpers Ferry en Virginie. Une bataille dont on sous-estimerait l'importance. Jackson fut l'un des principaux officiers du Sud et il va décéder des suites d'une blessure pendant la bataille de Chancellorsville en 1863. Une perte lourde pour les confédérés.

 Voici un bel article qui nous en apprend un peu plus sur la manière dont on écrit parfois l'histoire.

 "peaking of Stonewall Jackson, let’s add to the debate. Consider this – Stonewall Jackson’s most complex and most complete tactical victory occurred at Harpers Ferry.

Blasphemy, you shout! What about Chancellorsville? What about First Manassas? What about Second Manassas? What about … Before dismissing Harpers Ferry as Jackson’s greatest battlefield triumph, ponder these questions: First, where else did Jackson face such natural obstacles? Second, where else did Jackson face a stronger enemy position than his own? Third, where else did Jackson achieve greater battlefield results?

 One reason you’re perplexed is this – Harpers Ferry has received little notice from military historians during the first century plus two score years following the Civil War. Remembered primarily for its John Brown notoriety, Harpers Ferry virtually has vanished into the shadow of Antietam. In the earliest Maryland Campaign study, written by Francis Palfrey and published by Scribner’s in 1882, Palfrey devotes a paltry four pages to a three-day operation at Harpers Ferry. Conversely, Palfrey dedicates fifteen pages to the one-day Battle of South Mountain and 94 pages to the one-day action at Antietam.

 No explanation exists for Palfrey’s prejudice against the Harpers Ferry story. Perhaps the former Union officer was embarrassed by the Federal disaster, and chose not to write about Stonewall’s brilliant victory. Or perhaps he was influenced by an 1862 United States military commission that declared the Harpers Ferry commander’s “incapacity, amounting to almost imbecility, led to the shameful surrender of this important post.”

 L'article au complet:
  http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/harpersferry/harpers-ferry-history-articles/harpersferrytriumphfrye.html