Longstreet in Atlanta

DaHound22

Banned
It may be 5 miles long but no one needs to protect it length wise, but width wise, (like Thermopylae) and the widest these ridges get is not quite a mile. And again, shoulder to shoulder a man is roughly a foot (actually 1.5 feet) wide, neaning standing shoulder to shoulder to block the pass, you only need a few thousand, and the confederates have much more than just a few tousand to place there. Combine that with trenches and a main army ready to move to the Gap if need be and Sherman is going nowhere without a bloody fight
 
It may be 5 miles long but no one needs to protect it length wise, but width wise, (like Thermopylae) and the widest these ridges get is not quite a mile. And again, shoulder to shoulder a man is roughly a foot (actually 1.5 feet) wide, neaning standing shoulder to shoulder to block the pass, you only need a few thousand, and the confederates have much more than just a few tousand to place there. Combine that with trenches and a main army ready to move to the Gap if need be and Sherman is going nowhere without a bloody fight

Yes, because a position that's defended one man deep will be secure. Maybe your numbers are a little simplistic here? Instead of just using back of the envelope calculations and dividing width of ground to cover by the width of a soldier, you could look at actual actions and see how many men defended how much ground in those.
 

DaHound22

Banned
"And the confederates have much more than a few thousand".

Im not saying put 3500 people there. Im saying a single line of men is 3500, at max. Using simple math to illustrate a point, i thought that was obvious.

Ive stated here already that the AoT would want defenses to be many men deep, the math is meant to use the lowest possible numbers to illustrate how much more effective higher numbers would be.
 
"And the confederates have much more than a few thousand".

Im not saying put 3500 people there. Im saying a single line of men is 3500, at max. Using simple math to illustrate a point, i thought that was obvious.

Ive stated here already that the AoT would want defenses to be many men deep, the math is meant to use the lowest possible numbers to illustrate how much more effective higher numbers would be.
Your calculation is a bit off. For a gap of 1,100-1,200m, about 5,500 men would be needed to cover such a gap, basically an entire Confederate division. A reserve division would also be required to come to the aid of that division or relieve it if necessary.
 

DaHound22

Banned
Your calculation is a bit off. For a gap of 1,100-1,200m, about 5,500 men would be needed to cover such a gap, basically an entire Confederate division. A reserve division would also be required to come to the aid of that division or relieve it if necessary.

Thank you for the correction, and my apologies. These are definitley details that need specificity so i appreciate it for sure.
 
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