In the words of the immortal Hannibal, "I love it when a plan comes together!" And I'm thinking more along of the A-Team here than the Alps. (Incidentally, did you know that in the TV edit of "The Big Lebowski" a certain line is bowdlerized to "This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!"?)

Alps and finding of strangers therein aside, I do enjoy these expository episodes where our various threads are united into, if not a glorious tapestry then, at least a rope.

--Geoff

Cold Harbor is one of those rare instances where you can say that Grant's strategy of amassed slaughter didn't entirely pan out. Don't get me wrong - Grant was, overall, doing what he needed to do - keep pressure on Lee, preventing him from sending any aid to any other part of the Southern front, thereby preventing him from pulling off the minor organizational miracles that had won the South the day so often in 62 and 63. Part of that pressure involved attacking even when it wasn't exactly the right time or place. If you sit around waiting for perfection, you end up McClellaned. Still, damn that warn't a pretty battle...

- Count Dolby von Luckner