Top Five Defeats in American Military History
Camden, 1780: Lord Conrwallis kicked Horatio Gates' butt and put the entire south in jeopardy.
Kasserine Pass:,1942: In which the Germans demonstrated it completely outclassed the U.S. Army in training, equipment, leadership, personnel....
Brandywine, 1777: Sir William Howe completely outflanked Washington who seemed paralyzed from the beginning to the end of the battle. Lost Philadelphia in the process.
Montfaucon, 1918: General Pershing sent the unprepared and untrained 79th Division against the German strong point of Montfaucon, key to the entire first phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign. The 79th was slaughtered.
Bataan: 1942: The Japanese, after a long siege, forced the capitulation of the American/Filipino army on the Bataan Peninsula. Upwards of 70,000 men entered captivity.
*Why no Civil War? I can't decide if Vicksburg is an American defeat or victory, its the result of having a lot of southern ancestry. One grandmother from Kentucky, the other from Louisiana.
That said, here are the top five Civil War debacles (both sides)
Vicksburg, 1863: With this victory, Grant closed off the Mississippi to the CSA and opened it up to military movement and northern trade.
Fredericksburg, 1862: General Ambrose Burnside launches a frontal attack against entrenched Confederates and gets slaughtered.
Chancellorville, 1862: Stonewall Johnson out flanks Fighting Joe Hooker in a military maneuver for the ages while Lee holds Hooker in place with a bare division.
Gettysburg, 1863: Obviously.
The Atlanta Campaign: Sherman out maneuvered General Joe Johnston from half a dozen positions and then took Atlanta. Beginning of the end.
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