Highland Charge - Celtic Ancestry and The Tactical Offensive

Celtic Ancestry and The Tactical Offensive

Grady McWhiney argued that, due to a high proportion of Celtic ancestry, Southerners during the American Civil War had a predilection for attack but lacked self-discipline and patience; this led to them repeatedly making reckless attacks that lost battles. He drew comparisons between the battles of Telamon (225 BC), Culloden (1746) and Gettysburg (1863). According to this thesis, the South lost the Civil War because Southerners made risky charges like their Celtic ancestors at a time when the rifled musket had shifted the balance against offense (as shown by the casualties suffered in attacks like Pickett's Charge). Paddy Griffith was the proponent of an almost exactly countervailing view; he contended that lack of discipline among Civil war volunteers on both sides meant that potentially successful shock actions failed due to lack of commitment; rather than pressing assaults home, troops routinely went to ground at about sixty yards from the enemy line or entrenchment and engaged in short range firefights.