Confederacy Bicycle Infantry saves the day...

Leftyhunter

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Were also born out of war... Cold War...
Of course that's correct. My main point is bicycles weren't practical in the 1860s neither were any other military innovation's that you you advocated for.
Leftyhunter
 

Leftyhunter

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You seem to forget my point. Money, imagination, skilled people and desire, you can cut short the time of innovation. Have you ever wonder why war bring forth invention because the great desire to help with the war effort or make money off the war so money, imagination, skilled people, and desire come together to kill our fellow man...



All the pieces of the bike were there rubber for tires, peddles being invented in France, and so forth... Same with steam powered armor wagons all the pieces were there for it as well... what was lacking imagination, money and desire... people come later...
There's a reason why the South was not the main hub of technological innovation in the Nineteenth Century.
Leftyhunter
 

rittmeister

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I'm just wondering how the bicycles of the day would do through the terrain most of the war was fought through. Not a lot a paved roadways. But who needs a bike when you've got cavalry?
how often do you feed a bike?
 

rittmeister

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If European armies didn't use all the advanced technology that the Confedrate Army could of used then there is a good reason why. The Confedrate Army did about as well as one could expect based on their circumstances. By West European standards both the Union and Confedrate Armies would be considered more less as decent second rate armies with the Union having the edge due to more and better artilery and logistics.
Leftyhunter
nah - rather big bands of bar ruffians
 

rittmeister

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You all know bicycles were used to beat our nation in a war in the 20th century. Yes, a bicycle used not for combat but for resupplying an army... In the Vietnam war the North Vietnamese used reinforced bikes to carry supplies down the famed Ho Chu Mein Trail to their troops. My point is if the Confederacy had just some ingenuity bikes could have won the war for them... In combat, resupplying and quick strike force along the trenches...

View attachment 5670

View attachment 5671

Its amazing a bike beat us in the Vietnam war. We dropped bombs after bombs on the Ho Chi Mein trail but we could not stop these reinforced bikes from doing their mission...

https://enemymilitaria.com/product/north-vietnamese-army-ho-chi-minh-trail-reinforced-bicycle/

snip...

The porters who pushed these down the trail were typically men but women also made the journey. Rice, ammunition, ordnance, uniforms, mail, canned food, small arms and all manner of military supplies were strapped on for the long journey South. The journey might have taken as long as six months.

snip...

The Ho Chi Minh Trial was the supply line running from North Vietnam to hundreds of supply bases in Laos, Cambodia and RVN. Before it was improved, with the exception of what individual soldiers carried on their backs and waists, 100% of the cargo sent to the South from Hanoi came on these bikes. After the HCM Trial was improved, Chinese and Russian made trucks carried increasingly more of the supply load but these reinforced bicycles were used all the way until Liberation in April 1975.
the differnce being roughly a century
 

rittmeister

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My point of this is the technology was available to the Confederacy if they spend the energy in imagination and innovation and they could have created thier own warrior bikes.
want me to use photoshop and mount general forrest on that thing? (it's from 1869 btw)



this is a swiss ordonanzrad 05 (that's 1905, btw)



they used it 'till 1989
 

O' Be Joyful

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want me to use photoshop to mount general forrest on that thing? (it's from 1869 btw)

It is difficult for me to visualize Forrest pickin' up a Yankee by the scruff of his neck and depositing him on the back of that saddle. Too close to the ground and very little leverage IMHO. @diane ??

But a photo-shop of such a scenario would be interesting Herr Riit, have at it.
 

diane

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how often do you feed a bike?
About as often as you change the tires! Well, I don't suppose that would have been a reason for Lee to invade Pennsylvania - forage was.

It is difficult for me to visualize Forrest pickin' up a Yankee by the scruff of his neck and depositing him on the back of that saddle. Too close to the ground and very little leverage IMHO. @diane ??

But a photo-shop of such a scenario would be interesting Herr Riit, have at it.
I understand some of Forrest's regiments have converted to mechanized cavalry... tend to favor Harley Davidson!
 
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