http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~jrubarth/gslis/lis385t.16/Napoleon/
By the time Napoleon captured Moscow, he was already down
to 100,000 men out of 422,000 that started the campaign.
Even including the total 55,000 he left to protect his flank, those are horrible losses.
I’ve always heard that Moscow was left pretty barren, too.
How about the dumbest trade in history? Babe Ruth for $100,000 anyone?
If I recall right, no one there knew the war was over.
Besides, didn’t the british attack fortified positions? Even after Jackson split his army up to account for all possibilities, he still beat the british.
If you were told that the “magic bullet” had to make any interesting turns or behave in any suprising way at all, you were misinformed. It’s a common trick the conspiracy theorists play, showing a diagram that has the bodies placed in such a way as to make the bullet travel in all sorts of strange ways. In all actuality, the trajectory is fairly straight.
[ul][li]Stonewall Jackson gets shot by his own troops. (And not on purpose.)[/li]Richard the Lion-hearted and his men taunt a poorly-equipped soldier on a castle wall, who is using a frying pan as a shield. Richard the Lion-hearted gets off-ed by a single well-placed arrow, fired by guess whom.[/ul]
Actually, was there even much LEFT in Moscow when Napoleon came? As I recall, the Russian troops burned Moscow before evacuating.
Russian winters are nothing to fool around with, and Napoleon failed to realize that.
The sellers got money (well, beads) for an island they were pretty much just passing through. Sure, they probably could have held out for more, but it’s not like an excellent natural harbor is all that important for a nomadic tribe that provided for itself through hunting and farming.
Personally, as a Bostonian, I have to go for the aforementioned sale of Babe Ruth to finance No, No, Nanette.
I just had to crack this one open again after reading up a little tonight.
June 18, 1815. Napoleon has managed to defeat two armies and split them apart before they could join against him. He attacked the Duke of Wellington’s coalition army, which barely held on until the other, Prussian, army smashed into the French flank and broke it. Prussian, British, Hanoverian, Dutch and Scot troops began a pursuit that threw the French army into such disarray that it was destroyed, as time would show, forever.
The junction of the two armies was made official when the Prussian commander, Blucher, embraced Wellington just outside of a hamlet named La Belle Alliance.
The Beautiful Alliance.
Blucher’s chief of staff, Gneisenau, noted the appropos meeting and suggested that the battle should be named for the town. Wellington, feeling that the British people would have trouble pronouncing the name, insisted that the battle instead be named for the town whose name is now reminiscent of a toilet.
Waterloo.
I would have to say that the dumbest moment in history was best illustrated by Douglas Adams in “The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy” - He quoted God’s last message to his creation. It was: “We apologise for the inconvience”
Creation was the Dumbest moment in history.
1071, the battle of Manzikert. The Byzantine emperor had surrounded the Turks with his superior forces. Seeing that, the Turks offered to surrender. No way, I’ve got you now, answered the Byzantine. Result : decisive Turkish victory, the Byzantine empire was on its way to the dustbins of history.
Oh, and VarlosZ, it was Yugoslavia that caused Hitler’s Balkan detour. Yugoslavia’s regent had previously agreed to join the anti-komintern front. Royalists officers didn’t agree with that, staged a coup and repudiated the accord. The nazis overran the country in a couple of days and continued to bleed for the rest of the war fighting partisans. And NATO wanted to get involved where exactly ?
In addition, regarding Burnside, U.S. Grant said about him that he was the only general who could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
This is a tough one because a lot of decisions that look horrible after the fact actually made some kind of sense in context. Galileo had the bad luck to look through his telescope shortly after Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Co. put the Catholic Church out of business in several countries (my apologies the devout if this sounds flippant). The folks who tried him didn’t know diddly about astronomy but they were keenly aware of how the implications of his findings could further erode their ecclesiastical authority. By the standards of the day he received light punishment: lifelong house arrest was much less nasty than torture and death.
For a dumb moment that doesn’t make any sense at all I’d pick Charles VII of France in the summer of 1429. Joan of Arc has already saved Orleans, secured the Loire valley, demolished the English army at Patay, and reconquered a long swath of territory to hold his coronation at Rheims. Everyone agrees that the next logical move is to retake Paris.
Instead the new king lets himself get snookered into a treaty that delays the assault for three weeks. He actually thinks the English will hand over his capital for free. Yeah, right. Not only do they know exactly where and when the attack is coming, they get nearly a month to prepare.
That’s bad enough, but then the king recalls the army after a single day’s fighting. Convinced they can take the city after a brief siege, Joan of Arc and her captains go back and try to talk some sense into their monarch. The next day Charles VII disbands the army.
He never again places a substantial force behind the best French general of the century. Leading a small band of soldiers the following spring she gets captured in battle. Despite her overwhelming popularity among loyal French the king does nothing to save her life.
The best guess anybody has for why he acted this way was that one of the court favorites who loaned the king money got jealous of her success.
Stupid…stupid…stupid…
2 Chronicles, 10 (as paraphrased in The Living Bible)
All the leaders of Israel came to Shechem for Rehoboam’s coronation. Meanwhile, friends of Jeroboam (son of Nebat) sent word to him of Solomon’s death. He was in Egypt at the time, where he had gone to escape from King Solomon. He now quickly returned, and was present at the coronation, and he lead the people’s demands on Rehoboam:
“Your father was a hard master,” they said, “Be easier on us than he was, and we will let you be our king!”
Rehoboam told them to return in three days for his decision. He discussed their demand with the old men who had counseled his father Solomon.
“What shall I tell them?” he asked. “If you want to be their king,” they replied, “you will have to give them a favorable reply and treat them with kindness.”
But he rejected their advice and asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him. “What do you fellows think I should do?” he asked. “Shall I be easier on them than my father was?”
“No!” they replied. “Tell them, ‘If you think my father was hard on you, just wait and see what I’ll be like!’ Tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins! I am going to be tougher on you, not easier! My father used whips on you, but I’ll use scorpions!’”
So when Jeroboam and the people returned in three days to hear King Rehoboam’s decision, he spoke roughly to them; for he refused the advice of the old men, and followed the counsel of the younger ones.
“My father gave you heavy burdens but I will give you heavier!” he told them. “My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions!”
So the king turned down the people’s demands. (God caused him to do it in order to fullfill his prediction spoken to Jeroboam by Ahijah, the Shilonite.) When the people realized what the king was saying they turned around and deserted him.
“Forget David and his dynasty!” they shouted angrily. “We’ll get someone else to be our king. Let Rehoboam rule his own tribe of Judah! Let’s go home!” So they did.
The people of the tribe of Judah, however, remained loyal to Rehoboam. Afterwards, when King Rehoboam sent Hadoram to draft forced labor from the other tribes of Israel, the people stoned him to death. When this news reached Rehoboam, he jumped into his chariot and fled to Jerusalem. And Israel has refused to be ruled by a descendant of David to this day.
Please, please tell this cursed heathen that this is an accurate quote. If not, you should be God, Lumpy.
Good Lord, who translated that edition? What crappy phrasing.
I think a close second would be WAY back in 415 BC. Athens is involved in a brutal, bloody 27 year war with Sparta. In the 16th year they launch a major attack on Sicily (which in itself is suspect) under the command of their best general Alcibiades. Due to his shenanigans before he left he ends up getting recalled to Athens and I think he was put to death. Net result the entire expedition is lost, Athens loses the war and is razed by Sparta.
But without a doubt my vote goes straight to Paris after WWI. Wilson comes with his 14 points and the British and French diplomats shoot 13 of them down choosing to burden Germany with a harsh peace that eventually leads to Nazism and WWII. A stupid end to a stupid war. And then on top of all thath the remaining point (the League of Nations) the Republicans refuse to let the US join causing it to eventually die. 1914-1945 humanities lowest moment ever.
The dumbest moment in history is when Barney Fife left the Andy Griffith Show to star in numerous childrens movies.
The introduction of Scrappy Doo to the cast of Scooby Doo.
Pepsi once offered to sell their company/formula…to Coca-Cola! Coke declined. They didn’t think Pepsi was much of a threat. Whoops.
Dan Quayle
'nough said
During the discovery of fire, one caveman turns to the other and says, “So… how does it taste?”
But seriously,
The cancellation of The Friendly Giant.
The day they stopped making Beeman’s gum.
Pocklington (may he burn in hell) trading Gretzky to L.A.
Allowing Survivor II on the air.