Battle of Gettysburg ends this day in 1863

Pickett's Charge

This Day in History, July 3, 1863:

On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s last attempt at breaking the Union line ends in disastrous failure, bringing the most decisive battle of the American Civil War to an end.

In June 1863, following his masterful victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, General Lee launched his second invasion of the Union in less than a year. He led his 75,000-man Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River, through Maryland, and into Pennsylvania, seeking to win a major battle on Northern soil that would further dispirit the Union war effort and induce Britain or France to intervene on the Confederacy’s behalf. 

The 90,000-strong Army of the Potomac pursued the Confederates into Maryland, but its commander, General Joseph Hooker, was still stinging from his defeat at Chancellorsville and seemed reluctant to chase Lee further. Meanwhile, the Confederates divided their forces and investigated various targets, such as Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania capital.

On June 28, President Abraham Lincoln replaced Hooker with General George Meade, and Lee learned of the presence of the Army of the Potomac in Maryland. Lee ordered his army to concentrate in the vicinity of the crossroads town of Gettysburg and prepare to meet the Federal army. At the same time, Meade sent ahead part of his force into Pennsylvania but intended to make a stand at Pipe Creek in Maryland.

On July 1, a Confederate division under General Henry Heth marched into Gettysburg hoping to seize supplies but finding instead three brigades of Union cavalry. Thus began the Battle of Gettysburg, and Lee and Meade ordered their massive armies to converge on the impromptu battle site. 

The Union cavalrymen defiantly held the field against overwhelming numbers until the arrival of Federal reinforcements. 

Later, the Confederates were reinforced, and by mid-afternoon some 19,000 Federals faced 24,000 Confederates. Lee arrived to the battlefield soon afterward and ordered a general advance that forced the Union line back to Cemetery Hill, just south of the town...

Anti-car, pro-bike ad banned in France

Seems silly that France banned this murky, artsy-fartsy anti-car ad with a woman warbling soulfully and incomprehensibly in the background. 

Streetsblog of course likes it. The Pro-Bike Van Moof Ad That’s Too Hot for French TV:

The ad is fairly straightforward, using a sleek sports car as a screen onto which are projected the evils of car-based transportation systems: the traffic, the pollution, the spacial inefficiency, the road violence. Then the car melts, and the company slogan emerges, “Time to ride the future,” accompanied by a singer saying, “There’s a new day dawning.” The final frames feature the bike standing there, looking like the solution.

There you have it from Streetsblog and anti-car zealots everywhere: Cars are "evil," and bikes are "the solution."

And who/what exactly is Van Moof? A company that makes bikes! Van Moof hopes "the future" includes selling a lot of its bikes.

The future naturally will include the pro-bike, anti-car zealots. More importantly, it will include cars, trucks, and buses. 

Speaking of buses, the SFMTA is desperately trying to make Muni buses relevant during the pandemic with its disingenuous Fast Tracking Transit Lanes to Help City Recovery that takes away traffic lanes to make exclusive bus lanes. It pretends that these "improvements" will be temporary, but of course they'll be permanent.

The problem is, as Randal O'Toole, among others, has noted, buses, trains, and streetcars are breeding containers for COVID-19, while cars can insulate their drivers and passengers from infection.

That this program includes Masonic Avenue shows that it's phony. I ride the #43 Masonic several times a week, and it has always moved well, especially between Haight St. and Geary Blvd., the heart of its now truncated route. 

The idea that this will somehow encourage more people to ride the #43---which has never been a major Muni line---is pure bullshit, a pathetic attempt to make city buses relevant after a radical reduction in passengers and fare revenue during the pandemic/recession.

City Hall has always had a peculiar obsession with Masonic Avenue. Several years ago it took away all the street parking on Masonic between Haight St. and Geary Blvd. to make bike lanes. 

The city had no idea that many cyclists even wanted to go north-south in that part of town, and it turned out that few did.

Bikes are the future? Bikes have always been oversold, as cities see getting people on bikes as a cheap way to mitigate traffic congestion.

The downside of bikes is never mentioned by the Bicycle Coalition, Streetsblog---or the SFMTA, for that matter. 

But the Centers for Disease Control warns the public about the dangers of cycling, including for children. But City Hall still encourages city parents to put even their children on bikes.

See also Covid-19 and Public Transit, Special interest groups and City Hall use the pandemic to push anti-car agenda and BikeThink: The ideology of bicycles.