Talk:Holman Melcher

Charge down Gettysburg
Due to Holman Melcher apparently being such a topic for dispute. Do not remove any portion that is obviously integral to his article. Discuss on the talk page any edits you wish to change or improve before deleting them. Most notably, the charge down Gettysburg. If 10 different sources say that Melcher was the first down Little Round Top, it stays. Please stop vandalizing the page to shove the romanticized version of the battle of little round top down the throats of the readers. Happy editing! Yorkshiremany (talk) 16:08, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Only ONE original eyewitness account (by Ellis Spear) placed Melcher in the lead during the charge and that account contradicted a lifetime of accounts by Spear and dozens of others. At the time he wrote the account in a private letter, he was 80 years old, suffering from numerous ailments and the account is thus highly suspect. When read within the context of the many letters between he and the same correspondent, it is clear that Spear's account does not comport with the many, many accounts he wrote during his younger life. Dr. Tom Desjardin
 * Welcome to Wikipedia, Tom. I appreciate all the work you're doing here on the article, however, you seem to be deleting large portions of the article without explanation. Your most common "explanation" is "Removed factually unsupported claim. Based on 30 years of my research and several dozen first-person accounts I included in my book Stand Firm Ye Boys From Maine which was my Ph.D. dissertation. Also based on my years as historian at Gettysburg NMP". That doesn't fly here at Wikipedia. Please continue editing by adding citations, to your assertions and factually supporting your claims. Also please sign your comments, with four tidal waves (~ ~ ~ ~), as that is proper protocol on talk pages. Thank you for your edits. Yorkshiremany (talk) 23:54, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip. As you may have guessed this is a bit of a sore spot with me. I am the person who, back in 1993, gave the one account to Mr. Styple, author of "With a Flash of his Sword." I did so hoping to entice him to do research on the complete collection of letters that contain this one source. Instead, he published this sole letter with no context, launching a myth that has become popularly known as the "Chamberlain-Spear controversy." While it is fascinating that a single mention in a single book could create such a pervasive myth, it does great injustice to the memory and reputation of Ellis Spear, whose grandson Abbot was a good friend of mine, and to Joshua Chamberlain. ~ ~ ~ ~

I've edited a line in the "Charging Down Little Round Top Dispute" section to correct a badly misinterpreted portion of a book I wrote on the subject in 1995. The reference cited is p. 69 of Stand Firm Ye Boys from Maine, though the discussion it is referencing is actually on page 70. The sentence in the section claimed that Melcher spontaneously led his men down the hill prior to the charge of the balance of the regiment, but this idea is nowhere to be found on those pages or anywhere else in the book. What the book does clearly state is that "Melcher started his men toward the boulder ledge with its better view and the suffering wounded." How this was used as a reference to describe Melcher spontaneously charging down the hill is beyond me, but there is no evidence among credible sources that Melcher moved beyond that "boulder ledge" (on which the regimental monument now stands) prior to the overall charge. ~ ~ ~ ~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by TDMaine (talk • contribs) 21:26, 17 July 2018 (UTC)

I filled in a spot that seemed to be missing some content between two block quotes the second of which was not explained. I added here a mention of an article in America's Civil War magazine that examines this issue. ~ ~ ~ ~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by TDMaine (talk • contribs) 21:49, 17 July 2018 (UTC)

More photos
I am currently on the search for more photos of Mecher, if there are any photos any editors have of Melcher please upload them to Wiki Commons, and add them to the article! Thanks. Odwallah (talk) 00:36, 24 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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Charging Little Round Top dispute
I deleted a duplicate 'the' in this section despite the warning – I don't think anybody will argue with that. I also deleted a bold because I didn't think it was necessary or even fit with WP use of boldface type. If I'm wrong on that, anybody can feel free to rebold.

Ira

Ira Leviton (talk) 22:26, 18 January 2018 (UTC)