Ep. 26: Life Lessons from the Civil War (Part I-Ambrose Burnside)

Life App Podcast

Have you ever been in a class where the teacher really does remind you of Charlie Brown’s teacher? Like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04&feature=youtu.be I have been a licensed history teacher since 1987, and I cannot remember how many times someone has told me, basically, “I used to hate history when I was in school, but now that I’m an adult, it fascinates me and I can’t get enough of it.” In my opinion, this may be because a lot of our history is taught badly, or we teachers just try to get our students to memorize dry facts and dates, but history has a STORY in it! The longer I live, the more I try to teach story and attach LIFE LESSONS to the examples, so our lives today can be richer and more successful. So that leads us to this episode. At the 2017 Dreyer Academy LLC Christmas Party, our podcast producer Todd Holloway told me he remembered a project I assigned his honors US history class when he had been in 11th grade and said it had taught him valuable life lessons. I assigned the class certain US Civil War leaders, both from the North and South, and the students were to research them and identify if they are seen as successful or failed leaders, and what made them successful or not. I was grateful Todd recalled that project and found it helpful, and the fact that he had remembered it six or seven years later, I found remarkable. So, he and I decided we needed to revisit some of those “life lessons” in our podcasts, so here is the first one! In this episode, we look at the life of Union (Northern) General Ambrose Burnside. He was the classic “middle manager” who generally succeeded as a general under a higher command, but he failed utterly when Lincoln put him in charge of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside outnumbered Lee’s army by 120,000 to 80,000 men, but at the bloody Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, he lost an unbelievable 13,000 men in ONE DAY while the South lost less than 5,000. This episode will examine some of Burnside’s flaws and seek to help us avoid those errors today, in particular, “tunnel vision.” Learn more about General Burnside and the Battle of Fredericksburg below: http://www.history.com/news/remembering-the-battle-of-fredericksburg-150-years-later Factoid: After the Civil War, Burnside became the first president of the National Rifle Association (NRA): https://home.nra.org/about-the-nra/ Word of the Day: sideburns (noun). A strip of hair grown by men down the side of their face in front of their ears Question of the Day: What is the “fine line” between FOCUS and TUNNEL VISION? How are they different? How can a person retain focus, yet be open to new ways of thinking and seeing matters? Have a question or feedback? Maybe a topic you’d like to hear in a future episode? Please email Scott at [e-mail]. We’d love to hear from you! If you enjoy our podcasts, please subscribe, write a review, and share them on social media and by word of mouth! Those are GREAT ways to help more people find our podcasts. Please also visit us at www.DreyerCoaching.com; check out the blog posts at the bottom of the page for more information about life in the USA and the crazy English language.