Riding on The River
I’m not a big Civil War buff, but I do enjoy learning about the Mississippi River. The Mississippi and The Civil War are inextricably woven in mid 19th Century history. Water was a lifeline for everything. Before Eisenhower’s interstate initiative, the river system was our nation’s highway. And steamboats were the Amazon trucks of the day!
A significant amount of consideration is given to battles such as Gettysburg, Bull Run, and Shiloh. That makes sense with the East Coast containing most of the U.S. population in the 19th Century. But some would say it was the Battle of Vicksburg that was the most decisive. Vicksburg determined control over The River and who would have access to vital resources coming out of the West.
The Battle of Vicksburg is a lesson of defining reality in both success and defeat. Realty can be hard to maintain! To understand what happened at Vicksburg, we must understand what transpired at Memphis a few months prior. Memphis was captured by the Union Army in 1862 and the commanding officer in Vicksburg, General John Pemberton, was convinced that a large movement of Union troops would be moving East to solidify their success. When scouts said otherwise, Pemberton responded with doubt. He couldn’t conceive the Union Army risking Memphis to take Vicksburg. The Confederate fortifications built on the Vicksburg cliffs were impenetrable anyhow. Pemberton was blinded by reality in his own confirmation bias.
On April 16,1863 the citizens of Vicksburg were enjoying a grand gala at Sky Parlor. It was a flat plateau high above The River in the heart of Vicksburg. When the battle ensued amid the libations and music it came as a shock to everyone in the city including the army. In the end, it was the element of surprise and innovative tactics that led to a Union victory. Both of which went unseen by Pemberton.
The Union Army wasn’t distracted by the recent success in Memphis. They stayed the course. General Pemberton was blinded by his own confirmation bias, and it might have cost the Confederate Army the war.
Hindsight is 20-20, but often the signs were there all along. We have the pesky tendancy to see what we want to see.
We shouldn’t live in the rearview mirror, but there are powerful lessons to learn when we consider the decisions that resulted in our current reality. Success and failures. Our history is ripe with lessons if we’ll only stop and remember. It’s natural to lock in on our confirmation biases; it’s wisdom to listen and learn from the past. Seeing what we want to see is a pathway to pain.
What areas of our life have we become susceptible to confirmation bias? Regardless of our leadership scope, we all begin by leading ourselves. Leadership is two-fold, defining what is and defining what could be. Giving influence in between is the success to leading ourselves and others!