The History Channel accidentally attached a photo of Revolutionary War General and first President of the United States George Washington to a tweet about the last day of the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg.
For years now, many history fans have complained that cable network The History Channel is more about space aliens and dubious reality shows than history. Sadly, the network didn’t help its reputation any with its disastrous July 3 tweet about the end of the American Civil War’s turning point battle of Gettysburg.
The July 3 tweet was part of The History Channel’s ongoing “this day in history” tweet series, and for July 3, the network hoped to chronicle the end of one of the Civil War’s most important battles, saying, “On #ThisDayinHistory 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg ends.”
The tweet linked to a story on the network’s website that began, “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.”
Unfortunately, the photo attached to the tweet was an engraving of General George Washington sitting on a horse before his troops at the Battle of Yorktown during the Revolutionary War, a battle which occurred decades before the Civil War.
Well, the “history” channel only missed it by four score and seven years.
The network quickly deleted the tweet, but not before many saved the guffaw-worthy mistake.
The image and tweet were so far off that George Washington was dead 64 years before the Battle of Gettysburg even started.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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