Tag: civil war

Member Post

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
8799
 

Good news. Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia – a town that is also home to the state-supported Virginia Military Institute and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, and an ignominious restaurant called the “Red Hen” – will not be changing its name to remove Robert E. Lee. So say their Board of Trustees. And it wasn’t even close. If you’ve […]
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Member Post

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
34
 

Good news. Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia – a town that is also home to the state-supported Virginia Military Institute and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, and an ignominious restaurant called the “Red Hen” – will not be changing its name. So says their Board of Trustees. And the vote wasn’t close. If you’ve […]
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We’ve Had Worse Times

Roderic
Roderic
2311
 

My wife became a US citizen 14 years ago.  She did it on her own hook, after being in the US for 25 years, not because she married me.  But now she tells me she’s beginning to regret becoming a citizen because of all the nonsense we are seeing now.

Yes, racial relations are getting worse and worse and the situation is being driven by race mongers and seditionist leftists.  Yes, the libs are threatening to tax us and take the money in our IRA’s and 401ks.  Yes, an increase in inflation is threatening to destroy our retirement savings.  Yes, inflation is increasing.  Yes, corporations will pay higher taxes, and we will pay more for goods and services as a result.  Yes, people are losing their jobs and status for speaking their minds.  Yes, we are set to waste trillions on the phantom of climate change.  Yes, crime is on the rise even as leftists are calling to abolish the police.  Yes, we have seen continuous rioting, vandalism, and violence in our cities.  Yes, anti-white racism in on display everywhere.  Yes, there is an open season on American Jews.  But not to worry, I say.   The US has seen worse.

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A Stillness at Appomatox

Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
168715
 

Friday was the 156th anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant and his Army of the Potomac, at Appomattox Courthouse, VA. I consider this the effective end of the Civil War, though some fighting continued, and Confederate leaders in other locations, further south and west, surrendered at different times over the next couple of months.

The title of this post is from Bruce Catton’s excellent book on the conclusion of the war.

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Love Thy Neighbor

Aaron Miller
Aaron Miller
2212
 

It is when we have the most cause to hate and reject our neighbors that we most need to remember the command to love them. Yes, my fellow Christians, it is a command and not merely an invitation. Though no challenge could be so difficult to fulfill, it is the foundation rather than the pinnacle of Christian love. It is a challenge not reserved only for the holiest saints but rather put to every one of us. Our Lord and Creator doesn’t even stop there. “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”

A philosophy professor and friend once caught me off guard by claiming that the Golden Rule is nothing special. Any person raised in a good home knows not to mistreat others as oneself doesn’t want to be abused.

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Member Post

Ammo.com
Ammo.com
00
 

The Civil War (1861-1865) was nothing less than a revolutionary reorganization of American government, society, and economics. It claimed almost as many lives as every other U.S. conflict combined and, by war’s bloody logic, forged the nation which the Founding Fathers could not by settling once and for all lingering national questions about state sovereignty and slavery. The postwar period, […]
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Ontheleftcoast
Ontheleftcoast
149
 

Paraphrasing Dan Bongino, conservatives think Leftists are people with bad ideas, Leftists think that conservatives are bad people because the conservatives have bad ideas. Conservatives are beginning to return the favor.  Many people are describing what’s going on in America as the rise of a new civic religion, and one which aggressively proselytizes at that. […]
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Member Post

Ontheleftcoast
Ontheleftcoast
66
 

I’ve previously had a post censored on the grounds “conspiracy theorist” for quoting Matt Bracken but he is absolutely correct on this: Antifa and BLM have roots in the Revolutionary Communist Party, (which is why Bracken refers to them together as “ABR”.) He’s reporting an escalation in ABR tactics. He provides an excellent analysis of […]
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The Debate Question You’ll Never Hear

Judge Mental
Judge Mental
4425
 

Moderator: “This question is for whichever of you have the guts to answer: The last time a Democrat nominee for president graciously accepted a losing result — that is, without claiming that they were cheated, that votes were stolen or suppressed, that Diebold rigged the outcome, or claimed that the process itself was unfair — was Michael Dukakis in 1988. If you are the Dems’ nominee and then lose the general election, will you:

  1. Concede graciously and immediately
  2. Issue a call to all Democrats for national unity, and to work with the duly elected president
  3. And condemn any and all continued activities by The Resistance.

“And if your answer is no, and you should in fact win the general election, explain why all the same tactics used against Donald Trump should not be applied to your new presidency.”

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Such Was the Fidelity of a Dog: Mousel, the Mascot of the 8th Illinois Infantry

Jeff Giambrone
Jeff Giambrone
16
 

Civil War Period Illustration of a Soldier with his dog. (Peterson’s Magazine, October 1863)

Civil War soldiers faced the dangers of the battlefield with great valor, but they also had to come to terms with the boredom and loneliness that was part and parcel of army life. To help cope with the stresses of military service, many soldiers adopted pets or mascots that traveled with their owners on the march and in battle. One of the most famous Civil War mascots was “Old Abe,” the eagle mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Infantry, but all manner of creatures served as mascots. Probably the most common mascot was the dog, and they came in a wonderful variety of breeds and sizes. The importance of these canine companions to the soldiers they followed should not be underestimated; the following story, published in the Vicksburg Daily Herald, on July 21, 1864, illustrates this fact.

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Quote of the Day: Abraham Lincoln and his Religiosity

Susan Quinn
Susan Quinn
4311
 

Lincoln grew into an intensely religious man, although we rarely hear him described in those terms nowadays. His religious faith became fundamental to his thinking and decision-making during the Civil War; we rarely hear that either. When he assumed the enormous burden of the presidency with war approaching, his faith grew deeper. When his beloved young son Willie died in early 1862, it deepened again—and seemed to continue growing deeper until his death. In the end Lincoln should almost certainly be remembered as the most important religious figure America has ever produced. I don’t mean he was a theologian. But Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah weren’t theologians either.

– David Gelernter, The Fourth Great Western Religion

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Angel of the Battlefield: An Unexpected Gift

Susan Quinn
Susan Quinn
159
 

As a child, I was addicted to a series of biographies written for children. They were undersized volumes, with a textured blue cover and the name of the featured person written in a kind of script. One of those books told the story of Clara Barton. Her courage, determination, and devotion to the soldiers of the Civil War have stayed with me all these years.

Clara Barton, 1905

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But How Will You Pay For It?

HankRhody Freelance Philosopher
HankRhody Freelance Philosopher
5221
 

This post stems out of a conversation at the work lunch table. Someone brought up that Brooklyn Bug-Eye’s economic illiteracy. “We’ve chased Amazon away! That’s three billion in tax incentives that we can spend elsewhere!” Not quite how that works. The discussion moved on to banning cow farts and air travel and so forth. I’ll spare you the details, you’ve heard ’em all before. The problem is that by the time you get to how you’re going to pay for such a thing you’ve already lost the argument.

Here, let’s have Rachael Carson tell it.

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Member Post

Locke On
Locke On
810
 

In the spring of 2008, when the term was still new, I posted a survey regarding the notion of the Cold Civil War on a now-closed group blog, WindsofChange.Net. Its few questions were an attempted reality check on the sundering of personal, business, and political relationships that would presumably accompany any move towards “politics by […]
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Codevilla and Our Revolutionary Spiral

Locke On
Locke On
1617
 

Angelo Codevilla isn’t as prolific as, say, Victor Davis Hanson, but when he drops one it’s time to pay attention. The latest is no exception: Our Revolution’s Logic.

His main thesis is that a spiral has begun, away from the American system of resolving political differences, and into a tit-for-tat of using power, fair and foul, not just to be left alone, but to force the other party to conform. Trump, the Resistance, and Kavanaugh all play starring roles. Read the whole thing.

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Member Post

Susan Quinn
Susan Quinn
2010
 

The overcast sky rested heavily on the landscape on the day we visited Valley Forge. Few people were there on that day, as if they were avoiding a reminder of the chilly autumn season that lay ahead and the brutal memories long past. An admirer of General George Washington during the Revolutionary War, I wanted […]
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Will of the Wisp

Seawriter
Seawriter
108
 

will-o’-the-wisp: noun

  1. (Also called: friar’s lantern, ignis fatuus, jack-o’-lantern) A pale flame or phosphorescence sometimes seen over marshy ground at night. It is believed to be due to the spontaneous combustion of methane or other hydrocarbons originating from decomposing organic matter
  2. A person or thing that is elusive or allures and misleads

There are probably few ship types surrounded by as much romance as the Civil War blockade runner. It was risky, but not illegal. It was not smuggling. Rather, it was an attempt to circumvent a wartime blockade – a blockade that was legal only in so far as it could stop neutrals from entering or exiting a port declared blockaded.

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Member Post

Susan Quinn
Susan Quinn
219
 

Issued by General Gordon Granger “19th of June”, 1865 Galveston, TX, General Order #3 “The people are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves, and the connection […]
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Quote of the Day: Savoring the Enemy’s Losses

Susan Quinn
Susan Quinn
4614
 

“Grant had captured an army of at least 13,000 men, a record of the North American continent. He showed mercy toward the conquered force, giving them food and letting them keep their side arms. Avoiding any show of celebration, he refused to shame soldiers and vetoed any ceremony in which they marched. ‘Why should we go through with vain forms and mortify and injure the spirit of brave men, who, after all, are our own countrymen,’ he asked.” — from Grant, by Ron Chernow

“If your enemy falls, do not exult; if he trips, let your heart not rejoice, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and avert his wrath from him.” —Proverbs, 24: 17-18

For all his overindulgence with alcohol, Ulysses S. Grant was a brilliant general. Although he had some embarrassing losses, he was relentless, strategic and smart. Yet he agonized over those left dead on the battlefield, whether they were his own men or the men of the Confederate army. He was not only determined to lessen their misery, but tried to treat the wounded and dead on both sides, with dignity and compassion.

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