ALL THINGS CIVIL WAR

There has been some discussion
of whether his surgeons killed him better than Booth did,
poking around in his brain.

no, but gonna

if the Tea Party had any guts and a sense of history (and humour), Civil War II would be a good way to celebrate the anniversary

come on Sarah rally the troops

What's the scoop, George?

My favorite Civil War stories were written by a former geographic officer.

Rap

Edwin Booth Saved Robert Todd Lincoln's Life


Robert Todd Lincoln was the eldest of Abraham and Mary Lincoln's four sons.

Fate brought Lincoln and Booth together in a train station in Jersey City, N.J.,
in the midst of the Civil War. At the time Robert was vacationing from Harvard,
traveling from New York to Washington, D.C., while Booth was on his way
to Richmond, Va., with his friend, John T. Ford (owner of Ford's Theatre in Washington).
The exact date of the encounter is unknown, although Robert consistently recalled it as having occurred in 1863 or 1864.

Robert Lincoln wrote the most succinct account of the incident in a 1909 letter to Richard Watson Gilder, editor
of The Century Magazine, who asked him to verify that the episode actually took place:




The incident occurred while a group of passengers were late at night
purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor who stood
on the station platform at the entrance of the car. The platform was
about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space
between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened
to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn.
In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was
twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward,
into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar
was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a
secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer
I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me,
and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name.

The Booths spent the rest of their lives distancing themselves from John Wilkes.

Just wondering if the movie was worth taking in.

I was also going to ask about The Killer Angels and the tv movie based on it.

Thay hooked their fingers around in there,
trying to dig out the slug. (Thay coud be PERSISTENT.)

That might have been obviated by a vacuum cleaner,
but then what else might have come out with the slug?

Speculation:

What if he had survived, but
thay had pulled out the anti-slavery part of his brain ?

I read the book(Killer Angels) It was terrific.

You've piqued my interest re Thomas.

When I was a Boy Scout I remember visiting a bunch of forts named after Confederate generals. AP Hill was one. Anybody know some others?

I don't know anything about that one, Boss, i was hoping you could enlighten me.

Killer Angels was based on just two sources, one being Jushuah Chamberlain's version of Gettysburg, and the other an obscure book entitled Pickett's Charge, which was actually well-researched and well-written. It was one of the legion of books that came out in the 1950s in anticipation of the centenniel.

The motion pictujre Gettysburg is based on that novel[/b ]. (Did i mention that it was a novel?) It bears approximately that relationship to history that Christian Science does to science. Well, it's not that bad, but the Chamberlain events are largely created from whole cloth--his own officers and men disputed his version of events after the war. They (Chamberlain's recollectons) also ignore that if any one of Strong Vincent's regiments had broken, the whole line would have been compromised.

They're both great entertainment--but they're not entirely historical.

Chamberlain was lucky, an orator of the first stripe, and certainly brave. I don't know about if the Longstreet Spy story is anything but fiction, but 'The Killer Angels' acknowledged John Beaufort's tactical brilliance on the first day of Gettysburg. And the tactical effectiveness of snipers (Mack Reynolds).

Good read--but it is a novel.

A discussion of Civil War fictional novels; however, should mention Ambrose Bierce's 'Tales of Solders and Civilians'--a compilation of Bierce short stories.

'Tales' was published in 1891 and was serialized in Hearst newspapers. Consider it was accepted by a public that included living civil war veterans.

I'm reading a book called A Treasury Of Civil War Stories and lo and behold.; there's an F Scott Fitzgerald story called The Night Before Chancellorsville.
Also, of course, Bierce's An Ocurrence At Owl Creek Bridge.

The French love Bierce--don't know why, but they do. There are several shorts films made of Bierce stories. Many versions of Owl Creek but including the Twilight Zone most are in French and few are subtitled. I can start a fight and order food in French but that's as far as I go.

BTW my favorite Biercian story is 'One Kind of Officer'.

I'm reading "One Of The Missing" right now

(Ahem)
Let me rephrase that-
You guys are really very interested in the Civil War, it seems...
Do you have any thoughts about the people who spend time and money on civil War re-enactments?

I love the smell of black powder in the morning.

Ohio's Regiment has six Napoleon 12 ponders. Each gun has a trained crew of eight that includes two powder monkeys. I have seen the regiment march to the banks of the Ohio, escorted by a military band and a color guard and fire several volleys upon the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Impressive smoke and fire. And the sulfur smell.

Musta been effective--Kentucky didn't return fire.