Posted on 04/09/2002 11:54:05 AM PDT by WhiskeyPapa
Rally 'Round the flag!
This is the anniversary of the collapse of the Army of Northern Virginia and its surrender to the Army of the Potomac.
Thank God there were enough loyal Union men, of whom President Lincoln said: "no partisan cause could make false to the nation's life," to put down the giant rebellion against the lawful authority.
One hundred and forty thousand Union soldiers reenlisted in the summer of 1864.
At the same time, CSA armies began to melt away in a trickle and then a flood and then a torrent in the fall.
Walt
For this 'fair land of freedom' I do not care a damn;
I'm glad I fit against it, I only wish we'd won;
And I don't want no pardon, for anything I done.
God bless Robert E. Lee, the "finest man in all of Christendom."
The south,IMHO, had every right to secede, let's just be careful about Lee. There was much more to him than the Civil War.
we got 300 thousand before they conquered us
they died of southern fever, of southern steel and shot
and I wished it was 3 million instead of what we got.
sic semper tyrannis
Saw you a-marchin' with Robert E. Lee
You held your head a-high, tryin' to win the victory
You fought for your folks but you didn't die in vain
Even though you lost, they speak highly of your name
'Cause you fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb
I heard your teeth chatter from the cold outside
Saw the bullets open up the wounds in your side
I saw the young boys as they begin to fall
You had tears in your eyes, 'cause you couldn't help at all
But you fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb
I saw, General Lee, raise the sabre in his hand
Heard the cannon's roar as you made your last stand
You marched in the battle with the gray and the red
When the cannon's smoke cleared, took days to count the dead
'Cause you fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb
When, "Honest Abe", heard the news about your fall
The folks thought he'd call a great victory ball
But he asked the band to play the song, Dixie
For you Johnny Reb and all that you believed
'Cause you fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb
Yeah, you fought all the way, Johnny Reb
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb
You fought all the way, Johnny Reb
Fair enough?
The Waffen SS was also an effective military organization.
And yet the ANV was at a strength of less than 8,000 on 4/9/65. The AOP's strength was 135,000.
It should always be remembered by every loyal American that 140,000 3 year enlistees --men who had seen three years of bloody conflict-- reelisted in the spring of 1864 when they knew the prospects for the coming summer. They and their comrades are the true heroes of the ACW.
Walt
Yep. Too damned bad.
They and their comrades are the true heroes of the ACW.
If you consider Lincoln's huge expansion of the role of government in the daily lives of Americans an admirable thing, that's your business. But stow the "loyal American" crap. Just say "Yankee." That's what you mean.
Funny you should mention that.
Of course Dr. McPherson took the title for his book from a popular song of the war.
"Hurrah for the flag boys, hurrah boys hurrah!
We shall rally from the mountains, we shall gather from the plains, shouting the battle cry of freedom!
So it's down with the traitor, and up with the star;
rally round the flag boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more, shouting the battle cry of freedom,
And though he may be poor, he shall never be a slave!
So hurrah for the flag boys, hurrah boys hurrah! shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Walt
Yi, yi, yi, yi (that's the Rebel Yell, son, Ah say, it's the Rebel Yell).
The Union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitor, up with the star!
While we rally 'round the flag, boys,
Rally once again
Shouting the battle cry of freedom.
Longstreet accused him of losing the war by his frontal assault of the Union center at Gettysburg. Pickett refused to speak to him.
We southernors know:
Following the ratification of secession by Virginia, federal troops crossed the Potomac and, under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, took up positions around Arlington. Following the occupation, military installations were erected at several locations around the 1,100-acre estate, including Fort Whipple (now Fort Myer) and Fort McPherson (now Section 11).
Gen. Lee deeply regretted the loss of his home at Arlington. During the early stages of the war, foreseeing the probable loss of his home and belongings, Lee wrote to his wife about Arlington:
"It is better to make up our minds to a general loss. They cannot take away the remembrance of the spot, and the memories of those that to us rendered it sacred. That will remain to us as long as life will last, and that we can preserve."
Lee continued to feel responsible for the estate and earnestly hoped that the slaves who were left behind would be educated and freed, according to the provisions of George Washington Parke Custis' will.
The property was confiscated by the federal government when property taxes levied against Arlington estate were not paid in person by Mrs. Lee. The property was offered for public sale Jan. 11, 1864, and was purchased by a tax commissioner for "government use, for war, military, charitable and educational purposes." Arlington House
Just another casualty of war.
Longstreet, huh? ...and just where was he? ;-) lost in the countryside somewhere? He would have been helpful once our guys reached the crest. However, I doubt we'd could have taken DC with what was left...not without another battle after both sides rested. JMHO.
The day the Dream died... I'll be wearing black for the rest of the day.
Deo Vindice.
Why don't you tell us exactly what that expansion was.
What dream? Becoming a Banana Republic ruled by a handful of spoiled aristocrats?
UNCOMMON VALOR
By Robert N. Going
In the American Civil War 2,780,478 men fought for the Union in a struggle that brought new meaning to terms like bravery and valor. Yet of all these heroes, less than 1,400 earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, our nation's highest battlefield award. One of that rare number lies in St. Mary's Cemetery in Fort Johnson.
Private Benjamin Thackrah of Company H of the 115th New York Regiment was born in Scotland of an old Yorkshire family. For hundreds of years his family had been in the cloth manufacturing business in the tiny village of Pudsey, England until the industrial revolution of the late eighteenth century made cottage textiles obsolete, whereupon they followed the revolution: first to the nearby city of Leeds, then to Scotland, then to America.
Ben Thackrah told them he was 18 when he signed up to fight to preserve the Union in August of 1862. He was 16.
The 115th was composed of mostly Montgomery and Fulton County lads, though Ben himself enlisted north of Troy. Through a series of hard-fought battles they earned the nickname "Iron-Hearted Regiment".
In February of 1864 they joined in a Union invasion of Florida, and were ground down by the Confederates at the Battle of Olustee. Having been then assigned to guard the town of Palatka, they found themselves constantly harassed by greycoat bushwackers. On April 1 a request went out for twenty-five volunteers to move against a Rebel outpost thirty-two miles away. Private Thackrah answered the call.
This was a land of slow-moving rivers and swamps and alligators and unbearable heat. The men proceeded by tug to a point three miles below the oupost, then by small boats, then on foot through waist-deep muck and sweltering open country to their destination: a house concealed by bushes and a board fence.
When he reached the fence, Ben carefully stood up to look over it. And found himself looking into the barrel of a rifle.
With one quick move he knocked the gun aside, and as the startled rebel started running for the house, Ben raced after him, not particularly noticing that the rest of the volunteers hadn't yet caught up with him.
Inside the officers and men were having a meal. Private Thackrah, alone, announced boldly that they were surrounded and demanded their surrender, which after a little hesitation, was given.
One of the Johnny Rebs had been writing a letter, still unfinished. The last line read: "Everything is quiet along our lines."
The entire picket including men, arms, horses and supplies was captured without firing a shot.
The return trip was something of an adventure as well. They had to swim the horses across the river with as many men as could be spared serving as armed lookouts.
Not for Confederates. For alligators.
A couple of months later the 115th joined the long seige of Petersburg, Virginia. There they took part in one of the most audacious attacks of the war.
In July of 1864 General Ambrose Burnside approved the plan of a group of Pennsylvania coal miners to tunnel under the enemy lines, plant a large supply of gunpowder, and blow the Confederate center to kingdom come. The Union forces, including the 115th, would then pour through the gap, get behind the enemy, and march straight on to Richmond and end the war. Leading the charge would be a division of black troops.
The tunnels were dug, the charges laid, the troops trained and all was set for the blast that would end the war.
But at the last minute it was decided to change the plan and have the black troops take up the rear. The reasons for that decision, primarily political, are still debated. Instead, the remaining division commanders drew lots and the "winner" was a general with an alcohol problem who ended up giving little or no direction to his men, choosing instead to drink the day off.
At 4:30 a.m. on July 30, 1864, the earth shook with the force of four tons of exploding gunpowder. Fire and smoke and dirt shot a hundred feet in the air, mixed with cannon, caissons, sandbags and men. The whole formed a giant mushroom-shaped cloud, which is appropriate, since the power of that single explosion was not exceeded in war until August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima.
The blast formed a crater 30 feet deep, 60 feet wide, and 170 feet long.
And then, what should have been a Union rout turned to disaster.
The men who should have been charging, turned and ran from the flying debris. They regrouped. Then, virtually leaderless, they paused in awe at the rim of the crater, and instead of charging around the edges of the crater, they charged into it. And couldn't get out.
The Confederates came back and began slaughtering the bluecoats. When the trained black troops finally joined the action, they charged forward, but eventually were pushed back into the crater. Many, while trying to surrender, were bayonetted to death by Rebel soldiers enraged that they would dare to take up arms against their former masters.
The 115th took heavy casualties. A Confederate round shattered Ben Thackrah's hip, and for him the war was over. He was 18 years old.
Union losses that day were over 4,000 killed, wounded or missing. The war dragged on for nearly nine more months.
A few years after being released from the military hospital, Ben Thackrah settled in Montgomery County among his former buddies and applied his considerable mechanical skills toward such things as improving the basic design of the sewing machine, including figuring out a way to make button holes, later selling the patent rights for the then considerable sum of $500. He married, raised a large family, and died in Amsterdam in 1912.
Six years later his namesake grandson earned a Silver Star for bravery on the battlefields of France. But that's another story.
-The author is an attorney engaged in general practice. He and his wife, the former Mary Ann Thackrah, reside in Amsterdam with their four children.
The Dream of Self Determination. BTW, how are we any different now? Are we not ruled by a handful of spoiled aristocrats?
DEATH to Stuart !! ;-)
Maybe you are, but I'm sure as hell not. I'm much freer than 90% of the white Confederates were in 1860 and infinitely more free than 4 million black citizens were. I have the freedom to speak my mind, pray to my God and chose the friends I like and ignore people I don't like. I'm free to make as much or as little money as the effort I put fourth. I have voted in every election for the last 40 years and no one has ever once asked my race, sex or property status to exercise that freedom.
He was there, on the field, where he was supposed to be--shaking his head, watching happen exactly what he had told Lee would happen.
We can always depend on your tastelessness.
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