Wars

[HBS Guy]

Yes, got that. They taught WWII pilots about escaping from POW camps.

 

[HBS Guy]

Buster Keaton Film “The General” loosely based on the real attempt to steal a train:

 

[HBS Guy]

Ha! When you buy pants or a shirt you look for your size right? The idea of standard sizes was started by the Union quartermaster general in the Civil War:

The Quartermaster Bureau furnished clothing manufacturers with a series of graduated standard measurements for uniforms. This introduced a concept of “sizes” that was applied to men’s civilian clothing after the war.

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States Book 6) (p. 325). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

 

[HBS Guy]

“Quaker guns”

In the Civil War the South, without the huge industry of the North, were not as well equipped. To disguise this quaker guns—logs shaped and painted to look like cannon—were used. Beauregard used them to disguise his withdrawal from Corinth. One such quaker gun was found on the south bank of the Potomac when the unit manning this “gun” was withdrawn.

In WWII Patton “lead” a force of “quaker” tanks etc—the successful attempt to trick Hitler into believing the “real” invasion was to be at Calais.

 

[HBS Guy]

Wow, I didn’t know this:

Their first target was Roanoke Island, a swampy piece of land ten miles long, two miles wide, and rich in legend—a land where the memory of Virginia Dare and the inscrutable word “Croatan” marked the mysterious fate of England’s first North American colony. Controlling the passage between Pamlico Sound and Albemarle Sound, Roanoke Island was the key to

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States Book 6) (p. 372). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

I would have thought somewhere in New England?

I played a trick on my Yankee brew buddies. Driving Mum to a family wedding I posted:

“Driving through New England” and when a couple bit I said “The New England part of NSW!” New England tried to become a separate state but it failed.

 

[HBS Guy]

Interesting! From what I have read, e.g. Grant’s campaign down the Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississipi Rivers all the way to the end in 1865 at the wharves at City Point near Petersburg, Va, the steam boats (and ships in the blue water navy) were all paddle boats, yet:

No bid came from John Ericsson, the irascible genius of marine engineering who had contributed the screw propeller and several other innovations to ship design. Bitter about earlier feuds with the navy, Ericsson sulked in his. . . (he did build the Monitor and just in time too!

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States Book 6) (p. 374). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

 

[HBS Guy]

Women fighting in the US Civil War:

. . .of a daring ex-slave from Maryland, who people were calling Moses. Her name was Harriett Tubman. She had escaped to Philadelphia years before and started helping other slaves around there escape to Canada. She had met abolitionist John Brown in ’58, and helped him plan and recruit supporters for his infamous raid on Harper’s Ferry in Jefferson County, West

St Clair, Stanley. Turning Point at Gettysburg (p. 97). St. Clair Publications. Kindle Edition.
When the war began she had worked with the Union Army. To begin with, Frank said, she was a cook and nurse. But soon she became an armed scout and spy. She had become the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, guiding the raid at Combahee Ferry in South Carolina, in the process liberating 700 slaves.

St Clair, Stanley. Turning Point at Gettysburg (p. 97). St. Clair Publications. Kindle Edition.

 

[HBS Guy]

Hah! We had Arthur McArthur a general on the Union side in the Civil War who fathered Douglas McArthur of WWII fame. Another connection:

Isaac W. Patton, who assumed command of the 22nd Louisiana only five days before, was severely wounded in the hip. He was one of four Virginia brothers who became colonels in the Confederate Army: John, Waller, and George S. were the other three. The original George S. Patton was the grandfather of the famous World War II general.

Mitcham, Samuel W.. Vicksburg: The Bloody Siege that Turned the Tide of the Civil War (p. 230). Regnery History. Kindle Edition.

 

[pinkeye]

I hesitate to post BUT.. I will anyway.

I understand to some degree why you men are obsessed with WAR...

It is acceptable now, historically, and also previously expected.

All of our shared histories are linked by WAR.

Declared or NOT.