log in · author: keith created date: 3/23/2020 7:51:50 pm
TRANSCRIPT
AND
ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON LINE
The people --
The people -- are the rightful
masters of both congresses,
and courts -- not to
overthrow the constitution,
but to overthrow the men who
pervert it.
September 16 and 17, 1859 Notes for Speeches at Columbus and
Cincinnati
PRESENTATION
a
THINGS
WOULD BE DIFFERENT
BY J FRATER
LISTVERSE
(CONTINUED FROM LAST MONTH)
Alternate history is a way of reimagining true
events, and it is one of the most commonly
considered subjects about the American
Civil War. The conflict was likely the most
important American war in regards to the
development of the modern world, and
seeing as that war was fought around the
legality and expansion of slavery, a lot of
thought has gone into how slavery would
continue or abate if the South won the war
5 THE USA WOULD NOT HAVE
ENTERED WORLD WAR I
World War I broke out in Europe following
the assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, and things went to hell quickly.
The United States stayed out of the conflict
initially but entered into in 1917, shortly
before the war ended. The USA helped
bring the conflict to an end, however, if the
Confederacy had won the Civil War, it’s
unlikely either the USA or CSA would have
been in a position to render aid in any
significant manner. Because of this, the war
would have likely continued for several
years, which would have had its own
alternate history of Europe stemming from
the elongated conflict. Would Germany
have signed a treaty that stripped them of
nearly everything, sending the nation into
economic turmoil, and would be planting the
seeds of WWII? Maybe not, and maybe
there would never have been a WWII or a
rise of Fascism in Europe if the USA didn’t
enter the Great War.
In conclusion, there’s no way to know for
sure, but it’s highly unlikely that the USA and
CSA would have entered the conflict.
• Log in
Interesting Fact: the flag shown here is the third
official flag of the Confederate States (the “blood-
stained banner”). The top corner is the battle
flag (the most commonly seen these days when
talking about the CSA but was only intended as a
battle flag). The first official flag was called the
“stars and bars” and was made up of three red
and white stripes with a circle of white stars on a
blue background in the top corner. The second
official flag (the “stainless banner”) was
identical to the one pictured but lacked the red
stripe on the edge. The stripe was added to the
third flag so that it didn’t appear to be a white flag
denoting surrender when hanging limp against a
flagpole.
1 SLAVERY WOULD MORE THAN LIKELY
HAVE CONTINUED FOR SOME TIME
Slavery was the main cause of the American Civil
War. The southern states had feared a lack of
expansion into new states and territories, which
then became of paramount concern following the
Election of 1860, and that led to cessation, which
led to the war. The only issue of “State’s
Rights” that came about was a state’s right to
continue using slave labor. As such, a victorious
CSA would have meant that the south’s American
enslavement of Africans and African Americans
would have continued well into the 20th-century.
Despite this, Atlantic Slave Trade would have
ended, or been reduced to piracy/privateers, as
most other nations no longer supported it.
Slavery in the CSA would then be limited only for
reproduction of slaves “breeding”within their
nation, and “supplies” from Africa would end by
the turn of the century.
As the CSA expanded westward, each new State
would become a slave state. Congruously, the
Union states settled westward would be free
states, but slavery wouldn’t continue to today, at
least, not in the same capacity. The Industrial
Revolution meant that a specialized and better-
trained workforce was necessary to improve
agricultural and industrial production. If the South
continued to rely entirely on slave labor, which was
purposefully uneducated and illiterate, they would
fall far behind the USA and other more developed
nations. It’s likely slavery would decline through
the 20th-century, but it wouldn’t die out completely.
Another famous dog mascot was the bull
terrier Jack, who was the mascot of the 102nd
Pennsylvania, known as the “Firefighters’
Regiment. Jack was wounded at the battles
of Malvern Hill and Fredericksburg and was
captured at Salem Church, but was then to be
exchanged six months later. Jack would then
disappear shortly after being presented with a
silver collar purchased by his company ‘s
human comrades, his disappearance was
considered as an apparent victim of theft.
The 11th Ohio kept a dog mascot, named
Curley, which stayed on the Chickamauga
battlefield with the unit’s wounded.
The 69th New York, a regiment in the Irish
Brigade, kept a dog mascot which was,
appropriately enough, an Irish Wolfhound.
An Irish Wolfhound is displayed on the Irish
Brigade monument at Gettysburg.
The 44th New York kept a dog mascot named
Rover, and the 54th New York’s mascot Jack
wore a silver collar engraved with the slogan
“Victory or Death.”
Confederate units also kept dogs as mascots
but pictures of them are quite rare.
There were other animals which were used as
mascots by the various fighting units of both
sides.
One of the most unique animal mascots was a
brown bear named Bruin, kept by Company E
of the 12th Wisconsin, Bruin had led the whole
company’s regiment as it marched through the
streets of Chicago but was later sold when the
unit was sent to New Mexico.
The Confederate Regiment Company B of the
43rd Mississippi kept as its mascot a camel
named Old Douglas, which would frequently
frighten all of the horses. Old Douglas had
accompanied the unit to the battles of Iuka
and Corinth, but was later killed by a Union
sharpshooter during the siege of Vicksburg.
Union officer Elijah Hunt Rhodes kept as a pet
a sheep named Dick, which at first was to be
considered cute but later became old and no
longer cute. Dick was eventually sold for $5,
which was spent on food.
Another pet named Dick was a chicken which
was owned by Colonel A.H. Brown of the 96th
Ohio. Other various sundry pets included one
or more squirrels, badgers, racoons, pigs, and
cats. Cats were more often kept on ships
where they were useful in catching rats and
mice.
4 LINCOLN WOULDN’T HAVE
BEEN ASSASINATED
AND
GRANT WOULD NOT
HAVE BECOME
THE 18TH PRESIDENT
John Wilkes Booth didn’t like how the war
ended, and he took it out on the man he
considered to be responsible: Abraham
Lincoln. If the South had won the war, there
wouldn’t have been any reason for him to
assassinate President Lincoln. Additionally,
Lincoln would never have been reelected for
a second term in office. Think about it; what’s
he campaigning on if he lost the war and half
of the United States’ states? His political
career would have been over, and new blood
would have risen to take his spot.
Another ‘victim’ of the war’s loss would have
been Union General Ulysses S. Grant. After
the loss of the war, he would never have risen
to prominence following Gettysburg, and also
wouldn’t have had a leg to stand in politics
and a campaign to become the 18th
President of the United States. Because of
these changes, the political makeup of the
USA could have gone in any direction. The
Republican Party might have been seen as a
failed political ideology, and it could have
dissolved, or it could have rebranded and
returned strong. There’s really no way to
know how the parties would have changed,
but two things are certain: no reelection for
Lincoln and no election for Grant.
3 INTERNATIONAL TRADE
WOULD EXPLODE
FOR
THE CSA
One of the biggest hindrances to the CSA had
to contend with during the war was a federal
naval blockade to the countries of Europe
THE CIVIL WAR’S LITTLE KNOWN
THE NATIONAL INTEREST
BY RAY MORRIS JR
No one expected this—not the fiercest “fire-
eater” in South Carolina or the flintiest of
abolitionist in New England. But by the time
the guns fell silent at Shiloh on the night of
April 7, 1862, soldiers hailing from both sides
of the battlefield had realized that they had
endured something never before seen in
American history. Nearly 24,000 men had
fallen dead or wounded among the peach
orchards and tangled woods in southwestern
Tennessee, more than the total loss from all
three of America’s previous wars combined.
Small wonder that the New Orleans writer
George Washington Cable, himself a former
Confederate, would later write: “The South
never smiled again at Shiloh.”.
Neither, for that matter, did the North—at
least not for another three long years.
Shiloh was the first truly disorienting battle in
the national experience, a battle in which the
large numbers of poorly led troops stumbled
into one another, blazed away, fell back,
came together again, and stopped butchering
each other only after darkness, rain, and total
exhaustion put an end to the day’s fighting.
There would be other battles like Shiloh in
1862, many of them commemorated in a very
special issue of the Civil War Quarterly.
WHERE AMERICA’S CHILDHOOD
ENDED
But there would never be another Shiloh,
for that was where America’s childhood
ended. After Shiloh, all cocky talk of any
bloodless victories and cowardly foes gave
way to the sickening realization that a war
started almost cavalierly one year earlier
would not be ending easily—or any time
soon. It was no coincidence that the two
generals destined to lead the main armies
of the opposing regions rose to prominence
in 1862. For the North, it was the quite
unprepossessing, rumpled officer from the
Midwest, Ulysses S. Grant, a man who had
failed at almost everything that he touched
So-called “house slaves” would still be around
for a long time, and unless there was significant
international pressure for the CSA to abandon
those practices, they would remain. Poorer
farms and plantations that couldn’t afford modern
equipment would try to keep pace with slave
labor, but eventually, those would also die out in
favor of automation and skilled labor. By the
21st-century, slavery would be limited to rich
households and small enclaves of the CSA, with
many segregated into small communities where
they would be relied upon for small levels of
production.
_____________________________________
MARCH PRESENTATION
REVIEW BY JIM STANIS AND CHARLIE BANKS
JAN RASMUSSEN
PRESENTS
OLD ABE AND FRIENDS
CIVIL WAR MASCOTS
Many Civil War units had/kept animal mascots,
often for morale, inspiration and enthusiasm
purposes, and often to remind soldiers of their
pets at home. Also, the keeping of animal as
mascots helped to relieve the boredom of camp
life. Most of the mascots were dogs, but other
animals included cats, birds (such as owls,
chickens, and pelicans), and even a bear.
Mascots were often used to raise money at
Sanitary Commission fairs and other events.
One mascot well-known to western Union armies
was Old Abe, an eagle, who was a pet of the
McCann family at their dairy farm in northern
Wisconsin. The bird had been traded to the
McCann family as a young eaglet by a group of
Chippewa Indians in exchange for some corn.
In September of 1861 the family had donated the
eagle, which was originally named “Chief Big
Sky”, to C Company of the 8th Wisconsin
Infantry Regiment. The regiment then changed
its nickname from the “Eau Clair Badgers” to
the “Eagles”, and the 8th’s brigade became
known as the “Eagle Brigade”. (The Eagle
Brigade also included the 47th Illinois Infantry
Regiment)! In October of 1861 the unit left for St.
Louis and the eagle was then renamed “Old
Abe” named after Abraham Lincoln. The unit
would see their first combat and engaged in the
action of battle at Farmington, Mississippi where
Old Abe’s keeper, Captain Perkins, was killed.
At the battle of Corinth bullets severed Old Abe’s
tether, and, later, the bird would fly over the
battlefield and screech at the enemy. This often
would create quite the demoralizing effect on the
Confederate soldiers, especially so during the
bombardment and Siege of Vicksburg.
te T
that prohibited trade to and from the CSA.
Once that blockade was lifted following a
cessation of hostilities, continued trade with
the victorious Confederacy would explode.
Not only would the USA need to establish
trade with its southern neighbor, but the
CSA would also begin trading with Europe
en masse. Cotton and tobacco were huge
exports from the South in the 19th-century,
and with trade opening up, the economy of
the South would grow exponentially.
There would then be a rise in American
competition across the borders with nations
across both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans
as each country vied for more trade partners
overseas. The North would continue to
expand its manufacturing and industrial
sectors, while the South’s agriculture would
propel it into a viable and sustainable
economy well into the 20th-century.
Resulting that neither nation would become
as large a trade partner as the USA is today,
but their combined economies would still
render both nations very prosperous.
2 THE GEOPOLITICAL WORLD
WOULD LOOK
VERY DIFFERENT TODAY
The 20th-century was shaped in many ways
by the United States of America. Once the
USA jumped into Europe in WWI, and then
again in WWII with expansions into Asia, the
US became a driving force in the growth of
world economies, which continue well into
the 21st-century. A world without the
combined USA is a world that would look
vastly different from today. If the October
Revolution still happened, the Soviet Union
would rise to become a dominating force on
the world stage, and it would likely take the
place the USA holds today.
This may have resulted in an eastern
expansion into Europe, and the second
World War could have been fought between
the Soviet Union and everybody else. If they
would have won, Communism would then
be the dominant political ideology across the
planet today. The CSA and the USA as
separate nations, would then be not much of
a match for the ever expanding Soviet
Union, and then, the two nations might
finally have to find a way to come back
together as one nation should their mutual
defense require it.
There was a famous painting of Old Abe entitled
“The Eagle of the Eighth”.
In June of 1864, Old Abe went on furlough and
then was to be considered a war relic. When he
later returned to the unit his feathers had turned
white. In September of 1864 Old Abe was donated
by the Eagle Brigade to the State of Wisconsin.
In 1866 Old Abe appeared on tour at fundraisers,
which raised more than $16,000. P.T. Barnum of
the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey
Circus fame once had offered to purchase Old Abe
for $20,000, but was turned down.
Old Abe made appearances at a veteran’s
gathering in Peoria, Illinois in 1877 and in 1880 at
the General Encampment and reunion of the GAR.
Old Abe’s last public appearance was in 1880 and
the bird died in March of 1881 from the effects of a
fire where it was being kept. The bird was then
stuffed and placed on display in the Wisconsin
State Capital, but the mounted bird was later
destroyed in a fire. A replica now stands on
display in the state capital as a memorial to the
brave eagle.
An image of Old Abe became the shoulder patch
of the 101st Army Airborne Division, known as the
“Screaming Eagles”. Many Civil War units had
adopted dogs as mascots, which were to be
honored and regarded for their uncommon valor
and bravery. The mascot dogs generally stayed in
camp during the battles, but were sometimes
known to join the battle. Rufus Dawes of the 6th
Wisconsin kept a Newfoundland retriever, which
stayed with its master at the battle of Antietam.
One of the most famous dog mascots was Sallie,
the mascot of the 11th Pennsylvania, which the
unit acquired in May of 1861 as a puppy. Sallie
would serve with the unit at Cedar Mountain and
continued through other major battles, including
Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and
Gettysburg. She earned a salute from President
Lincoln. She was wounded at Spotsylvania but
managed to serve at the 1865 battle of Hatcher’s
Run where she was shot in the head. She was
then buried on the field of battle and was later to
be memorialized at the 11th Pennsylvania’s
monument at the Gettysburg battlefield.
Another well-known mascot dog was Harvey,
which was adopted in late 1862 by the 10th Ohio,
which then became known as ‘the Barking Dog
Regiment”. The unit had thee dog mascots.
Harvey was wounded and captured at Kennesaw
Mountain, but Harvey escaped and was later
wounded at the battle of Franklin. Harvey survived
the war but was later lost.
Well-known Union officers also kept dogs as pets.
Colonel Custer, General Rufus Ingalls, and
General Alexander Asboth kept one (or more)
dogs as pets. General Asboth’s dog, named York,
often accompanied the General in battle.
since graduating from the United States
Military Academy at West Point two decades
earlier. Grant began his improbable march to
high command with his stunning victory at
Fort Donelson in February 1862 and his
hairbreadth survival at Shiloh six weeks later
For the South, the rising star was Robert E.
Lee, also a graduate of West Point, but a
man from a very different background than
Grant. The patrician son of old-line Virginia
royalty, Lee would lead the Army of Northern
Virginia through some of its bitterest battles in
1862: Second Manassas, the Battle of
Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Two of those
which would be overwhelming Confederate
victories, but the third—Antietam—would be a
crushing defeat (and the bloodiest single day
in American history).
A WATERSHED YEAR
FOR BOTH SIDES
In the meantime, there were other battles to
be fought in 1862, including the significant
Union victory in the western theater of the
war at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in March.
Sandwiched between them were other Union
victories, these on the water, when Admiral
David Farragut successfully seized the
South’s largest city, New Orleans, and a
Federal ironclad, Monitor, fought off the
Confederate behemoth Virginia at Hampton
Roads, Virginia, ushering in a new era in
naval warfare. For both sides, 1862 would be
a watershed year, a time in which both of the
two amateur armies raised so hastily the
previous spring would learn how to fight, and
kill, each other with increasing efficiency.
From the men in the ranks to the officers on
horseback, the war would progress with a
grim inevitability. The only certainty was that
there would be even worse days to come.
Shiloh had seen to that.
JUNE 10, 1997