Posted on 05/23/2008 6:54:17 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
May 23rd
1861:
- Virginia voters approve secession by a vote of 97,750 to 32,134.
- Union Gen. Benjamin Butler declares three runaway slaves "contraband of war" establishing a precedent for slaves to escape behind Union lines.
- Confederate Gen. Benjamin Huger takes command at Norfolk, VA.
1862:
- Confederate forces under Gen. Thomas Jackson surprise and rout a Union outpost at Fort Royal, VA. The action threatens the rear of Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks army forcing him to race Jackson's army back towards Winchester.
1863:
- Confederate secretary of war John Seddon suggests to President Davis that an offensive against Helena, AK as a way to relieve pressure on Vicksburg since it partially serves Grant as a supply base.
- Confederate Gen. Richard Ewell is promoted to lieutenant general.
- Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks Army of the Gulf continues encricling Port Hudson, LA in preparation for an assault.
1864:
- The Army of the Potomac continues to move into position for a crossing of the North Anna River in Virginia.
- Union Gen. William T. Sherman's army advances towards Dallas, GA where he intends to cross the Etowah River.
1865:
- Unionist politicians from Virginia occupy the state capital at Richmond.
- In Washington there is a mass review of the Grand Armies of the Republic.
- The British blockade runner Sarah M. Newhall is captured off Savannah, GA by the USS Azalea.
No one ever questions the “Rightgeousness” of the Civil War. Was it right?
ping
Are you kidding?
Every Civil War thread ever posted on FR degenerates into a food fight about what was politically "right" or "wrong" about each side within the first 20 posts.
If there is ever a Civil War thread on FR that sticks only to the military history of the men who bravely fought on both sides, we will have pigs flying past our windows.
Have you thought of doing a daily PING list for this thread?
I think there’s be a significant amount of interest in such a PING list.
I’m only asking because my granddaughter will be learning “stuff” about it this year. I want to be truthful to her so guess I have to do some digging. I always tell her to go to old history books....before FDR at least.
While it was morally and constitutionally wrong for the insurrection to have occurred in the first place, its failure was a good thing and the efforts to put it down were righteous indeed.
Old history books about the Civil War are often full of historical inaccuracies and partisan misrepresentations as much as - if not more than - post-WWII accounts.
Shelby Foote's The Civil War and James McPherson's Battle Cry Of Freedom are two good post-WWII histories that get almost all the facts right and are very readable.
Foote's book is sympathetic to the Confederate viewpoint and McPherson's is sympathetic to the Union viewpoint.
Together they present a good layman's overview of the conflict, in my opinion.
Not Constitutionally wrong, the SCOTUS had ruled that the Sates had the right to voluntarily leave the Union. By the way, that ruling has never been legally overturned.
The Supreme Court never issued such a ruling.
What clause of the Constitution dictates the voluntary entry into the agreement as being a one way street?
Recall that though slavery was morally wrong, it was Constitutionally permitted.
You cannot argue the Constitution both ways.
Article VI paragraph 2 clearly states that the Constitution and federal laws are the supreme law of the land and that the federal judiciary has the right of review of all state laws and acts.
By ratifying the Constitution each state formally acknowledged this supremacy.
I'm not.
Slavery was legal. Insurrection was never legal.
The South's constitutional breach consisted of its insurrection.
One very minor nit to pick—it’s not “Fort Royal, Virginia,” it’s “Front Royal, Virginia.”
}:-)4
you bated that hook nicely...
Yesterday it was “Altoona, Georgia” instead of “Allatoona Pass, Georgia.”
“Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks Army of the Gulf continues encricling Port Hudson, LA in preparation for an assault.”
....in preparation for the looting, rape and burning of Louisiana....see:
“War Crimes against Southern Civilians” by Walter Brian Cisco
http://www.amazon.com/War-Crimes-Against-Southern-Civilians/dp/158980466X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211554209&sr=1-1
....if your local public library doesn’t have a copy they can get it thru inter-library loan for you.
There are some history purists who scoff at the Time-Life Series on the Civil War - but years ago, I read that series before I did any in-depth reading on the Civil War.
I found it to be very useful.
I might add, It is Helena Arkansas (AR), not Alaska (AK) hahaha.
The civil war always restarts here on FR.
I am a Southerner so all of you Yankees
can get stuffed :P
Pathetic neo-Klan propaganda written in the tones of postmodern "postcolonialist" drivel worthy of Edward Said and Noam Chomsky.
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