Posted on 06/05/2011 7:35:01 PM PDT by Arec Barrwin
Best part of that was the Geico commercial. lol
http://battleoffranklin.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/geico/
It appears you just did.
It appears you just did.
Germans are into Gospel music, too.
Huh.
Fancy meeting you here.
;]
We American’s have some historical periods and events that are iconic around the world. Our Cowboy lore is iconic for being unique in the world as Europe, and many nations in Asia and the Middle East were well built out and conquered time and again centuries before our Cowboy period. There is a reason for the passion with those Spaghetti Westerns.
I’ve always thought the the US Civil War was the iconic war following the Napoleonic Wars.
Napoleon engaged in total war and reshaped it irreversibly. Following that, warfare did not change appreciably until the US Civil War.
Imagine living in Europe and reading about the accuracy and range of our Parrot Rifles when the rest of the world was still using Napoleons for artillery cannons. Imagine reading about troops using the Henry repeating rifle that fired 14 rounds in succession. Imagine reading about the turreted battleship Monitor. Imagine reading about troops speeding around the USA on locomotive trains.
I have to believe that the world’s people were fascinated by the martial developments that occurred during the US Civil War, and followed it extensively. Let alone the historical implications of the fracturing of the world’s foremost Republic.
Europe was still mainly ruled by Monarchs in Europe and in Britain. Queen Victoria was the ruler of Britain, not a mere figurehead. Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew was Emperor of France. Isabella was Queen of Spain, Wilhelm was King of Prussia, and Alexander was Czar of Russia.
I think the world was very much spellbound by the civil war going on in the USA at the time. It revolutionized war, beginning with Napoleonic tactics and ending in trench warfare seen through WWI.
I’m not surprised that there are be US Civil War enthusiasts in any country, let alone Europe. The US civil war was very iconic of the 19th Century. The USA was ascendant and the world was just getting a glimpse of things to come.
“Crocs with socks?” & “Thank you very little”...LOL
It was pretty funny.
In my one trip to Germany, I saw a huge Confederate battle flag hoisted in the middle of a farm field while riding a train from Frankfurt to Bonn.
That’s what we were watching. lol
Not to nitpick but there was no Germany when the Civil War happened. There was Austria, Prussia, and a zillion other little Germanic states left over from the Holy Roman Empire. Most were in a loose onfederation with Prussia that wouldn’t become Germany for a few more years.
One of my great-great grandfathers was Prussian who served for the North.
Nobody there gnashed their teeth every time they mentioned a Confederate officer and practically screamed “SLAVE OWNER!!!!” right after it?
I think that show gave me a bleeding ulcer.
[except for the MD Union general who was also labeled “SLAVE OWNER!!!!”. That had to hurt ‘em to admit]
For “PRO-SLAVERY!!!” CSA General William Barksdale, they may as well have given him a pitchfork and devil horns.
To add more insult, they misquoted his dying message spoken to a soldier to be relayed to his wife and kids.
[and since when did CSA officers ride freakin’ Friesian horses?!?]
Gaaaah!
Most of those fought for the Union. In fact quite a number of Germans living in Texas supported the Union. Hardly any of the German immigrants to Texas became slave owners. At the beginning of the Civil War, there was a group of Germans in the town of Comfort (a German town about 100 miles northwest of San Antonio) who attempted to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico so they could then travel to the North and volunteer in the Union army. Confederates intercepted them on the west bank of the Nueces River where 61 were killed in the Battle of the Nueces, and the 9 wounded survivors were all executed later that day.
My great-great-great-great grandfather was of German ancestry and their families settled in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The Virginians fought for the South, and they fought against their brothers and cousins in the North.
True, but it surprises me that Germans would not use the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 for reenactments. Battles on the scale of Civil War ones, some bigger. Innovations such as the needle rifle and the chassepot changed warfare. The 1866 Battle of Sadowa saw the Prussian army with breech loaders against an Austrian one with muzzle loaders. All the major powers in Europe fought a major war within a ten year period of the Civil War. It surprises me that they look to our history when there is plenty to reenact in their own, without any political baggage.
Civil War re-enactments in Germany *ping*
Could it be because the Confederate generals were better tacticians?
Yankee to Confederate soldier: “Why are you fighting? You don’t own any slaves?”
Soldier: “I’m fightin’ because you’re down here.”
[Unrelated ps: Look up “Zapfenstreich” on YouTube]
The Germans should fight the French.
At the same time in the 19th century, with the interlocking families ruling Europe, Hegel’s Dialectic Materialism, as presented in Marx’s and Engel’s Communists Manifesto, began to gain support. In keeping with this article, it was also spawned at the University of Berlin. Has anyone ever made a connection between the appeal of Marxism and the fascination with America of that period?
Yeah, lol. ;<)
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