Posted on 02/18/2014 3:58:30 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
The moonlit sea was unusually calm on the bitterly cold night of Feb. 17, 1864, when a watchman spotted a strange, partially submerged shape gliding steadily toward the side of the Union sloop-of-war Housatonic. The steam-powered warship was serving blockade duty outside Charleston Harbor, and was one of the Union’s biggest, best-armed vessels. Its men had heard reports of a new Confederate weapon, a “sub-torpedo”; still, it took a few minutes for the officer of the deck, John Crosby, to comprehend what he was seeing. By the time he did, it was too late.
The swiftly moving craft had passed under the Housatonic’s guns, and the small-arms fire now directed at it by the men on deck bounced harmlessly off its iron hull. The men onboard heard a muffled thud as the vessel planted an explosive charge in the Housatonic’s wooden side, below the waterline. Moments later, the charge detonated, lighting up the sky and sending the Yankee warship to the bottom, along with five of its sailors. The Housatonic had achieved the dubious distinction of becoming the first ship to be sunk by a submarine in combat – and the only vessel destined to be destroyed by the H.L. Hunley.
In the wake of the explosion, the Hunley’s commander signaled to the rebel lookouts on shore with a blue magnesium light, indicating that the mission had succeeded. The shore party obligingly built huge signal fires, to guide the Hunley home. But as the submarine’s crew back-powered furiously, something went terribly wrong. Perhaps the concussion from the blast compromised one or more of the seals that kept the ocean out. But shortly after the Housatonic went down, the Hunley and its eight-man crew joined her on the ocean floor. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com ...
centurion316: "I know that these people would not support your view.
They learned many bitter lessons and they worked to heal the nation, not divide it in the years following."
golux: "Finally to refer to Confederate sympathizers as ‘un-American’ marks you as, perhaps someone..."
In fact, golux, centurion316 did not use the term "un-American".
That is strictly a figment of your own fertile imagination.
golux: "I strongly suspect you misunderstand the reasons for secession and the secession itself, as well as the level of understanding men who might well be brighter than you had of their situation, of the state of the Union, and of their cause."
In fact, there was only one reason for secession: to protect the South's "peculiar institution" against the perceived threat from "Ape" Lincoln's "Black Republicans".
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out, but Lost Causers have long attempted to conceal the truth.
golux: "...the Constitution, State’s rights, powers of the Federal government, etc., all of which changed drastically and permanently after Appomatox."
No, only a "state's right" to unilaterally declare secession, then provoke, start and declare war on the United States, then send military forces into Union states -- those "states rights" were defeated, unconditionally.
Oh, and slavery was abolished.
Otherwise, the Union remained as it had been, for another 50 years, until the Progressivism of Southern Democrats like President Woodrow Wilson.
Yes. It is the accepted view, promulgated by your Federal government, that the War was all about slavery and racism. You are encouraged to believe it, and you believe it. You should especially thank Lincoln for freeing the slaves of the Northern states - the last, very reluctantly, in New Jersey. But really there is no use. Watch another Hollywood movie on the subject, perhaps with Oprah starring. It will bolster your views.
Sorry, but there are facts of history, and despite your intense desire to deny them, they remain facts.
Those facts include:
So Civil War came because the Confederacy started it.
In the beginning then, freeing slaves (aka "contraband") was just a military tactic to weaken secessionists' manpower.
Bottom lines:
Like them or not, those are facts.
U-505 was captured by an anti-submarine hunter/killer group led by USS Guadalcanal. She was captured in June of 1944. U-505 was the first enemy warship captured,on the high seas,by the U.S. Navy since the war of 1812.
Like Willy said to Joe, “that moving fox hole attracts the eye”
Amazing that a sub existed in 1865. I was even more amazed that the first trans-Atlantic cable was laid at about the same time.
The Democrat Slaver Party South of old is dead - long live the new Christian Conservative South of the free!
The Democrat Slaver Party of the 1800's has migrated North, South, East and West has had and still has this evil Slavery mentality in which it has not turned away from even before the Civil War. It has changed for the worse - it is worse now than before. We would do better to remind people of the Democrat Slaver Party’s history of not only Slavery, but of their racism, their KKK, their Progressivism to Socialism, their Communism, their hatred for god and Bible, their holocaust of babies, etc. They may now claim that they abhor the likes of the Slavery of old, but in reality they just use different methods for the same means; some more ruthless then that of the 1800’s. The Democrat Slaver Party as a whole is evil and indefensible, the whole being how they were and how they are (worse) today.
And before those of you who try to justify the slaver Democrats of the Confederacy by saying that the Republicans have also done evil, let me remind you that The Democrat Slaver Party has historically been the Party of Progressivism and the Republicans the Party of (in the modern US definition) Conservatism.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/06/The-Pro-Slavery-Roots-of-the-Modern-Left
Sure, the Republican Party has had its ebbs and flows; but has never held long a position that is so abominable that the Party should be abandoned. Plus, we have the Tea Party making progress within the Republican Party. On the other hand, the Democrat Party has had many, and held on to many, evil ideals as their foundation. Furthermore; having a right to do evil does not justify an evil – as the Democrat Slaver Party has and is still doing.
For these reasons; the Democrat Party should be abandoned and never be defend and/or justified – past or present. No one should want to defend the Democrat Slavers of then and now!
It was tried during the Revolutionary War as well! See The American Turtle.
How they kept getting a crew for the darned thing certainly surpasses my understanding. If I were a Confederate soldier and someone came up to me and said “We’ve got this new thing called a submarine that we need a crew for. It’s killed its last two crews but we think we may have worked the bugs out. The way it works is you go out and ram a ship with a bomb and then try to get away. Who’s in?” I think I would have said “No thanks. I think I’d rather find a hill to charge up somewhere.”
Not 'racism' but most defiantly it was all about slavery, or more specifically the expansion of slavery. That is not a history promulgated by the Federal government, but by the documented history of that era.
I visited the USS Constellation in Baltimore back in the early 60s, before the restoration had been started. Anyone taller than about 5'7" working on the gundeck would have hit their head repeatedly on the overhead beams.
Thanks for posting that.
It's a point our Lost Causer/Southern Democrat/Dixiecrat posters never quite "get".
Johnny Rebel: (chorus) He was the symbol of those before the gun, who died for what they thought was right in eighteen sixty one.
(Can't remember first line) He left his home in Caroline', his wife and children three, he left them all behind him to march with General Lee.
This is the chorus and some remembered parts from a song a folk duo in my area used to do back in the early 70s. I searched it under 1861, eighteen sixty one, and Johnny Rebel but could not find the lyrics, and memory don't work so good at my age, only bits and pieces come back! If anyone knows it or can find it, I'd like the link, please.
They buried Johnny's body 'neath the weepin' willow tree, but his story still lives on in the land of liberty, 'cause
He was the symbol of those before the gun, who died for what they thought was right in eighteen sixty one.
Ghostdance religion.
She was captured in June of 1944. U-505 was the first enemy warship captured, on the high seas, by the U.S. Navy since the war of 1812.
Thanks to both Freepers for the info. First it was my error in putting that the surrender was just after hostilities ceased. I note that the U-505 had 8 kills all in a short period during 1942. The first victim was British and so was the last one. (Well done U.S. Navy)
I am glad to see the two submarines still there for everyone inclined to go aboard. One can only wonder at the fortitude of the crew of the Hunley. Splendid work by those who dig into the past.
Add to that, anyone who votes Democrat.
The joke on Ivan’s draftee in-processing went like this:
Under 5’5” - you’re in tanks.
5’6” or over - you’re in the infantry.
Everyone in between - you’re a supply clerk / warehouse guy.
There is a great article about the history of undersea cables in an old Wired magazine titled “Mother Earth, Mother Board.” Long but worthwhile.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html
I am the son of a son of a son of a Confederate soldier.
Because of ‘reconstruction ‘ he left our homeplace forever .
I have not forgotten .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.