Free Republic

It's undeniable much was taken from enslaved black Americans, but forcing those uninvolved in slavery to pay reparations risks worsening racial tensions.After being first proposed more than 30 years ago by Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, the 116th Congress of the United States voted last week to advance H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-American Act. Aided by the Democratic Party’s control of the executive and legislative branches of government, the current sentiment in the country regarding racial justice and equity may provide the bill’s proponents the opening they seek. To start, it’s worth noting reparations...

Secret Message in Lincoln’s Pocketwatch, 1861 ‘In 2009 the Smithsonian found a “secret” message engraved in Abraham Lincoln’s watch by a watchmaker who was repairing it in 1861 when news of the attack on Fort Sumter reached Washington, D.C. ‘In an interview with The New York Times April 30, 1906, 84-year-old Jonathan Dillon recalled he was working for M.W. Galt and Co. on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, where he was repairing Lincoln’s watch. The owner of the shop announced that the first shot of the Civil War had been fired. Dillon reported that he unscrewed the dial of the watch,...

Incredible 3D Stereoscopic Civil War Photos Stereoscopic images basically involve taking 2 or more static images, from slightly different angles, to create a 3D effect that tricks the eye into noticing the depth of field, angles and perspective of the image. Thus, it’s possible to take a flat image and create 3D depth to it. When applied to older photographs, it’s an amazing technique, because it brings life to history. Take for example, these Civil War photographs that use a stereoscopic effect!

The Civil War -- already considered the deadliest conflict in American history -- in fact took a toll far more severe than previously estimated. That's what a new analysis of census data by Binghamton University historian J. David Hacker reveals. Hacker says the war's dead numbered about 750,000, an estimate that's 20 percent higher than the commonly cited figure of 620,000. His findings will be published in December in the journal Civil War History. "The traditional estimate has become iconic," Hacker says. "It's been quoted for the last hundred years or more. If you go with that total for a...

While Rebel and Union soldiers still fought it out with bayonets and cannons, a Confederate designer had the foresight to imagine flying machines attacking Northern armies. He couldn't implement his vision during the war, and the plans disappeared into history, until resurfacing at a rare book dealer's shop 150 years later. Now those rediscovered designs have found their way to the auction block, providing a glimpse at how Victorian-era technology could have beat the Wright Brothers to the punch. The papers of R. Finley Hunt, a dentist with a passion for flight, describe scenarios where flying machines bombed Federal troops...

A big anniversary is drawing extra tourists to the battlefields of Appomattox. One hundred and forty-five years ago Friday, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederacy at Appomattox, bringing the Civil War to an end. Crowds gathered to re-live the historic moment at the Appomattox National Historic Site. Actors are playing the part of townspeople to help visitors understand what the area was like in the 1860's. Friday's events have attracted visitors from across the U.S. Some drove from as far away as Oregon and California. "We had about 400 people out here on Thursday. It was nice. Don't know...

Did you know that Paul Revere, Betsy Ross, Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee were born during the month of January?

The United States flag, which Robert E. Lee had defended as a soldier, flew at half mast in Lexington, Virginia and throughout the USA.

Valdosta State professor pens ‘Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War’ Generations of students have been taught that the South lost the Civil War because of the North’s superior industry and population. A new book suggests another reason: Southerners were largely responsible for defeating the Confederacy. In “Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War” (New Press, $27.95), historian David Williams of Valdosta State University lays out some tradition-upsetting arguments that might make the granite brow of Jefferson Davis crack on Stone Mountain. “With this book,” wrote Publishers Weekly, “the history of the Civil War will never be the same again.”...

<p>Kokomo, February 27 - For the family who lives in a modest home in Kokomo the fatal Iraq attack came last week.</p> <p>Then the attack at home followed.</p> <p>Vandals defaced the home of Sgt. Rickey Jones' family. Eggs were thrown and flags were stolen. Sgt. Jones, a Kokomo High School graduate, was one four soldier's with the 101st killed west of Baghdad last week.</p>

Like every other business, the business of war has changed. Centuries ago, a war ended when one army defeated another on the battlefield. But in the modern world of total war , a war isn’t over when one army defeats the other. A war is over when the population of the country whose army has lost abandons all hope; when the people have been crushed so thoroughly – when the daily business of staying alive is so god-awful – that they wish only to clean up the mess and re-start their lives. This is why no Nazi official was able...

During the Battle of Fredricksburg, Robert E. Lee, surveying the battlefield covered with thousands of the dead and wounded, remarked to his staff that "It is a good thing war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it." William Tecumseh Sherman, having been criticized for the widespread destruction his army caused in the Shenandoah and Georgia, responded "War is hell." What if war were not hell, but conducted as a sterile, antiseptic, non-invasive procedure to eliminate the "bad guys" without causing harm to "innocent civilians" and property? The hazards of this type of warfare are manifold and introduce...