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2月22日 A new view on the American Civil WarA new view on the
American Civil War
It seems like the election of President Obama has brought a lot of attention back to Abraham Lincoln. Sometimes I find the comparisons a bit questionable. Lincoln was, without question, a great leader in how he guided the nation through the crisis of the American Civil War. President Obama has yet to prove he is capable of leading the United States out of the current crisis.
The last couple of weeks I have been reading a history book that shines a bright light on a obscure but vital event that took place during the Civil War:
Clad in Iron:
The American Civil War and the
Challenge of British Naval Power
Howard J. Fuller
Praeger Publishing, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-313-34590-6
Today we kind of take the British Empire, what is left of it, as one of our allies in the world. It wasn't always that way. Not all that long before the American Civil War we had fought the revolution to free ourselves from British rule. Then we fought the British Empire again in 1812; this war would actually see Royal troops burning down quite a bit of our capital in Washington. Our relations with England were not always so good.
During the American Civil War a state of 'cold war' existed between the United States and the British Empire. The position adopted by the Queen was not to allow England to become involved in the conflict of their former colonies. The reality was that this neutrality came very close to collapsing. In 1861 the 'Trent Affair' could have potentially resulted in war between what remained of the Union and the British Empire.
 On November 8th, 1861 the United States Navy ship USS San Jacinto boarded the British mail packet Trent in international waters. The purpose of the boarding was to remove two Confederate diplomats, James Murray Mason and John Slidell, and prevent them from reaching England to establish formal relations between the South and the British Empire. At this early stage in the Civil War the South was beginning to understand how urgently it would need foreign support in terms of military materials and finance. The British Empire was then the most powerful nation in the world and had no particular love of the United States; it must have seemed like the best possible nation for the Confederacy to reach out toward.
The actions of the United States Navy were widely supported within the Union once they became known. To the North it seemed like the correct thing to do in intercepting the rebels at sea. The Northern newspapers in 1861 painted the actions of the San Jacinto as the patriotic actions of the young republic. On the other hand the incident caused public outrage in England. The boarding of a neutral civilian vessel in international waters seemed like an act of war. The British Empire not only issued diplomatic protests over the 'Trent Affair' but they started sending troops to Canada, and building up their already powerful squadrons near American national waters. Some British politicians thought it would be enough to punish the United States if they simply used the Royal Navy to break the Union blockade of the South. In 1861 there seemed to be little in practical terms that the United States could have done to prevent the unquestionably powerful British fleets from doing this. The resulting flow of arms and materials to the Confederacy could have changed the course of the war.
Fuller's book 'Clad in Iron' tells of actions that were taken by Lincoln, the United States Navy and the Army to make the ideas of military intervention less plausible to the British. The Navy adopted an aggressive building program of ironclad warships that were not optimal for the naval war against the Confederacy but would have been capable of challenging the Royal Navy. The United States Navy also made it obvious that if a war resulted between the British Empire and the United States we would engage in a war of commerce destruction. This is to say we would have attacked the British merchant ships that were critical to supply of England. The United States might not have been able to defeat the British Empire but the United States Navy would make the war prohibitively expensive for the English.
This brings a new light to diplomatic efforts under President Lincoln that are not commonly thought about. As well as conducting the largest and bloodiest war the United States had engaged in up to that point in history Lincoln was engaged in a high risk game of brinksmanship with the British Empire. Most history books barely mention the international tensions that existed during the Civil War. Some documents related to these events are just coming to light today. It wasn't that some of this was a deep secret; it just wasn't given the attention it deserved. The fact of the matter is that if the Royal Navy had crushed the Union blockade and British munitions factories had started flooding arms to the South it would have been a critical chapter in our history. It is an additional credit to Abraham Lincoln that he avoided this.
The 'Trent Affair' is just one incident that makes me consider that the popular judgement of a president can be unfair. Sometimes we tear down a president without really knowing the facts behind their decisions. If Lincoln had followed the opinion of many Americans in 1861 it could have resulted in a war with England. The risk of such a war would have been the disintegration of the United States. Lincoln was able to walk the fine line of public opinion and prudent action. This is why I don't blindly accept the media's interpretation of events. When you see a news story on television or read it in a newspaper, the ones that haven't gone bankrupt, you might not have the full truth.
2月17日 Nazi Occult Connections hit the news again!Hitler and the secret Satanic cult at the heart of Nazi Germany
This is turning out to be a heck of a week! Now we have another new source bringing up the mythology of the 'Nazi Occult' connections. I want to put emphasis on the word mythology; the fact of the matter is most of what is alleged is difficult to substantiate. I've found a lot of books and magazine articles that spout out the same stories of secret rituals and satanic worship. What researchers have discovered is a lot less dramatic. This is not to say there isn't something to these stories. The SS, the black uniformed elite of the Nazi party, definitely had some spooky activities. Heinrich Himmler was big on his occult research. There are some interesting mysteries around Wewelsburg Castle. The castle is still around and a tourist attraction but the German government tends to play down the Nazi past.
Maybe someday I'll have to post some of what we really now about the Nazi Occult connections... 2月16日 Dresden 1945Dresden 1945
I saw this in the news yesterday. It isn't unusual to see people trying to make a political point around some historic tragedy. The bombing of Dresden is no exception. I really don't know if the Allies actually needed to bomb the city. My personal opinion is that the attack probably wasn't needed. The sad fact of the matter was that shortly before the RAF bombers ever took off there were officers in the Luftwaffe contemplating ways they could attack British and American cities. The problem for them was that they didn't have the aircraft to do such a mission. The Allies had whole fleets of bombers to do such a thing.
Some people consider this a war crime that went unpunished. Even Curtis LeMay, who carried out similar raids on Japanese cities, said that if the United States had lost the war he would probably have been tried as a war criminal. The cruel fact is that war is war; the technology changes, the harshness doesn't.
To me the problem comes when people choose to use the mistakes and horrors of the past to support questionable agendas. It looks like this might be happening today in Germany. I choose to remember the past with more reverence.
2月15日 History as a passion...History as a passion...
This week I am trying to take a break from politics. The fact of the matter is that I think our leaders are making some incredible mistakes. We are heading for a national disaster with the so-called 'Stimulus Bill'. Right now I don't want to dwell on this; there isn't much I can say that hasn't already been said by others.
Today I want to talk about history. For Laurie and me the study of history is a very real passion. We have a home filled with tens of thousands of books on history; we have read most of them and, hopefully, learned something from each book. We do have favorite eras and topics. The first date Laurie and I ever had was to talk about a Civil War cavalry sabre she won at an auction. Our honeymoon was spent attending a Little Bighorn Association conference and visiting the Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Seldom does a week pass that we are not reading some new book on old events.
We do a large amount of research on paranormal phenomena but generally only when it is associated with specific historical events, people or a location. It seems to us that historians often neglect these mysteries. I can understand why some of them worry that to acknowledge the paranormal might bring their professional credibility into question. Some of these events are still worthy of investigation. I've often found that some can be readily explained away. I've also found others that suggest even greater enigmas waiting in the shadows of history.
The odd thing is how often people doing paranormal research neglect the fundamental history around various mysterious events. I still remember a group that was doing some research on the alleged haunting of a bed and breakfast in Virginia. The B&B was originally a plantation house constructed well before the Civil War. It was also in close proximity to six Civil War battlefields. The investigators knew all sorts of things about EVP's and thermal imaging. They completely missed the signifigance of an odd indentation in the ground directly outside one of the windows of the home. I had to explain to them that the home was probably used as a field hospital during the war. The odd indentation was once a burial pit for the arms and legs amputated by military surgeons; the limbs would literally be tossed out the window as the doctors would rush through their grim work. This simple historical truth was easily verified and changed the nature of the paranormal investigation.
Someday I hope to write a book about some of these. I imagine that a lot of people dream of writing a book once they reach retirement. The idea of having the free time to do this with my wonderful wife has a definite magnetic attraction. At this point I have to satisfy these creative urges through various message boards and this blog. I am going to try to write more about this historical research here as I can. The problem lately has been that the political events unfolding in Washington have distracted me from this. I'm afraid we all might become part of some grim footnote in a future history book.
2月8日 History in the makingHistory in the making...
or have we gone insane.
All this last we I have been watching the progress of the 'economic stimulus bill'. Yesterday I was trying to do an update on this blog about the haunting of Fort Morgan. It was difficult to concentrate on the research around that while various political leaders were promising us all a financial apocalypse if the stimulus bill did not pass. I eventually shelved my work on the Fort Morgan update as I followed the political progress of this questionable bit of political folly.
I had to wonder if anybody really understands what President Obama is proposing to do with this bill? We have already thrown 750 billion dollars a rathole of bailing out the banking system. Now they want to toss another 800 billion into a very expensive gamble at preventing a recession from becoming a full blown depression. So far I really don't see how this is going to do anything that will last longer than a few months. It might not do anything at all. The fact that over 4 billion dollars of this money is going to ACORN does not reassure me either. I thought this new administration was supposed to be about "hope and change"? At this point it look s like the same old pork to me.
Here is the biggest potential problem I see with this whole thing; do you know where this money is actually coming from?
We are going to be putting the United States of America in debt largely to the People's Republic of China. This money is not coming from the United States. The fact is we are functionally broke. The Chinese are going to be buying up a lot of brand new Treasury Bonds. To me this is sort of like a guy desperate to pay his mortgage getting a loan from a particularly ruthless loan shark. I am not a fan of the People's Republic of China; we sort of gloss over their fifty year history of political and religious repression. I am also one of the people who questions the long term political stability of the PRC. They have their own financial and social demons to quell. So we are going to hand the proverbial lease on all our financial futures to them?
Have we gone insane...
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