Jefferson's prediction of civil war
On 22 April 1820, Thomas Jefferson had written to John Holmes, predicting that the Missouri Appeasement would eventually lead to the destruction of the USA: …I considered it at once as the knell of the...
View ArticleCauses of secession: Louisiana
Louisiana didn’t publish a causes of secession document, but they did send a secession commissioner named George Williamson to Texas. Williamson explained: History affords no example of a people who...
View ArticleCauses of secession: Texas
From the Texas declaration of causes, right after the preamble: Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the Confederated States to promote her welfare, insure...
View ArticleCauses of secession: Arkansas
From the Arkansas causes of secession, the first two items: The people of the northern States have organized a political party, purely sectional in its character; the central and controlling idea of...
View ArticleJohnston's surrender
On 26 April 1865, the Confederate forces commanded by Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to General William T Sherman. It was the largest surrender of the war, totaling 89,270 troops, encompassing all of...
View ArticleNew Orleans surrenders
On 28 April 1862, New Orleans surrendered to US forces. The following day, Flag Officer David G Farragut and 250 marines from the USS Hartford removed the flag of Louisiana from the City Hall and...
View ArticleBirth of Ulysses S Grant
28 April marks the birth of Hiram Ulysses Grant, better known as Ulysses S Grant, Commanding General of US forces at the end of the Civil War. Following Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson became...
View ArticleMaryland doesn't join the Confederacy
On 29 April 1861, Maryland’s legislature voted 53-13 against convening a secessionist convention. However, they also voted not to reopen rail links with the north, and requested that Lincoln remove...
View ArticleThe end of Camp Sumter
With the Civil War ending, so ended the Confederate prison at Andersonville, known as Fort Sumter. Built in early 1864, by late February it was receiving 400 new prisoners a day. By June, 26,000 were...
View ArticleThis Is Actually Happening
I listen to a lot of podcasts. One I’ve just finished catching up on is “This Is Actually Happening”. It’s a little like Radio Diaries, or some episodes of This American Life, in that it’s basically...
View ArticleOverdrive
At the end of last month, Jeff Bezos gave an interview where he said: The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is...
View ArticleFacebook alternatives
A while back I posted about how online communication has changed, based on the experience of looking back at old e-mail and how we used to write. I proposed the idea of going back to mailing lists, as...
View ArticleVideo games: It's all about the story
I saw an article recently where someone wrote about the fact that he had realized he wasn’t going to finish any of the half dozen video games he had started playing – and that he was OK with that. This...
View ArticleSemi-carnally
I’m reading a collection of Harlan Ellison stories from the mid 1970s. In one of the introductions he compares his literary style unfavorably to Cyril Connolly. Who? In the mid 70s, Connolly was a...
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NECCO wafers
How to explain NECCO wafers to a European? Back in the 1800s, Union soldiers fighting in the Civil War used to carry “hub wafers”, a cheap and durable candy substitute manufactured in Boston, a city...
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