you
we were young country 30 years of
uninterrupted debate over slavery no
range for compromise
unleashed was a civil war of increasing
savagery and enormous destruction
the future was invisible because the
past had been a failure so many low but
captivating facts remain in darkness
just waiting to be discovered
thank you thank you very much now
throughout the 1850s the nation’s
leaders stretched democratic perimeters
to the breaking point this needs to be
pointed out in this day in time everyone
then was confident that the American
system could endure and absorb any blows
and then repair itself reasonable people
went to unreasonable limits they talked
they argued they shouted they threatened
slowly but steadily the elements of
compromise the only thing that holds
democracy together began to fall upon
they have operated the great undertaking
of American nationhood
bloated with tamal by 1861 broke free
from intolerance the future was
invisible because the past had been a
failure and civil war came now 30 years
of uninterrupted debate over the issue
of slavery came to a ball in a December
1860 when South Carolina left the Union
James Pettigrew was a federal judge in
Charleston and at this discussion of his
native state
the venerable Julius güell he won’t
work South Carolina is too small to be a
nation and too large to be an insane
asylum
yet ten other states join South Carolina
and a freedom movement that they call
the Confederate States of America and so
two nations within a nation faced each
other one president had pledged to
preserve the Union at all costs the
other chief executive was leading a
pilgrimage to take a third of the states
out of the Union between them was no
space no room for adjustment no range
for compromise and even if there had
been immense emotions were swirling
about the country two things to keep in
mind as you study Civil War history we
were a young country seventy years old
when civil war broke out equally as
important of the 27 and a half million
white Americans living in 1860 over half
one under the age of 21 we were young
naive and innocent and so the emotion
swirling around the country could not be
controlled they were without formality
of his swing and once the guns at Fort
Sumter began firing what they unleashed
was a civil war of increasing savagery
and enormous destruction you know no
matter how long we study Civil War
history what we do not know about the
war seems to be more than what we do
know so many little but captivating
facts remain in darkness just waiting to
be discovered the personal element in
war is what I stress it’s too often
totally overlooked look at a bottle
Mountain and you will see inanimate
veered and blue lines and those red and
blue lines on this leading they are in
fact thousands of young men summoned to
do a dreadful job they as well as
families and friends left behind often
experience things that deserve our
attention and our remembrance the untold
Civil War is the first major attempt to
accomplish that task of looking at the
little hidden but quite human events of
the war there’s a story of two brothers
who fought on opposite sides yet held
hands as they died on the same
battlefield when Lincoln grew a beard
the great locomotive chase personal side
lights on Fort Sumter and Gettysburg and
Cold Harbor a mass execution of 22
deserters and the occasion when the
sternly pious Stonewall Jackson became
hopelessly intoxicated or highlights
that’s a highlight in it in and of
itself being somebody quite familiar
with the jungle one cannot look at human
behavior in that war without
encountering the human of Abraham
Lincoln it was always there it was his
necessary crutch to keep on going as he
once said I have to laugh otherwise I
won’t cry that’s all that’s all and this
humour was of a pleasant late in 1863
and with using a man who wanted a pass
to Richmond Lincoln stated I would
gladly give you the pass if it would do
any good but in the last two years I
have given passes to two hundred
thousand soldiers and not one of them
has managed to get that yet no story of
army life however in the 1860s would be
complete without mentioning pets many of
Ejim ins on both sides had mascots they
ran the gauntlet of the animal kingdom
dogs cats vac Coons possums chickens pig
to bales and a camel that we can tag
elate yet the most famous of all the
civil was mascots
was a male bald eagle the 8th Wisconsin
infantry regiment left for war with an
eaglet donated by Chippewa Indians
soldiers named the bird old Abe and in
some ways the eagle was a pitiful sight
a strong coid ban him to approach a top
of wooden pole his wings were
continually clipped to keep him from
flying away
nevertheless the Eagles fame spread
throughout the Union armies in the
Western theater he was not only a
curiosity he became an inspiration and a
motivation the 8th Wisconsin became
known as the Eagle regiment and old a
was in at least three dozen engagements
he always found battle stimulating and
he would react by flapping his wings and
screeching loudly the bird never
received the battle wound an amazing
thing because he was a prime target for
Confederate sharpshooters two monuments
enduring monuments exist to the eagle
one is the Wisconsin State
monument on the Vicksburg battlefield
but the other memorial originated in
World War two and it is still in use it
is one of the most revered shoulder
patches in existence yes you I it
belongs to the hundred and first
Airborne Division which calls itself the
Screaming Eagles old they would like
that now every Civil War historian has
to confront folklore and it’s especially
heavy in the field of the Civil War and
it just becomes particularly so when you
talk about espionage in the war
espionage was in its infancy it was not
the sophisticated science it has become
the point to make here is that in the
Civil War for every James Bond you will
encounter there will be at least two
maximal smarts in the neighborhood now
among the best of these successful spies
as both Lincoln and Grant acknowledged
was a lady Elizabeth van Lew the
daughter of a prosperous Richmond
merchant Lizzie van Lew was well
educated and highly intelligent she
inherited the mercantile business at her
father’s death by the time of the Civil
War Lizzie was in her mid forties a
small dowdy spinster with dotting blue
eyes in seemingly nervous disposition
she was a staunch unionist who refused
to cooperate in any way with the
Southern Confederacy or southern minded
people in Richmond in public she adopted
a dress and a manner to give every
impression that she was totally insane
and she succeeded completely Richmond
citizens learned to keep that distance
from crazy Betsy as she was widely
called sympathetic local officials gave
her permission to visit captured Union
soldiers in Libby Prison just down the
hill from the van Lew mansion and there
she went almost daily taking in food but
bringing out military information that
prisoners had overheard and relaying it
through the lines to Union command post
escaping federal soldiers
from Libya would use her home as a first
step refuge in the flight northward to
freedom when Union soldiers occupied
Richmond in April 1865 General u.s.
grant publicly commend advant for
sending what he called the most valuable
information received from Richmond
during the war in 1869 President Grant
had it insult to injury by appointing
van Lew postmaster of Richmond she held
the position throughout the eight-year
grant administration she then moved to
Washington why upon Richmond officials
confiscated her home and turned it into
an insane asylum
the exiled friendless van Lew eventually
returned to Richmond and she spent the
remainder of her life with a niece and
40 cats a few people attended her
funeral in 1900 and elaborate
gravestones soon the dough and the
burial site the gravestone was a gift
from appreciative families of
Massachusetts soldiers now Arlington
National Cemetery is the nation’s
largest shrine to fallen heroes its
breathtaking Beauty overshadows its
disreputable beginnings George
Washington Custis the stepson and
namesake of our first president
inherited the poverty in 1802 Custer set
out to build a combination mansion
enshrined to the Father that he adored
he called the place Arlington after the
Custis family’s first home on Virginia’s
Eastern Shore Custis and his wife had
one child a daughter Marie in 1831 she
married a young officer robert e lee in
arlington became the only real home that
army officer lee would have for 30 years
it was at Arlington in April 1861 that
Lee made the decision to offer his sword
to his native Virginia by claiming he
could not lift his sword against his
birth weight and his country in 1861
when Civil War began the Lee family had
been
joonyoung’s for 225 years Virginia was
Lee’s home well when Lee would south to
take to cast his lot with the
Confederacy federal officials
immediately seized the arlington estate
the quartermaster of the Union armies
was an individual named Montgomery Meigs
he was a brilliant engineer but
uncontrollably vindictive he considered
all Confederates including his own
brother to be nothing less than traitors
to punish his longtime friend Lee for
siding with Virginia Meg’s determined to
turn Alling ttan into a vast cemetery
unauthorized burials began there in May
1864 when the Secretary of War endorsed
the idea Meg’s began burying her V Union
body he could obtain and he had them
placed as close to the mansion as
possible to ensure that the Lee cost his
home was forever be uninhabitable
at first it was no honor to be buried at
Arlington only those who could not be
identified are those whose families
could not afford the cost of a private
general were put that with time a
positive transformation began it ended
in 1955 when the Arlington mansion was
dedicated as a memorial to General Lee
today more than 230,000 dead lie in the
600 acre tract an average of 18 she also
held their daily two events round out
the story in 1882 Montgomery Meigs died
by his order he was buried a stone’s
throw from the front steps to the
mansion later that same year the US
Supreme Court found the federal
government guilty of illegal seizure of
the arlington estate the High Court
awarded the Lee family both the property
and 150 thousand dollars in damages the
leaves took the money it was too late to
do anything else with the property and
so the cemetery remains a monument to
bitter feelings engendered by a civil
war as well as a reminder of the ongoing
cost of American freedom the American
conflict of the 1860s is often called
the war first and as a chapter on that
because this war produced so many
innovations that it dominates American
life you would not believe how much of
your life goes back to the Civil War
let’s begin with a startling and
somewhat embarrassing example the
North’s first ironclad ship was
christened USS Monitor it had no deck
crew members were therefore unable to
practice a naval tradition that when
they had to and then I’m using a civil
war phrase answer the imperative call of
nature they would come on that what a
thing good to see which way the wind was
blowing and then squat on the railing to
believe themselves but in this ironclad
vessel such was not possible and naval
officers when it wants to see the
inventor John Ericsson they explained
the problem and the Ericsson responded
by designing one of the closest friends
each of us has he called it a water
chest you know it butter has a commode a
party a privy a phone thus whenever you
have to go to the bathroom you are
engaging in a bit of Civil War history
at least I hope you are among other
civil war first when you join the army
in 1860 you were given the uniform
whether you were five feet two was six
feet four whether you weighed 100 or 300
pound you were given the uniform and
Montgomery Meigs our quartermaster
friend looked out at the first recruits
first wave of recruits coming into
Washington and he thought them to
resemble an international convention of
clowns and so out for Meg’s office when
a directive to every uniformed
manufacturer in the North henceforth
they would not make one uniform they
would make four and they would call them
small medium
large and extra-large precise clothing
which every one of us uses originated in
the Civil War so it can goods
so did paper money so did home delivery
of mail so that standard time piles of
shoes prosthetic limbs Veterans
Hospitals welfare agencies and the first
major steps by American women to become
the social equal of men ladies in 1860
you could not vote in most states you
were forbidden to own property but the
flood of men into the armies left of
last vacuum behind the lines and his
women who stepped forward in three areas
to fill the gaps the first area was in
machinery machine shops and they came in
to operate the machines producing the
military goods for the armies firstly
wore their hoop skirts which brought
about some disasters when all that
material would occasionally get caught
into the machines to obliterate this
eliminated whether the women began the
bomber the trousers of their husbands
sons of others and they came forward
with slacks which I would suspect 90% of
you ladies are wearing tonight that
originated in the Civil War when the
schoolmasters went off to war education
came to a standstill
until women stepped forward volunteering
as teachers they added and you were to
our vocabulary school missus and it was
in the field of Nursing finally that
they stepped forward gritted that teeth
and looked at the holler and smell the
stench and viewed all situations of men
being killed and wounded in battle and
from that war as well came America’s
happiest day of the year that day of
course is Christmas and our Christmas
would be nothing without the impact of
the Civil War the Yuletide we all love
began with Thomas Nast son of German
immigrants a gifted artist Nast was only
22 when he joined the staff of the
country’s most popular magazine Harper’s
Weekly
near the start of the 1862 Christmas
period Nass created the first Santa
Claus
his initial Santa Claus war Stars and
Stripes uniform the sheer genius of his
first drawing is of it in here because
when you look at it you don’t
necessarily see Santa Claus first what
you see is the joy and happiness on the
faces of Union soldiers which is exactly
why he had created the figure in the
first place remember the name Santa
Claus originated with Nast and not some
earlier port or later and nasty imagined
Santa Claus to be what he has become
lamb belly white bearded fur-clad a
jolly bright-eyed with a sprig of Holly
in his cow quite in contrast with Saint
Nicholas in Kris Kringle and other
European depictions of the Christmas
spirit Santa Claus was the embodiment of
good shear a patron saint who one day
each year that’s every one of us become
a child again it is from the hand and
talent of Thomas Nast they got a number
of symbols in American editorial page
cartoons in journals it was nice for
example who created the Democratic
donkey the Republican elephant the
figure of Uncle Sam John Bull the
personification of England all of these
came from Nast and yet in spite of all
these contributions this adopted
American is still most remembered as the
man who made summer Claus look at Civil
War photographs and paintings most of
you will miss something in the majority
of our machines it was perhaps the most
forgotten element in the Civil War for
2,000 years man’s basic transportation
and his major co-worker was the horse
centuries ago of the loss of observe
that the horse was the noblest conquest
man is over made horses were an
indispensable part of life especially
with the coming of war in 1861 and this
brings us to a misconception that
Hollywood has perpetuated for decades
movie movies always show mounted
warriors staging an attack the defenders
opened fire the latus toppled to the
ground and the horses gallop away
unharmed
in reality the opposite was the case
horses were the first target in a battle
kill the animals the Ladas become
dismounted and the fighting can continue
with both sides on the same level in
similar fashion shoot or bayonet the
artillery horses and the other side’s
cannon become immobilized army horses in
the 1860s never had an easy time half of
them went into battle and were killed
however women used and abused horses
with an indifference borne of the
passion to survive artillery horses had
to drag heavy cannon through all the
elements and once they got to the
frontlines
the life expectancy under fire was
measured in a matter of minutes for
every horse killed in battle three
others died from exhaustion starvation
exposure mistreatment and such
widespread diseases as Glenda’s and sore
tongue the worst Civil War photograph I
know is this one was taken on the
Antietam battlefield it was the mount of
a Confederate officer who was killed his
body was dragged off the equipment was
taken away from the horse the horse is
dying and he’s lying though looking at
the camera reading his laughs they were
faithful servants to the end they gave
no interviews they left no men was they
filed for no pensions they simply obeyed
all the way to death some one and a half
million horses died in the Civil War not
one of them was ever given a decent
burial now the civil war did not end
with the ceasefire at Appomattox over
700,000 vacant shafts stood around
American dining rooms the first
assassination of a president dampened
victory spirits executing four of the
conspirators seemed to be empty
retribution the hanging four months
later of a Confederate prison commandant
was a little more than vengeance with
Lincoln’s hand no longer at the helm a
vindictive Congress moved to make the
South pay even more for its sins of
secession to make the nation one in
whole northern and southern soldiers
fault one of the most destructive wars
in history indeed if this war broke out
today in four years from now the losses
in the silver were in the same
proportion to population now as they
were then this nation would lose six
million men then we’ll begin to give you
an idea of the devastation in human form
the war took these men fought that war
with a fierce passion there were wounds
that would take a long time to heal and
that was cause no amount of time would
remove however as the post war years
passed a strange wonderful thing
happened union and confederate veterans
alike realized that not only had they
survived the most horrible war of the
19th century they came also to
understand and to appreciate what the
other side had endured Johnny Reb’s
never apologized for what they had done
and Billy Yanks never asked them to do
so and soon a Slains comradeship drew
them to Battlefield reunions and now
they came to stand and remember well
once they had stood and fought they came
together to be together and in 1913 on
the 50th anniversary of the Battle of
Gettysburg
some 50,000 Civil War veterans attended
a 10-day reunion and when it was time to
go the old soldiers shook hands and made
that way collectively toward the same
sunset the Civil War was many things
fundamentally was a very human extremely
emotional truly unforgettable chapter in
the evolution of an
Asian the war contains sadness humor
revulsion inspiration the many aspects
of the struggle of what I have sought
hard to convey in the human civil war on
total civil one and I genuinely hope
that you will like it thank you very
much
you
we were young country 30 years of
uninterrupted debate over slavery no
range for compromise
unleashed was a civil war of increasing
savagery and enormous destruction
the future was invisible because the
past had been a failure so many low but
captivating facts remain in darkness
just waiting to be discovered
thank you thank you very much now
throughout the 1850s the nation’s
leaders stretched democratic perimeters
to the breaking point this needs to be
pointed out in this day in time everyone
then was confident that the American
system could endure and absorb any blows
and then repair itself reasonable people
went to unreasonable limits they talked
they argued they shouted they threatened
slowly but steadily the elements of
compromise the only thing that holds
democracy together began to fall upon
they have operated the great undertaking
of American nationhood
bloated with tamal by 1861 broke free
from intolerance the future was
invisible because the past had been a
failure and civil war came now 30 years
of uninterrupted debate over the issue
of slavery came to a ball in a December
1860 when South Carolina left the Union
James Pettigrew was a federal judge in
Charleston and at this discussion of his
native state
the venerable Julius güell he won’t
work South Carolina is too small to be a
nation and too large to be an insane
asylum
yet ten other states join South Carolina
and a freedom movement that they call
the Confederate States of America and so
two nations within a nation faced each
other one president had pledged to
preserve the Union at all costs the
other chief executive was leading a
pilgrimage to take a third of the states
out of the Union between them was no
space no room for adjustment no range
for compromise and even if there had
been immense emotions were swirling
about the country two things to keep in
mind as you study Civil War history we
were a young country seventy years old
when civil war broke out equally as
important of the 27 and a half million
white Americans living in 1860 over half
one under the age of 21 we were young
naive and innocent and so the emotion
swirling around the country could not be
controlled they were without formality
of his swing and once the guns at Fort
Sumter began firing what they unleashed
was a civil war of increasing savagery
and enormous destruction you know no
matter how long we study Civil War
history what we do not know about the
war seems to be more than what we do
know so many little but captivating
facts remain in darkness just waiting to
be discovered the personal element in
war is what I stress it’s too often
totally overlooked look at a bottle
Mountain and you will see inanimate
veered and blue lines and those red and
blue lines on this leading they are in
fact thousands of young men summoned to
do a dreadful job they as well as
families and friends left behind often
experience things that deserve our
attention and our remembrance the untold
Civil War is the first major attempt to
accomplish that task of looking at the
little hidden but quite human events of
the war there’s a story of two brothers
who fought on opposite sides yet held
hands as they died on the same
battlefield when Lincoln grew a beard
the great locomotive chase personal side
lights on Fort Sumter and Gettysburg and
Cold Harbor a mass execution of 22
deserters and the occasion when the
sternly pious Stonewall Jackson became
hopelessly intoxicated or highlights
that’s a highlight in it in and of
itself being somebody quite familiar
with the jungle one cannot look at human
behavior in that war without
encountering the human of Abraham
Lincoln it was always there it was his
necessary crutch to keep on going as he
once said I have to laugh otherwise I
won’t cry that’s all that’s all and this
humour was of a pleasant late in 1863
and with using a man who wanted a pass
to Richmond Lincoln stated I would
gladly give you the pass if it would do
any good but in the last two years I
have given passes to two hundred
thousand soldiers and not one of them
has managed to get that yet no story of
army life however in the 1860s would be
complete without mentioning pets many of
Ejim ins on both sides had mascots they
ran the gauntlet of the animal kingdom
dogs cats vac Coons possums chickens pig
to bales and a camel that we can tag
elate yet the most famous of all the
civil was mascots
was a male bald eagle the 8th Wisconsin
infantry regiment left for war with an
eaglet donated by Chippewa Indians
soldiers named the bird old Abe and in
some ways the eagle was a pitiful sight
a strong coid ban him to approach a top
of wooden pole his wings were
continually clipped to keep him from
flying away
nevertheless the Eagles fame spread
throughout the Union armies in the
Western theater he was not only a
curiosity he became an inspiration and a
motivation the 8th Wisconsin became
known as the Eagle regiment and old a
was in at least three dozen engagements
he always found battle stimulating and
he would react by flapping his wings and
screeching loudly the bird never
received the battle wound an amazing
thing because he was a prime target for
Confederate sharpshooters two monuments
enduring monuments exist to the eagle
one is the Wisconsin State
monument on the Vicksburg battlefield
but the other memorial originated in
World War two and it is still in use it
is one of the most revered shoulder
patches in existence yes you I it
belongs to the hundred and first
Airborne Division which calls itself the
Screaming Eagles old they would like
that now every Civil War historian has
to confront folklore and it’s especially
heavy in the field of the Civil War and
it just becomes particularly so when you
talk about espionage in the war
espionage was in its infancy it was not
the sophisticated science it has become
the point to make here is that in the
Civil War for every James Bond you will
encounter there will be at least two
maximal smarts in the neighborhood now
among the best of these successful spies
as both Lincoln and Grant acknowledged
was a lady Elizabeth van Lew the
daughter of a prosperous Richmond
merchant Lizzie van Lew was well
educated and highly intelligent she
inherited the mercantile business at her
father’s death by the time of the Civil
War Lizzie was in her mid forties a
small dowdy spinster with dotting blue
eyes in seemingly nervous disposition
she was a staunch unionist who refused
to cooperate in any way with the
Southern Confederacy or southern minded
people in Richmond in public she adopted
a dress and a manner to give every
impression that she was totally insane
and she succeeded completely Richmond
citizens learned to keep that distance
from crazy Betsy as she was widely
called sympathetic local officials gave
her permission to visit captured Union
soldiers in Libby Prison just down the
hill from the van Lew mansion and there
she went almost daily taking in food but
bringing out military information that
prisoners had overheard and relaying it
through the lines to Union command post
escaping federal soldiers
from Libya would use her home as a first
step refuge in the flight northward to
freedom when Union soldiers occupied
Richmond in April 1865 General u.s.
grant publicly commend advant for
sending what he called the most valuable
information received from Richmond
during the war in 1869 President Grant
had it insult to injury by appointing
van Lew postmaster of Richmond she held
the position throughout the eight-year
grant administration she then moved to
Washington why upon Richmond officials
confiscated her home and turned it into
an insane asylum
the exiled friendless van Lew eventually
returned to Richmond and she spent the
remainder of her life with a niece and
40 cats a few people attended her
funeral in 1900 and elaborate
gravestones soon the dough and the
burial site the gravestone was a gift
from appreciative families of
Massachusetts soldiers now Arlington
National Cemetery is the nation’s
largest shrine to fallen heroes its
breathtaking Beauty overshadows its
disreputable beginnings George
Washington Custis the stepson and
namesake of our first president
inherited the poverty in 1802 Custer set
out to build a combination mansion
enshrined to the Father that he adored
he called the place Arlington after the
Custis family’s first home on Virginia’s
Eastern Shore Custis and his wife had
one child a daughter Marie in 1831 she
married a young officer robert e lee in
arlington became the only real home that
army officer lee would have for 30 years
it was at Arlington in April 1861 that
Lee made the decision to offer his sword
to his native Virginia by claiming he
could not lift his sword against his
birth weight and his country in 1861
when Civil War began the Lee family had
been
joonyoung’s for 225 years Virginia was
Lee’s home well when Lee would south to
take to cast his lot with the
Confederacy federal officials
immediately seized the arlington estate
the quartermaster of the Union armies
was an individual named Montgomery Meigs
he was a brilliant engineer but
uncontrollably vindictive he considered
all Confederates including his own
brother to be nothing less than traitors
to punish his longtime friend Lee for
siding with Virginia Meg’s determined to
turn Alling ttan into a vast cemetery
unauthorized burials began there in May
1864 when the Secretary of War endorsed
the idea Meg’s began burying her V Union
body he could obtain and he had them
placed as close to the mansion as
possible to ensure that the Lee cost his
home was forever be uninhabitable
at first it was no honor to be buried at
Arlington only those who could not be
identified are those whose families
could not afford the cost of a private
general were put that with time a
positive transformation began it ended
in 1955 when the Arlington mansion was
dedicated as a memorial to General Lee
today more than 230,000 dead lie in the
600 acre tract an average of 18 she also
held their daily two events round out
the story in 1882 Montgomery Meigs died
by his order he was buried a stone’s
throw from the front steps to the
mansion later that same year the US
Supreme Court found the federal
government guilty of illegal seizure of
the arlington estate the High Court
awarded the Lee family both the property
and 150 thousand dollars in damages the
leaves took the money it was too late to
do anything else with the property and
so the cemetery remains a monument to
bitter feelings engendered by a civil
war as well as a reminder of the ongoing
cost of American freedom the American
conflict of the 1860s is often called
the war first and as a chapter on that
because this war produced so many
innovations that it dominates American
life you would not believe how much of
your life goes back to the Civil War
let’s begin with a startling and
somewhat embarrassing example the
North’s first ironclad ship was
christened USS Monitor it had no deck
crew members were therefore unable to
practice a naval tradition that when
they had to and then I’m using a civil
war phrase answer the imperative call of
nature they would come on that what a
thing good to see which way the wind was
blowing and then squat on the railing to
believe themselves but in this ironclad
vessel such was not possible and naval
officers when it wants to see the
inventor John Ericsson they explained
the problem and the Ericsson responded
by designing one of the closest friends
each of us has he called it a water
chest you know it butter has a commode a
party a privy a phone thus whenever you
have to go to the bathroom you are
engaging in a bit of Civil War history
at least I hope you are among other
civil war first when you join the army
in 1860 you were given the uniform
whether you were five feet two was six
feet four whether you weighed 100 or 300
pound you were given the uniform and
Montgomery Meigs our quartermaster
friend looked out at the first recruits
first wave of recruits coming into
Washington and he thought them to
resemble an international convention of
clowns and so out for Meg’s office when
a directive to every uniformed
manufacturer in the North henceforth
they would not make one uniform they
would make four and they would call them
small medium
large and extra-large precise clothing
which every one of us uses originated in
the Civil War so it can goods
so did paper money so did home delivery
of mail so that standard time piles of
shoes prosthetic limbs Veterans
Hospitals welfare agencies and the first
major steps by American women to become
the social equal of men ladies in 1860
you could not vote in most states you
were forbidden to own property but the
flood of men into the armies left of
last vacuum behind the lines and his
women who stepped forward in three areas
to fill the gaps the first area was in
machinery machine shops and they came in
to operate the machines producing the
military goods for the armies firstly
wore their hoop skirts which brought
about some disasters when all that
material would occasionally get caught
into the machines to obliterate this
eliminated whether the women began the
bomber the trousers of their husbands
sons of others and they came forward
with slacks which I would suspect 90% of
you ladies are wearing tonight that
originated in the Civil War when the
schoolmasters went off to war education
came to a standstill
until women stepped forward volunteering
as teachers they added and you were to
our vocabulary school missus and it was
in the field of Nursing finally that
they stepped forward gritted that teeth
and looked at the holler and smell the
stench and viewed all situations of men
being killed and wounded in battle and
from that war as well came America’s
happiest day of the year that day of
course is Christmas and our Christmas
would be nothing without the impact of
the Civil War the Yuletide we all love
began with Thomas Nast son of German
immigrants a gifted artist Nast was only
22 when he joined the staff of the
country’s most popular magazine Harper’s
Weekly
near the start of the 1862 Christmas
period Nass created the first Santa
Claus
his initial Santa Claus war Stars and
Stripes uniform the sheer genius of his
first drawing is of it in here because
when you look at it you don’t
necessarily see Santa Claus first what
you see is the joy and happiness on the
faces of Union soldiers which is exactly
why he had created the figure in the
first place remember the name Santa
Claus originated with Nast and not some
earlier port or later and nasty imagined
Santa Claus to be what he has become
lamb belly white bearded fur-clad a
jolly bright-eyed with a sprig of Holly
in his cow quite in contrast with Saint
Nicholas in Kris Kringle and other
European depictions of the Christmas
spirit Santa Claus was the embodiment of
good shear a patron saint who one day
each year that’s every one of us become
a child again it is from the hand and
talent of Thomas Nast they got a number
of symbols in American editorial page
cartoons in journals it was nice for
example who created the Democratic
donkey the Republican elephant the
figure of Uncle Sam John Bull the
personification of England all of these
came from Nast and yet in spite of all
these contributions this adopted
American is still most remembered as the
man who made summer Claus look at Civil
War photographs and paintings most of
you will miss something in the majority
of our machines it was perhaps the most
forgotten element in the Civil War for
2,000 years man’s basic transportation
and his major co-worker was the horse
centuries ago of the loss of observe
that the horse was the noblest conquest
man is over made horses were an
indispensable part of life especially
with the coming of war in 1861 and this
brings us to a misconception that
Hollywood has perpetuated for decades
movie movies always show mounted
warriors staging an attack the defenders
opened fire the latus toppled to the
ground and the horses gallop away
unharmed
in reality the opposite was the case
horses were the first target in a battle
kill the animals the Ladas become
dismounted and the fighting can continue
with both sides on the same level in
similar fashion shoot or bayonet the
artillery horses and the other side’s
cannon become immobilized army horses in
the 1860s never had an easy time half of
them went into battle and were killed
however women used and abused horses
with an indifference borne of the
passion to survive artillery horses had
to drag heavy cannon through all the
elements and once they got to the
frontlines
the life expectancy under fire was
measured in a matter of minutes for
every horse killed in battle three
others died from exhaustion starvation
exposure mistreatment and such
widespread diseases as Glenda’s and sore
tongue the worst Civil War photograph I
know is this one was taken on the
Antietam battlefield it was the mount of
a Confederate officer who was killed his
body was dragged off the equipment was
taken away from the horse the horse is
dying and he’s lying though looking at
the camera reading his laughs they were
faithful servants to the end they gave
no interviews they left no men was they
filed for no pensions they simply obeyed
all the way to death some one and a half
million horses died in the Civil War not
one of them was ever given a decent
burial now the civil war did not end
with the ceasefire at Appomattox over
700,000 vacant shafts stood around
American dining rooms the first
assassination of a president dampened
victory spirits executing four of the
conspirators seemed to be empty
retribution the hanging four months
later of a Confederate prison commandant
was a little more than vengeance with
Lincoln’s hand no longer at the helm a
vindictive Congress moved to make the
South pay even more for its sins of
secession to make the nation one in
whole northern and southern soldiers
fault one of the most destructive wars
in history indeed if this war broke out
today in four years from now the losses
in the silver were in the same
proportion to population now as they
were then this nation would lose six
million men then we’ll begin to give you
an idea of the devastation in human form
the war took these men fought that war
with a fierce passion there were wounds
that would take a long time to heal and
that was cause no amount of time would
remove however as the post war years
passed a strange wonderful thing
happened union and confederate veterans
alike realized that not only had they
survived the most horrible war of the
19th century they came also to
understand and to appreciate what the
other side had endured Johnny Reb’s
never apologized for what they had done
and Billy Yanks never asked them to do
so and soon a Slains comradeship drew
them to Battlefield reunions and now
they came to stand and remember well
once they had stood and fought they came
together to be together and in 1913 on
the 50th anniversary of the Battle of
Gettysburg
some 50,000 Civil War veterans attended
a 10-day reunion and when it was time to
go the old soldiers shook hands and made
that way collectively toward the same
sunset the Civil War was many things
fundamentally was a very human extremely
emotional truly unforgettable chapter in
the evolution of an
Asian the war contains sadness humor
revulsion inspiration the many aspects
of the struggle of what I have sought
hard to convey in the human civil war on
total civil one and I genuinely hope
that you will like it thank you very
much
you
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