Tag Archives: Civil War

Civil War, Word and Phrases

Wednesday Words & Phrases: Copperhead

Image result for copperhead civil war
Cartoon about the Copperheads, published in Harper’s Weekly, February 1863. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-132749)

On Wednesdays we are going to branch out a bit from word origins and talk about some of the unique words that have entered our language. Still with a history and military bent mind you.

Copperhead (American Civil War)

Politics in America has always been divisive, it is the nature of our beast. Never though was it more divisive then leading up to the Civil War. in 1860 Abraham Lincoln won the presidency as a Republican. The Republican Party was fairly young at this point ans was made up of the remnants of several other parties that had come and gone. Free Soilers, Whigs, Know Nothings, etc. The Democratic Party was older and more established at the time of the Civil War, but it was going through some issues. Slavery being one of them.

Southern Democrats, of course believed that slavery was a right and it fought for it. Northern Democrats were a little shaky on the subject and in the lead up to the 1860 election a rift formed in the party. This lead to two conventions and two Democrat nominees for the presidency. (And then some.) The Democrats lost the election and had the party stayed together, that may not have happened.

As the Southern States seceded the great majority of the Democrat Party went with them, but not all of them. Many Northern Democrats supported the cause of the South and became very vocal against the war. These anti-war democrats became known as Copperheads which are known as sneaks and having the ability to strike without warning.

For most of the war they proved a thorn in the side of President Lincoln. One of the leaders of the movement Clement Vallandigham, a member of the House from Ohio, became so outspoken that Lincoln deported him to the Confederacy.

The Copperhead movement lost steam after the 1864 fall of Atlanta. This event pretty much signaled that the war was moving into its final stages.  Though their overall effectiveness was marginal. However they did take a stand against the regimes crack down on civil liberties.  Other than that their main focus was the same as all political parties, winning elections and beating their rivals.

Civil War, Movie Reviews

Movie Review: Free State of Jones

Free State of Jones [Blu-ray]

We live in a day and age when the causes of the Civil War are still being debated, where is can be said that Reconstruction never truly ended and anything that has to do with the Confederacy is being called out as a sin that should be wiped from the collective memory.

Along comes a movie like Free State of Jones that shows a man rebelling against the rebels, deserting from their army and rallying his relatives and neighbors to stop fighting the wars of the rich planters as he goes on to build a society around the idea that all men, regardless of color are the same. It’s a story that a cynical person could believe was custom-made to get people talking in light of where our society is.

The thing is, it is a true story. Newt Knight was a real person and Jones County Mississippi did indeed break away from the Confederate States of America and actively fought against the Confederate Army on behalf of the Union. Of course being a movie things are not 100% accurate, but the general gist is there.

Matthew McConaughey plays Newt Knight and he does it well.  McConaughey is one of those actors that to me, always feels like he is playing himself instead fo a character, but in this movie he takes on the roles and does a fine job with the material he is given. The rest of the cast is good, but no one really stands out. For the most part that is because the script is a little messy, and paper-thin in places. Which with an over two-hour run time means a lot of water being tread.

As a Civil War movie it is effective in invoking the conflict, while also showing an aspect of it that is no often dealt with. Not everyone who lived in the South and fought for the South did so to defend slavery. The vast majority of the Confederate soldiers were not slave owners and when push came to shove chose to defend their homes and family when the fighting started.

It’s a good movie and well worth seeing once.  As always you can click on the picture above to get the movie at Amazon. Unlike most times though I am also including a link below to the book. If the movie is interesting to you, pick up the book. or just get the book and then check out the movie.

 

Product Details

Civil War

Lincoln The General

President Abraham Lincoln had a daunting task in front of him in April 1861.  Several states had seceded from the Union and war seemed pretty much inevitable.  When the first shots came and the rest of the Southern states left the task seemed nearly impossible. Lincoln himself had a very limited experience with war and at the start he leaned heavily on those around him. As defeat after defeat piled up and the idea that the war would be short started to fade, Lincoln started to come into his own as Commander In Chief.

As a grand strategist Lincoln had several priorities that he set the army to. First was the protection of Washington DC. He knew that if for some reason the capital were to fall to the rebels the war would pretty much be over.  He also believed strongly in gaining control of strategic points on the map. Control of the Mississippi River was top of this list as well as the blockade of the coast. He was also a strong proponent of the idea that the Confederate Army should be the target of operations with the goal of destroying the Confederate ability to carry on the war.

In the end that would be the strategy that would win him the war, but getting it carried out became a herculean task that made the actual activity on the battlefield pale in comparison. Opposed to him were his generals that wanted to follow their own path. Opposed were politicians, in his party and in the other, that all looked to further their own needs.

The longer the war went on the more the army began to look like what Lincoln wanted. He would visit the War Department several times a day to read the telegraph dispatches that up dated him on the status of the army and current actions. When battles were engaged he would stay in the telegraph office and monitor events happening hundreds of miles away. Once he even intervened in a battle sending orders to the commanders based on what he was seeing develop.

It’s easy to remember Lincoln the politician, or even the emancipator, but it was his ability to become a warrior on the fly, and to be a leader that truly set him apart.

 

Movie Reviews

Movie Review: Lincoln

Lincoln (Blu-ray+DVD)

 

Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones and more make for high expectations from this movie. We have come to expect that Spielberg can tell a story that deals with a certain historical setting and bring the times and people to life. Lewis is known for not just his acting, but his becoming the person he is representing. Those two aspects mash together to make this movie very nearly acceptable.

Focusing not so much on the war that Lincoln was fighting against the southern United States, this movie deals with the struggles of getting the 13th amendment passed. For those who do not know this amendment finally outlawed slavery in the United States. So if you are tuning in here to see another war movie, or even to see Lincoln the Commander-In-Chief you are in the wrong place.

I went into the movie with an open mind, but that quickly closed by the time the credits rolled. In reading articles and even reviews about this movie one thing kept popping up. When asked if it is historical the main response was always, “Well, it is a historical DRAMA, not a documentary.” or some turn of that phrase.

One of the mist glaring inaccuracies, among many, was that during the final act of the film when congress was voting on the 13th amendment, the screen writer changed Connecticut’s vote placing two of the three members in a position of supporting slavery. This frankly was not the way the vote went down. When confronted the screenwriter basically said that more tension was needed in the scene so he took some liberties.

Yeah, OK.

As a drama it is a good movie, but it is not history. Watch with your eyes open and afterwards be ready to Google up a storm looking for the truth. Recommended? If you like the drama, sure. If you want the history, nope.

Here is a google search that will get you a list of everything wrong with the movie, Lincoln. List

 

Book Reviews, Civil War

Book Review: The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861

It would be easy to put this book in the same old prelude to Civil War books that have become a category all their own. It is however different. See most of these books treat the era between the end of the Mexican War and the start of the Civil War as a continuation of one or pregame for the other. This book however deals with the changes in the country and the growing sectionalism that would eventually split the country. In this book that time period has become almost its own epoch that is more than worthy of its own focus and study.

David Potter raises some interesting questions about the roots of sectionalism and how even if the question of slavery were not on the table a split may have become likely at some point. This flies in the face of much of the revisionist history that makes its way to history books. Using statistics and research Potter frankly turns the Antebellum South into a foreign country, that always questioned its place in the United States.

Personally one of the best things about this book is that it tears the cover off much of the wheeling and dealing that went in to presidential elections of the day and how the parties rose and fell and the sword of idealism. From Free Soilers, to Know Nothings, Democrats to newly minted Republicans, they all had a hand in creating the path that led to war.

This book is highly recommended and a great read. As always you can get your copy by clicking on the photo above.