Editor in Chief Bill | 06 Aug 2019 5:06 p.m. PST |
Admiral David Farragut's victory at the Battle of Mobile Bay occurred 155 years ago this week. This 1931 Proceedings article recounts the lesser-known history of the native Southerner's courageous decision to leave Virginia in 1861 and join the Union. link |
Shagnasty | 07 Aug 2019 6:55 a.m. PST |
He chose to be a traitor to his state rather than his country. |
StarCruiser | 07 Aug 2019 8:25 a.m. PST |
And that's one of those little details so many people don't understand about the US prior to the Civil War. Most people considered themselves "Virginians" or "New Yorkers" ect. before "Americans". They considered their home state to be their country and the United States to be more of an alliance of those countries. Now, it doesn't make any sense to us but, that's how so many people viewed it back then… |
Rev Zoom | 07 Aug 2019 9:05 a.m. PST |
"He chose to be a traitor to his state rather than his country." Not so – not by a long shot. No officer who went south had ever taken an oath to their state – they had taken one to their country. Those that chose to keep faith with that oath were true heroes – men like George Thomas and John Gibbon and David Farragut. Those who went south were the traitors. |
Ferozopore | 07 Aug 2019 7:00 p.m. PST |
Here's a question.The article states "And the French government had been about to recognize the Confederacy before Farragut took New Orleans." The various opinions that I've encountered state that the French would only support the Confederacy in concert with the British. Does the article suggest something different? Or is it merely wrong? |
138SquadronRAF | 09 Aug 2019 10:28 a.m. PST |
The various opinions that I've encountered state that the French would only support the Confederacy in concert with the British. Does the article suggest something different? Or is it merely wrong? British reactions to the civil war is complex. Yes, there was the idea of humbling Brother Jonathan. Not helped by Wilkes and "The Trend" affair. There was a great deal of dislike within the country of Peculiar Institution which meant that outright support the Confederacy would have been difficult to engineer. Support for the workers in the cotton mills remained in favour of the slaves, even as the economy suffered. Breaking the dominance of the American South ultimately helped Britain as the developed industries in India and the rest of the Empire. This programme from the BBC wireless may be of interest: link |
138SquadronRAF | 09 Aug 2019 11:47 a.m. PST |
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Pyrate Captain | 19 Aug 2019 1:09 p.m. PST |
To Rev Zoom, just thinking, the moment those that went south swore an oath to their new nation, suddenly became patriots with no allegiance to their former nation. |
EJNashIII | 12 Nov 2019 4:37 p.m. PST |
Farragut grew up in East Tennesse. He wasn't alone some 33,000 voted against secession. (14,000 for) Out of the whole state 105,000 voted for secession, 47,000 against. Some 30,000 Tenessee citizens served in the northern military, while 1 of their senators did not leave his seat in the US Senate, Andrew Johnson. He would become military governor of Tennessee, Vice President, then President. Farragut wasn't alone. |
Rev Zoom | 13 Nov 2019 5:55 p.m. PST |
"To Rev Zoom, just thinking, the moment those that went south swore an oath to their new nation, suddenly became patriots with no allegiance to their former nation." But they had taken a previous oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. And breaking that oath haunted many of them all their lives – not the least was Old Peter Longstreet. |