August 16, 2010
As Promised: Spies in the Civil War:
George Scott was an escaped slave who supplied information about troop movements and Confederate fortifications to General Benjamin F. Butler while he was in command of Fort Monroe. Fort Monroe is located at the mouth of the James River on the tip of the Virginia Peninsula. While escaping from a plantation near Yorktown, George Scott had seen Confederate preparations for an attack on the fort. Despite the threat of recapture, Scott agreed to accompany a Union officer on reconnaissance missions behind Confederate lines to confirm the Confederate Army’s plans to attack the fort.
Mary Touvestre was a freed slave working in Norfolk as a housekeeper for an engineer who was working on the Confederate ironclad, the USS Merrimack. Realizing the danger this ship would pose to Union ships currently blockading Norfolk, she stole a copy of the plans and fled North to Washington, DC where she was able to convince officers at the Department of the Navy to speed up their construction of the USS Monitor.
Robert Smalls: Intelligence about Confederate formation gathered by Robert Smalls was considered so significant that the Secretary of the Department of the Navy described it in detail to President Lincoln in the Secretary's annual report. Smalls went on to become a US Congressman, but he may be best known for his successful escape from Charlestown, South Carolina. Smalls gathered his family, and other black American crewmen, then sailed the armed Confederate coastal patrol ship, the Planter, out of Charleston harbor after the captain and two mates had gone home. Smalls posed as the Captain on May 12, 1862 and was able to provide the correct countersigns to all of the harbor defenses.
Did you know? Union Soldiers who were prisoners of war in Richmond Virginia sent coded messages by placing pin pricks beneath words in the novels they were allowed to read.
Next Post: How Treasury Warrants helped settle the West.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
As promised: Amazing Grace
It turns out that “Amazing Grace” was written by a slave ship captain who got caught in a violent storm at sea. He promised God he would quit his evil ways if he could be spared. The storm abated, his ship stayed afloat, he wrote the song, and released the enslaved aboard his ship!
Biting on a bullet?
Union Forces used approximately 10 million opium pills and nearly 3 million ounces of opium powder or tinctures. Pain-killing drugs were in wide use and commonly prescribed for such maladies as diarrhea. Opium addiction became a problem in the Union Army due to its wide use.
Confederate forces experienced severe shortages of opium, but instead of bullets, turned to homeopathic remedies such as poppy heads, nightshade and Datura Stramonium, also called Jimson Weed, Gypsum Weed, Loco Weed, Thorn Apple, Devil's Trumpet, Mad Hatter, Crazy Tea, and Zombie's Cucumber.
Exposing some myths about the Society of Friends. (Quakers)
Not every member of the Society of Friends was an abolitionist.
Slave-owning among members began to create dissention as early as 1750. The Society of Friends began disowning or shunning members by 1778. Some members simply joined the Anglican Church and continued to dress plainly, however many members felt that they answered to a higher law rather than the federal laws which made owning slaves legal. Many, but not all members aided enslaved persons seeking freedom. Strict obedience to telling the truth might prompt a member to first don a blindfold before bringing food to the runaway slaves hiding in his barn, thus being able to truthfully answer bounty hunters with, “I have not seen them.”
Did you know that the days of the week are named after Pagan Gods? Members of the Society of Friends refer to Sunday as First Day, Monday as Second Day, and so on.
Next entry: Spies in the Civil War
It turns out that “Amazing Grace” was written by a slave ship captain who got caught in a violent storm at sea. He promised God he would quit his evil ways if he could be spared. The storm abated, his ship stayed afloat, he wrote the song, and released the enslaved aboard his ship!
Biting on a bullet?
Union Forces used approximately 10 million opium pills and nearly 3 million ounces of opium powder or tinctures. Pain-killing drugs were in wide use and commonly prescribed for such maladies as diarrhea. Opium addiction became a problem in the Union Army due to its wide use.
Confederate forces experienced severe shortages of opium, but instead of bullets, turned to homeopathic remedies such as poppy heads, nightshade and Datura Stramonium, also called Jimson Weed, Gypsum Weed, Loco Weed, Thorn Apple, Devil's Trumpet, Mad Hatter, Crazy Tea, and Zombie's Cucumber.
Exposing some myths about the Society of Friends. (Quakers)
Not every member of the Society of Friends was an abolitionist.
Slave-owning among members began to create dissention as early as 1750. The Society of Friends began disowning or shunning members by 1778. Some members simply joined the Anglican Church and continued to dress plainly, however many members felt that they answered to a higher law rather than the federal laws which made owning slaves legal. Many, but not all members aided enslaved persons seeking freedom. Strict obedience to telling the truth might prompt a member to first don a blindfold before bringing food to the runaway slaves hiding in his barn, thus being able to truthfully answer bounty hunters with, “I have not seen them.”
Did you know that the days of the week are named after Pagan Gods? Members of the Society of Friends refer to Sunday as First Day, Monday as Second Day, and so on.
Next entry: Spies in the Civil War
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