U.S. Civil War History bits

That is interesting. Thanks Gordon. How much interest do the British have about the U.S. Civil War? Is it a well known historical period? I find this interesting.

 

It's well-known enough, but I don't think there's a lot of interest outside academic circles. I dare say someone will prove me wrong though!

 

The British weren't just building blockade runners for the Confederacy either, but supplied them with several warships.

A good book on the subject is "British Ships in the Confederate Navy" by Joseph McKenna.
http://www.amazon.com/British-Ships-Confederate-Joseph-Mckenna/dp/0786445300/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432775448&sr=1-1&keywords=9780786458271

 

Indeed as I recall one of the lines from "Roll Alabama Roll" is:
"Liverpoll fitted her with guns and men"
http://civilwarheritagetrails.org/civil-war-music/roll-alabama-roll.html
This source indicates the guns part was poetic liscence though:
http://www.shanty.org.uk/archive_songs/roll,-alabama,-roll.html

 

It was well known in England and France that Alabama was trapped in Cherbourg by the USS Kearsarge and would be a dead duck when she sailed out, kind of like Graf Spee in Montevideo. There were thousands of spectators on shore and on a fleet of pleasure craft from England on hand to watch the battle.

Her Capt, Raphael Semmes, was picked up out the water after she went down by the British yacht Deerhound and escaped capture.

 

Only if they never heard the part about the Blakeley dud in the Kearsarge sternpost.

 

True but that shot happened during the battle, not when she was bottled up in the harbor.

 

If the Blakeley shell had not been a dud, it never would have made it to the sternpost. As Captain Semmes has stated that the shell was fitted with a percussion fuse, it would have detonated upon hitting the Kearsarge's counter.

 

Didn't know that one. Info like that is why I come here

 

When I participated in the 145th Battle of Chickamauga re-enactment there were dozens of British that travelled all the way from England to participate. What I considered strange was that virtually all of them came as confederates, and one came as Colonel Fremantle (even though Fremantle historically was on his way, or already back in England).

 

There are more than a few ACW re-enactment groups in Europe. A friend of mine is in an artillery battery here called the "Pelican Battery". He's very active in it and participates as much as he can much to his wife's dismay. He even has his young son outfitted as a drummer boy now, even though he admits that his boy is not as excited as he is about it. Anyway, his group was invited to participate with Confederate re-enactors in Belgium some years ago. Shipped their parrot gun over there and all. Had a great time he said, and he added that they have a difficult time finding enough groups that participate to be Yankees, just like they do here.

 

That's because nobody wants to be the bad guys. If you were going to re-enact "Lord of the Rings" would you rather be an Orc or a Rider of Rohan? Same/same.

 

Never watched those movies, so I have no idea what an Orc or a Rider of Rohan is. Is one of those funny looking people with rather large feet? Regardless, I can imagine what you mean. When they have re-enactments here, they have to draw lots to determine who gets to be the Rebs and who HAS to be the Yanks. Lots of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth going on at the sutler's beer wagon the night before the "battle" he says.

 

OK here you go. The Orcs are the ugly bad guys trying to get into the city. The Riders of Rohan or Rohirrim (plural) are the cavalry that the horn announces their arrival at about the 2:15 mark. They're the guys on horses with the Nordic looking armor, and arrive just like the U.S. Cavalry in all those good ole' school westerns, just in the nick of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmTz7EAYLrs

It's these ugly, evil Orcs, that I had my nephew convinced really existed when he was a little boy. I told you about them once:

-When Lord of the Rings trilogy came out on DVD, I think around 2004, Nick (the nephew) came over and watched them with me. He would have been about 8 then, he said good story but there's no such thing as Orc's. I said yes there were, the reason he never saw any was because the men of the neighborhood took turns patrolling the woods protecting the neighborhood from them. The subject came up several more times and once I told him we'd killed two the previous weekend. He got to where he was having nightmares and wasn't sleeping, his mom couldn't figure out why. Then one day he told her he was afraid the Orc's would get him, she said there's no such thing as Orc's. He said, oh yes there are, uncle Bobby says so. She replied, your uncle Bobby doesn't know everything. He still wouldn't believe her. She sent my brother over to have a talk with me. I fixed it a few days later by telling him we'd tracked the Orc's back to their lair, killed most of them, and poured gas down the hole and burned the rest. The nightmares went away.

To be fair I didn't know he was having nightmares. BTW, dude on the Dragon like thing, is one of the nine Nazgul, also known as Ring-Wraith or Dark Rider.

 

Well who are the guys with the big feet? And what do they do?

 

Being picky the rider was the Nazgul the beast were "fell beasts".

 

Yes, but remember I'm just giving him the basics as he isn't familiar with the characters. "Dragon like thing" I felt would be familiar to him where "Fell Beast" would not.
I did differentiate, I said, "dude on the Dragon like thing, is one of the nine Nazgul", meaning dude=Nazgul.

 

Misread that. Sloppy reading on my part. Thought "dude" was a reference to the previous poster but rereading it your wording was clear. Sorry about that. OT but I wonder how many have read the books and not seen the films or visa versa.

 

Good question, I don't know. I loaned the books to my nephew when he got older. He read the whole series, including "The Hobbit" when he got older and really loved them. The extended versions on the DVD's/Blue Ray are actually better than the theatrical release because they give more background for those that never read the books. I liked all the books with the exception of "The Silmarillion", it was really a little too dry and esoteric for me.

 

Ok enough with this blasphemous Hobbits and Rohans stuff. Sounds more and more like that sort of thing belongs in a "What If" thread. Back to the ACW now gents or I'll have to go find my dueling pistols.