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The Weekly Fireside 20 Nov 2005 - Part 1
of the American Civil War History
Special Interest Group;
Distribution Coast to Coast
Week ending 20 November 2005
NOTE from Jayne: Please be assured your email addresses are not shared with, nor sold to, anyone else.
NOTES FROM THE HELPERS OF THE CIVIL WAR HISTORY CHATS
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Stop by the NEW Genealogy Community Website. [http://www.genealogycommunity.com]
"THE BOOK SHELF"
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AUTHOR---OWEN PARRY
PUBLIHER--- WILLIAM MORROW<aka HARPER COLLINS>
ISBN---0-26-251-392-6
I have been following the Civil War adventures of Welshman, turned American, Able Jones through 5 books,now this is the 6th. Parry's hero is a wounded immigrant, wounded at 1st Manassas but also haunted in spirit by what he endured as a British solider in India.
A flawed hero is always, better than the unflawed hero. Rebels of Babylon, take Abel to New Orleans to investigate the apparent murder of daughter of a northern power broker. Abel is now a Major, and is answerable to only two people, President Lincoln and William Seward. Our Major Jones plans on a straight forward murder investigation, but instead finds a labyrinth of intrigue in New Orleans, where nothing is as it seems. Along the way, he meets some very shady and very sneaky people. He even has a run in with General Nathaniel Banks, who has replaced "Spoons" butler, in charge of New Orleans. Our hero, eventually works it all out, but in the mean time, takes us on a journey through the New Orleans of the federal occupation.
This is a wortthy addition to this series.
If you would like to meet Abel Jones from the beginning, Mr Parry's first book in this series is FADED COAT OF BLUE
AntietamCW
--------OUR WEEKLY READING--------
(items from our Letters, Songs,
and Poems evenings)
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As I was watching the parade, which lasted a full hour, it reminded me that, even though it's a day late, I should share the Gettysburg Address with you all. I never really thought much about the words until a couple of years ago, so as you read it now, really pay attention and think about what he said.
given November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth.
THE HELP DESK
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Send us and email [CWWeeklyFireside@aol.com] and we'll post it here to see if some of our readers can help you. If you get an answer to your question, please let us know.
DID YOU KNOW?
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Cost Of The American Civil War
The approximately 10,455 military engagements, some devastating to human life and some nearly bloodless, plus naval clashes, accidents, suicides, sicknesses, murders, and executions resulted in total casualties of 1,094,453 during the Civil War. The Federals lost 110,100 killed in action and mortally wounded, and another 224,580 to disease. The Confederates lost approximately 94,000 as a result of battle and another 164,000 to disease. Even if one survived a wound, any projectile that hit bone in either an arm or a leg almost invariably necessitated amputation. The best estimate of Federal army personnel wounded is 275,175; naval personnel wounded, 2,226. Surviving Confederate records indicate 194,026 wounded.
In dollars and cents, the U.S. government estimated Jan. 1863 that the war was costing $2.5 million daily. A final official estimate in 1879 totaled $6,190,000,000. The Confederacy spent perhaps $2,099,808,707. By 1906 another $3.3 billion already had been spent by the U.S. government on Northerners' pensions and other veterans' benefits for former Federal soldiers. Southern states and private philanthropy provided benefits to the Confederate veterans. The amount spent on benefits eventually well exceeded the war's original cost.
Inflation affected both Northern and Southern assets but hit those of the Confederacy harder. Northern currency fluctuated in value, and at its lowest point $2.59 in Federal paper money equaled $1 in gold. The Confederate currency so declined in purchasing power that eventually $60-$70 equaled a gold dollar.
The physical devastation, almost all of it in the South, was enormous: burned or plundered homes, pillaged countryside, untold losses in crops and farm animals, ruined buildings and bridges, devastated college campuses, and neglected roads all left the South in ruins.
Detailed studies of Union and Confederate military casualties are found in Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America 1861-65 by Thomas L. Livermore (I901) and Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1867-1865 by William F. Fox (1889).
Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War" Edited by Patricial L. Faust [http://www.civilwarhome.com/warcosts.htm]
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