Say hello to a New General!!

[White Tiger]

Yeah, that's the guy that referred to Forrest as "that devil Forest"...I hear he was itching (or was that burning?) to get to the coast...

Now, that last picture of the Union Corporal looks pretty authentic, are you a re-enactor?

[gil]

Ray, check this out... Haven't had time or money to work on it... The stone was a gift from my ex girlfriend's little girl...

Gil.

[White Tiger]

That's a beautiful geode Gil! I believe they're prevalent out West, around the Rockies...

[raybiker73]

Gil: What kind of rifle is it going to be? I've always wanted to build a really nice muzzleloader, but never got any more advanced than a couple basic CVA kits back when I was in college.

Tiger: I used to be. Originally 78th Pennsylvania, which was a Sons of Union Veterans group from this area, but I ended up falling in with a really hardcore authentic unit, the 66th Ohio Volunteers. We had guys from OH, PA and WV in that unit. I was 66 OVI Company I from 1992 to 1999. Good times indeed, and sometimes I miss doing it. The picture was taken at 131st Gettysburg in July of 1994. It's actually a tintype. The photographer used all period equipment for photos, and even had a wagon-based Brady-style darkroom. I remember having to stand still for about 5 seconds when he took the photo so that it wouldn't blur, because those old cameras used a really long shutter speed.

[gil]

Hi Ray, it's a Lehigh County flintlock, .50, 40" barrel.
I wonder if I'll ever finish it...

Gil.

[White Tiger]

Gil, I think I saw what looks like a barrel in the previous picture...how much more do you need to to do to finish it?

And btw - great work so far!

Ray: that's awesome! And the 66th OVI sounds familiar...is that an original unit? Part of my family is Scotch Irish, and came to Ohio from West Virgina. The other side came to Ohio from Iowa during the Civil War.

I have an affinity for the south as I was born in Ohio - but raised and educated in The South - where many of my teachers took it upon themselves to train the little Yankee Boy (that's what they really called me)...about the truth concerning the "Second War for Independence", or "The War Against Northern Aggression". Much has changed, but I still have a slightly different view of that period of American History!

Sometime I will tell you about the local gun shop owner friend of mine who swears Lincoln was the first fascist!

[gil]

Hello Tim,

I am missing the lock, trigger and a few other small parts...

Anyway, one may wonder what America would be today if the South had won. Slavery would have been abolished, just a bit later, due to worldwide pressure. The States would be much more independent of course.. Big Brother would be Baby Brother.. Who knows..

Gil.

[White Tiger]

Hello Tim,

I am missing the lock, trigger and a few other small parts...

Are these parts difficult to locate, expensive, or both?

Anyway, one may wonder what America would be today if the South had won. Slavery would have been abolished, just a bit later, due to worldwide pressure. The States would be much more independent of course.. Big Brother would be Baby Brother.. Who knows..

Gil.

That is exactly the point my gun shop owner friend makes; the southern economy would not have been demolished and sent backwards by about 100 years, and the political landscape may have changed.

We also would not have strengthened the power of the Federal government.

Defeating the North would not have been possible - and in the beginning it wasn't even a goal of the Southern States. They just wanted to be left alone. There weren't many people that believed the South could win a war with the Northern states, as the North had twice the manufacturing, twice the population, and twice the investment capitol. The South was only hoping to fight long enough, and make it just bloody enough, so as to cause the people of the North to lose the will to fight. And the people of the North would force Lincoln to sue for peace and grant secession, creating two separate countries. But after winning nearly every engagement with the North - a kind of arrogance developed amongst the southern political and military leadership. Until Gettysburg...and it could have ALL turned there. Robert E Lee's vision was a quick decisive battle with the North, and then turn his Southern Army towards Washington DC - only 80 miles away! He would threaten to march in as conqueror...unless they recognized the CSA as a separate nation...

... the Union had thrown everything it had at Lee at Gettysburg, there were no other troops/Armies in the area large enough to stop him.

The South came within one last charge on Little Round Top...of doing just that...interesting how "fate" played a hand.

Kind of an interesting historical twist to me: It is said that Ho Chi Mihn studied the reasoning/strategy of the American Revolutionary War and the American Civil War (fighting a superior force in a war of attrition, over extended supply lines, until the superior force loses the will to fight) before engaging the French in the Indochinese War...which later became the war in Vietnam...

[raybiker73]

If you're interested in alternate history, pick up a copy of "If The South Had Won the Civil War," by McKinley Kantor, it's a really great book. IIRC, his divergence point was having Grant die during the siege of Vicksburg in '63, and how everything changed after that.

If you're into REALLY alternate history, pick up "For Want of a Nail" by Robert Sobel, which changes quite literally everything in the world by having Burgoyne defeat Washington at Saratoga in 1777, instead of the other way around. Really great reading.

[gil]

I did read one entertaining book where South African time travelers bring AK47s to the South, but I forgot the author's name or title.

Gil

[White Tiger]

Phillip Roth wrote a pretty interesting book called "The Plot Against America" and (surprisingly) Newt Gingerich's "1945"...

...I'm actually looking forward to reading a new alt history by Newt called "Never Call Retreat"...about the Civil War and specifically, Gettysburg.

[gil]

Hi Tim, the parts are not hard to find or expensive, but I've been buying radio stuff instead!

Gil.

[White Tiger]

Oh, I understand...have the same problem...only have a budget for one obsession at a time!