Jefferson Davis: Will Double Thinks

OK, we admit it. Jefferson Davis had the nearly impossible task of fighting a war against a superior enemy while simultaneously trying not to do the obvious and trade space for time. Davis needed to show the Europeans that the CSA was a real country while under enormous (and understandable) political pressure to hold onto territory. The problem is they couldn't. While everyone applauds Lee in Virginia, at the same time Grant is systematically driving a stake through the Mississippi Valley.

Davis' strategy was offensive/defensive. Let the Federals in and then hit 'em as hard as you can. This worked in Virginia but no one out west had a solution to Grant and later Sherman. We are amused by historians who criticize Sherman's drive through East Tennessee and to Atlanta, saying he failed at multiple places to destroy the Army of Tennessee. But, Sherman wasn't trying to destroy the Army of Tennessee. At Shiloh he figured out what happens when two armies go mano-a-mano and tried to avoid it. Instead he just out maneuvered the grays again and again.  

The solution wasn't attacking the North. Antietam (Sharpsburg for the Johnny Rebs out there) and Gettysburg were disasters for the Army of Northern Virginia.  

So maybe Davis was in a bad, no win situation. What's the solution? Lee out West?

Continued Study of The War Between the States

It might be time to take a hard look at Robert E. Lee. We have two books on the man, three if you count Catton's Terrible Swift Sword. Of course he was a Yankee. The other two are Lee's Last Campaign, about 1864, and a book written in the 1990's that was supposed to reassess the man. One must be careful to avoid the Lost Cause, but also hagiography. 

Dennis McCullough (another Yankee) is the worst practitioner of this sort of thing. The man would write 800 page love-letters to his subject. And remember, we like Truman. 

True story, in 1948 our grandfather was walking down the street in Manhattan after quitin' time when he saw thousands of muni-workers, angry that they were forced to turn out for a Truman rally. By the end, the President had those pissed-off workers cheering his name. Our grandfather said he bet all his friends Harry would win and they gave him 8-1 odds.

Trump's gonna win too. Bigly.

Anyway, we're intrigued by Forrest. Stonewall. Do we need to do Stonewall?

Stroock to left, GOPe: Bite me

Robert Stacey McCain says Ace of Spades is our Churchill.*

Ace's is a long post about the left, Trump, Vichy GOP, Never Trump soy boy cucks, etc etc. You should read the entire thing. A poignant bit:

The pablum issuing from NeverTrumpers and Neocons is just creating a pleasant illusion in which it's 2003 forever and the only thing that should really matter is whether we are "consistent" on Trump and Clinton, preferring that political Neverland to the actual America we find ourselves in in 2019, pretending away unpalatable truths in favor of pleasant fantasies, continuing to pretend that everything's great (and that which is not great can just be saved by another round of tax cuts and trade deals), and that the left isn't scary at all -- that's just Evil Trump trying to convince you that they're really serious about their openly announced plans to seize America's guns and force churches to perform gay marriages, or go to prison.

2003 is not forever. We've often described ourselves as an unprepentent Neocon but are we, really? Not really. Not when we think putting gators in the Rio Grande is a good idea and don't give a crap about pulling troops out of Syria. 

The facts have changed and we're proud to say so have we.

As Ace writes about the left, let's ask, how much of America is left? No more than 30%. No more than 30% of Germany was Nazi. How many people in craphole Islamic nations are really Islamist assholes? 

30% is it and it is enough.

So what do we do? We wear our MAGA hat everywhere. Everywhere. Go to Twitter. Search our congressional district, #NJ07. It's all us. It's a start.

RSM is right. Ace is Churchill and we're a junior, backbencher MP.

*Ace is always right.

Battle Extraordinaire

Civil War Edition*

A very interesting and striking cinematic effort.

At the end reconciliation.

*Or War Between the States.

Civil (war) Movies

A friend of ours recently commented that Hollywood needs to churn out some Civil War movies.*

To be honest, we here at William Stroock dot blogspot dot com don't trust the bastards to do it. Still if someone were to produce some Civil War pics, here's what we'd like to see.**

-Lee: Follow the man and his conscience during five years of war.
-Sherman's March: A sprawling three hour epic, LOTR style.
-Judah Benjamin: the Confederacy's Jewish secretary of state.
-The Grand Review: A celebration of victory and what comes next.
-Appomattox:  A film about bringing the war to an end.
-Vicksburg: The grueling siege.

*Do recall our paternal grandmother was born in Naches and raised in Waterproof.
[Jesus-Ed]
**The southern contingent among our readers are invited to chime in, as whatever we come up with will be Yankee-centric. Sorry. 

Statue This

Reader(s) may have noticed that we are highly critical of the Confederacy. There's no excuse for the institution and it deserved destruction. Sherman's march to the Sea and then through the Carolinas brings warm feelings to our heart. Frankly we enjoy the biblical level smiting he inflicted upon the secessionists.

We fly flags and we can and have flown the flag of Kek (praise Kek) before we would fly the Stars and Bars.

That said, Confederate descendants have every right to their heritage. Let them celebrate that heritage however they like. If a southerner has an ancestor who fought with Nathan Bedford Forrest in the Atlanta campaign let him be proud. If someone in Norfolk takes pride in his southern ancestors fending off the Yankees for three and half years, by all means take pride. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia accomplished remarkable things, militarily speaking. The wise military historian studies his campaigns.

This spate of statute desecration in places like Virginia and New Orleans is obscene. The effort is more than that, actually. Its an act of historical vandalism. All these more or less reasonable folks who say 'Yes but,' to the statue desecration better look out. Because the next targets will be George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

So really, screw the statue warriors.

Confederate This

So the guys behind HBO's Game of Thrones are developing a new series called Confederate, imagining that the South won the Civil War and slavery exists today.

Where to begin?

This is not in of itself a bad idea. However there is no plausible way that slavery could exist today if the Confederacy existed. In 1860 the American South was already isolated, not just from the north but the rest of the world. Immigrants were reluctant to settle in the south. Of the top ten US cities in 1860, only one, New Orleans, was in the south. The next southern city was Louisville at 12, and then Charleston at 22.  Old southern cities like Richmond and Atlanta were surpassed by new cities like Detroit and Milwaukee.

The economics of this idea wouldn't work either. In 1860 the north outstripped the south in factories, miles of rail, etc. etc, by 10-1 and they had no way to get the capitol to expand. Simply put, even before the war European investors were reluctant to put money into slave states.The Confederates assumed cotton was king, but as soon as the war began the Brits simply got their cotton from Egypt and India and one supposes they were relieved that the war gave them the excuse to end trade with the slave south altogether.

The economics of slavery are awful.

Now imagine if the Confederacy had slavery in say...1950. At some point the rest of the world is going to embargo the Confederacy, as it did with Rhodesia and South Africa, and frankly its not hard to imagine some sort of global expedition to liberate the slaves.

So there's no way your going to have slaves in 2017.

Frankly we're wondering if the GoT guys just want to make a parable and use the show for modern commentary. Look! In this alternate history Trayvon Martin is a Florida slave! Michael Brown works a field in Missouri! Implausible? We're talking about the same industry that just remade Ghost Busters into an all-chick feminist flick.

Hollywood can screw up anything,

We'll be delving further into this Confederate topic as the week drags on.

(Flag pic courtesy of Mr. Christopher Cobb, Monterrey, MA)