Day Two @ SMH

Today the State Department announced a new name for the American Civil War. From now on it is to be referred to as the Domestic Interdiction Operation Between the States.

Okay, that is a not true but I am sure you have all heard that the Obama Administration no longer uses the term Global War on Terror. Well, sorry President Obama, you cannot take the name away. Historians around the world have adopted the term GWOT and not even the president of the US can make that change. Rumsfeld tried the “Long War” some adopted it but we are stuck with GWOT now matter what the demonstration says.

This was all part of a discussion I had today with a few other historians.

Today was an interesting day.

Let’s talk Texas in the Domestic Interdiction…err Civil War. No narrative here just points to consider:
Texas produced more cavalry than any state.
Many Texans fought for Texas more than they fought for the Confederacy. Remember they were an independent nation before entering the Union. Texans were, and still are deeply, emotional and loyal when it comes to their (dare I say my?) state.


The Mexican border and the Indians were as big an issue to Texas as anything else.
Texans wanted to defend Texas outside of its borders: Arkansas and Louisiana.
Most Texans were not interested in a pardon after the war, they just went home. Most never applied for one.
---------------------

There has been very little study of the end of wars. How they end, how things change after the war. Why do some end “cleanly” while others have extended unanticipated consequences?



The story of Robinett and Lincoln reminds me of one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost:
The Road Not Taken (1915)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.



Some more questions and observations for my project:


What is the character of Wilmington, Delaware before the war?
Life at DMA. What kind of atmosphere was there at Delaware Military Academy? What was the environment like?
At the end of the war did Lincoln apply for a pardon? Was he granted amnesty?

Staff ride tomorrow and then two more sessions and the banquet. More tomorrow evening.

Keep History Alive
bs