re: 150 years ago this day...

Without seeming too contrary, DCRebel, I am not real sure very many Americans today understand the "discipline of history" nor why studying it is paramount to everything we, and the rest of the world, shall likely face this century. As far as "the war itself" goes, just looking back at the recent posts, we see subjects as diverse as the United States Ambassador to England Charles Francis Adams continually thwarting Southern efforts in Europe; Henry Stuart Foote, a former United States Senator and a member of the Confederate House of Representatives, criticizing the Confederate leadership; a discussion of President Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation for those wishing to rejoin the Union; Yankees from the USS Moose on the Tennessee River destroying Confederate whiskey distilleries nine days before Christmas; Confederate General Stand Watie, one of only two Native Americans on either side of the Civil War to rise to a brigadier general's rank; Mrs. Patterson Allan, charged with carrying on a treasonable correspondence with persons in the North; Mrs. Anne Johnston, of Cincinnati, Ohio, being tried at Nashville, Tennessee, for acting as a Confederate spy; and a bill being passed in the Confederate Congress, prohibiting anyone dealing in the currency of the United States. And who cannot appreciate the most unusual name of all in that of Commander Catesby ap Roger Jones? Just saying...