Fateful Meeting
Lee meets Grant At Appomattox Court House
General Order
No. 9
After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.
I need not tell the survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them.
But feeling that valour and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.
By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection.
With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.
— R. E. Lee, General, General Order No. 9
During the surrender meeting at Appomattox, the two small security forces for Grant and Lee waited outside and, knowing the end was imminent, became ‘friends’ rather than combatants. There was an apple tree growing in the yard and they jointly cut it down and carved pieces of it into ‘souvenirs’. My wife’s ‘great-great-great something or other’ was one of the soldiers and the family has the small wooden heart carved from the tree. ….. (or so the story has been told to me … .I’ve seen the heart).
Sherman’s March to the Sea—-November 15 until December 21, 1864. May he rot in hell for eternity.
The american politicians, the people supposedly in charge, and suffer no culpabilty, have made unknown numbers of horrific mistakes resulting in human tragedy beyond imagination in the almost 250 years of history.
Just a few, pertaining to foreign entanglements:
1. Korea. Both countries are still at war even though they aren’t lobbing bombs across the armistice line.
2. Vietnam. Went in there, blew up a bunch of jungle, killed a lot of locals, lost a lot of American youth, departed with tails between legs. Communists won that one.
3. Iraq. Installed Saddam Hussein and ultimately betrayed him. Is Iraq now a bastion of freedom since American intervention?
4. Iran. The CIA helped overthrow the Shah. We know how that went. Hello Mr. Ayatollah!
5. Libya. Killed off Mr. Gaddafi and turned the country over to the warlord tribes. Libya, once touted as having highest human development index in all of Africa is now a chaotic shit hole. Well done USA!
6. Afghanistan. Spent 20 years there killing and maiming and in the end packed up our bags, left American citizens behind and left it all for the Taliban.
7. Syria. Still at war.
8. Somalia. Still at war and still a shit hole.
9. Ukraine. The Maiden revolution or coupe resulted in the current war that is killing millions and destroying what was once a quite, docile, milk-toast border land.
10. Venezuela. Abducted Maduro and replaced him with what? Is Venezuela any better? I have heard nothing.
Need I go on? There are others. Chile. Lebanon. Panama. Colombia. On and on and on. Name one country where the USA has intervened in their affairs and has left the place a better place? The battleship USA leaves a wide, dirty and smelly wake.
The USA’s track record is horrible. The USA may regret the time they over threw the Ayatollahs, especially if something worse fills the void.
And then the american civil war. The politicians treated the citizenry the same as they do the foreign entanglements, maybe worse.
The land of the free? It’d be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.
I submit the freeist time in north american history was BEFORE the inception of the american gov’t, not after.
From the summer of 1776 until now the north american citizenry has been on a long downhill slide into tyranny. Slides always end eventually.
Imagine the world without american politicians. What do you see?
#4: The CIA giveth; the CIA taketh away. The CIA helped install the Shah in 1953.
“The land of the free?” I would suggest the western territories until the army got serious after Custer’s FU. You hear about the “brave pioneers heading westward”; you rarely hear why. Perhaps to escape the govt’s clutches even then.
Years ago I read over on Lew Rockwell’s site an article saying the reason this shitty gov’t even got started was because most people didn’t even know about it.
It wasn’t until years later when revenoor’s showed up trying to collect taxes that they found out.
They’d show up with a platoon of army soldiers and force the citizens to pay or surrender their goods.
It was at this point that some of them decided to pack up and head out west, farther away from the criminals.
So violence and stealing was in the recipe from the beginning.
This is a gigantic wake up call for America.
As soon as I seen the purple hair (1 min in) I hit the pause button and left this comment:
“These women ARE the problem.”
I do NOT wonder who that purple hair votes for. I would love to see what her solution is. Probably additional tax dollars will be involved.
I have read, and have actually had it demonstrated to me, that the ubiquitousness of GPS on phones has bred a generation of people who can neither read a map, nor comprehend the usefulness of one, nor identify the directions of north, south, east and west. It’s as if it was Sanskrit to them. The demonstration was one such individual making fun of the road atlas in my car, and when asked how this person would navigate if their phone went down, said he would “get online and figure out something” in a tone clearly identifying me as the dumbass.