The American Civil War

Current events demonstrate that war is still happening. Down in Dixie, they are furious about the banning of the Confederate flag and the destruction of statues. They have a point: to most of them, it is not racist, but a symbol of their history. Listen to Joan Baez singing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” to get a flavour of the resentment. Slavery was evil and segregation was an inhuman practice, as was the burning of churches. But the war, that flag and those statues are a part of the whole of American history, I don’t understand why the US left cannot understand that. The USA was a deeply divided, polarised nation, even before The Trumper came to the White House.

I have a Confederate Memorial Jug, which is decorated with pictures of the CSA leaders, as displayed in stone on The Stone Mountain  Memorial in Georgia. This was left to my mother by a friend who was landlady of a pub in Nottingham. The landlady was given it by a Southern American serviceman who died in his B-17 over Germany. Once I could have earned a good price for this, had I ever wanted to advertise it in the States. Now no American can buy it and not expect to lose it in US Customs. I would never contemplate selling it, though. It’s in perfect condition.

There’s a lot of debate, controversy and unrest about the actual Memorial itself at the moment. HERE.

Have you had it valued by one of the big Auction Houses at all, Bob?? It’d fly through Customs if they were selling it. Might be some value at the moment, what with all the furore and news about the Mountain itself. Could easily give the auction a bit of pazazz!!

Bob Williams wrote:

I have no intention of selling it JCD: it is not only a memento of my mother, but of her landlady friend, whom I met many times as a child.

Should finance the Care Home! I love pottery, must be genetic as my mam worked in a Burslem Potbank called Woods.

Don’t forget to let the kids/Grandkids know what you want doing with them all when that time comes. Get some valuations done so they don’t fall into the same trapas someone tried on you. You don’t want to buy an antiques dealer his new car before your care home, do you!!

When’s the Antiques Roadshow” coming to your neck of the woods next???

Ed P wrote:

One of my more venal kids said that we should go around the house putting stickers on the backs of everything with our estimate of value. That way they won;t put the good stuff into house clearance, and would know what to put into the piles to be divided between them. I’m still not sure if she was joking.! There was actually a lot of truth in the request as house clearing is a horrible job and you rapidly reach the point of just wanting shot of everything.

Actually, I’d say she was the practical one, unless of course, after you’d done it, you got a lot more visits from her!! Just checking, Mum!!!

That’s not a problem for us – just the one!!

I am currently reading “Rifles” about the first 2 Rifle Regiments in the Peninsular Wars (Spain & Portugal) 1809 – 1813. As an ex-sniper, it was interesting to read about how Wellington used the regiments as the equivalent of today’s Special Forces, giving them the new-fangled rifle, training them to be sharpshooters, using new tactics of fire and movement, a version of which the British Army uses today.

Those men went through a version of Hell, because they were always in front of their own lines they had a high casualty rate. They were hated by the French because Wellington had them pick off their officers, hated by their own Oldphart Generals because they did not wage war as they did, by throwing lines of men at the enemy, war of attrition. Wellington thought very highly of them and protected them from the rest of the Army, but was not averse to having them flogged. I read of one Greenjacket who was given 200 lashes, survived and then was promoted at Badajoz for bravery.

As a former squaddie who occasionally misbehaved, I am personally glad they gave up that particular punishment. ??