Tag: CSA

Battle of Chancellorsville

CSA: Would a Confederate Victory Have Led to a Socialist Revolution? (28.2.2025)

However, the Southern ideas of honour and their so-called aristocratic thinking were overblown and these ideas actually sometimes played to the South’s benefit, as the men in the South followed natural leaders and often times appointed them on their own (via popular vote). All too often, in the North, Officers were often political appointees – desk-bound Officers who hadn’t seen a battlefield in years – or ever. Or men who simply bought their way into a General’s uniform. One of the more stereotypical views of the South was the aforementioned backward, backwoodsman. Think about that for a moment. Yes – a significant portion of the Confederate Army was poor, uneducated, and illiterate. Some left-leaning historians have said  – with some accuracy – that the poor Whites of the South had more in common with the slaves – than they did with the leading families who owned most of the land and the fabulous estates like the fictional “Tara” in Gone With the Wind.

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Confederate Museum - Louisiana

CSA: Email – Did Louisiana “Natives” [Creoles] Fight for the Confederacy? (6.2.2025)

I know this must be true, because every so often in the biographies of Union soldiers and Officers, I read that the dastardly Confederates had been fielding Armies of “Negroes” and “Indians”, etc. Furthermore, some of the exploits of these non-White Confederates are well-recorded. On the other hand, there are Civil War authors who state that there was never any non-White Confederate soldiers and what has been mistaken as such – were unarmed slaves forced into Confederate uniform. We know that this cannot be true – because Black Veterans of the Confederate Army campaigned to have their names and exploits recorded on official Confederate War Memorials after the war. My real objective is to work my way into this subject and discover primary sources that record “Chinese” people fighting in the Confederacy – as this is my academic subject (Chinese Studies). My enquiry below is essentially whether the “Louisiana Natives” were the same outfit as the “Louisiana Creoles”? Of course, I might be wrong and could be confusing two separate and distinct formations (the former “Black” – the latter “Mixed”) – as the book above seems to be suggesting that the “Cannoniers” were a well-known Unit. Either way, for the progression of research – no stone must be left unturned!

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Library of Congress“Dead Horse of Confederate Colonel; both killed at Battle of Antietam,” by Alexander Gardner

CSA: Piles of Thread-Bare Confederates at Antietam [Sharpsburg] – Notes on Their Sacrifice! (31.1.2025)

The Union Army paid the farmer $1 per dead Confederate body and the farmer made $60 out of the deal. He dug a new well in a different place for the cost of $2 – making a wartime profit of $58. No one knows the names of these Confederate soldiers – and if it was not for a report being made by the Union soldiers concerned – no one would know about these men today. Of course, there was great bravery on both sides – but the spin placed on the war by the winners has skewed how the Confederacy is viewed today. These Confederate men (and boys) advanced into the Union fire with the utmost discipline and determination. They believed 100% in their cause – which was for the freedom of their individual countries (termed “States”). At the time, this war was not only about slavery – but has been made ONLY about slavery since 1865. Many believed the federalisation of the United States was a betrayal of the 1776 War of Independence – and nothing short of a great evil!

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CSA Aeronaut - Captain John Randolph Bran!

CSA: Confederate Aeronautical Ballon Corps – Peninsula Campaign [1862]! (10.1.2025)

For safety reasons, the Confederates decided to transport their balloon via the water when not in operation (to protect it from enemy fire). The silk balloon was loaded onto the armed (CSA) tug “Teaser” – to transport it from the Richmond Gas Works up to the front-lines along the James River. This system, however, eventually led to the demise of the Gazelle. The Teaser, loaded with the Gazelle, ran into Union Naval Forces patrolling the James River, and was fired upon and captured by the US Marines carried aboard the USS Maratanza. The Confederate balloon was given to the Union expert – Thaddeus Lowe – who cut it up into scraps to give as souvenirs. Some of these pieces are still in existence. The Union lost the Peninsula Campaign due to a lack of reliable military intelligence. The Confederate Aeronautical Balloon Corps was abolished on the 4th July, 1862 – following the retreat of Union Forces out of the South.

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Southern Men Arise!

How Great Britain Assisted the Formation of the Confederate Post Office [1861-1863]! (8.1.2025)

The internationally-known London, England printing firm of “Thomas De La Rue & Co.”, prepared plates and stamps for the CSA until a Southern firm was found to take over the work. That firm, Archer & Daly, began producing stamps in 1863. The US blockade of as many Confederate ports as possible often meant that British ships carrying supplies from London, the UK, or the British Empire to the Confederacy – were often intercepted via acts of piracy on the high seas by the US Navy – with the goods confiscated and/or destroyed. The US government was continuously irritated by the continuous (undeclared) British support for the Confederacy – which for at least two-years extended into the realms of Post Office support! Of course, many of the best weapons the Confederate Army possessed were supplied by the UK. The Postmaster General of the Confederate Post Office Department (POD) – John Reagan (whilst traveling with President Jefferson Davis) – was arrested on the 8th May 1865, and imprisoned at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. Reagan was pardoned and released from prison almost two years later. Jefferson Davis “refused” a Pardon (on the grounds that he had done nothing wrong) – and was subsequently released anyway.

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