Tag: musket

P. G. T. Beauregard - Creole

Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard: How a “Mixed-Race” Confederate General Defeated the North! (14.11.2024)

Indeed, many of his aunts and uncles were White people who had inter-married with Black, Mexican, and Native American partners. Indeed, whilst serving in the US Army prior to the war – P. G. T. Beauregard – his advancement was blighted by the fact that the US Military Authorities purposely discriminated against him on the grounds that he was “Not Trustworthy” – as he was the product of a family that deliberately “Race-Mixed”. This judgement kept him out of West Point as a Teacher (he had trained there in his youth – but was not permitted to pursue a substantive career in that institute) – until he was mistakenly posted as an “Instructor” at this College of Officer-Training in the US during 1861 (just prior to the breakout of hostilities). His appointment lasted just one-day until the mistake was realised by a Union pen-pusher. P. G. T. Beauregard was immediately removed on the grounds that the US does not allow any but “pure-raced” individuals exercising direct influence over the developing generations of US Military Officers. Indeed, the US Authorities applied this judgement by continuously referring to P. G. T. Beauregard as a “Creole” – implying that he was psychologically and physically “inferior” due to “race-mixing”.

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Private Thomas J Higgins - Union Flag-Bearer - Vicksburg (1863)

Email: Vicksburg – The Bravery of Private Thomas J Higgins (1831-1917) – Union Flag-Bearer! (22.10.2024)

This immense fire-power (in a confined space) made a killing field of the redoubt. Those Union attackers that managed to survive the attack across open-ground had to climb a 18-foot breastwork (including trench) before even getting to grips with the defenders – who simply stuck the muskets out of fire-holes and opened-fire at point-blank range! On top of this, Confederate “Grenadiers” lobbed cannon-balls with five-second fuses into the mass of attacking enemy troops. Needless to say, bravery has its limit, and many Union soldiers broke-off the attack and retreated back to their lines – usually minus copious numbers of their friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, Confederate casualties were minimal.

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World War One and the Working Class Holocaust

This arousal of working class consciousness unfolded hand in hand with the intensification of bourgeois angst and resistance, which threatened to boil over into an all-out war between the competing bourgeois countries. This situation was reflected by the fact that the various congresses of the Second International dedicated much thinking time to the solving of the problem of what policy should be adopted by the international working class within their respective countries, should war breakout between those countries. In other words, should the developing working class regress into the old pattern of simply following the lead of the bourgeoisie in time of war, and kill one another in the name of ‘nationalism’ for their respective countries? In the 1907 Stuttgart congress, the Second International – with the help of Lenin – issued what was thought of at the time, to be a definitive statement upon the matter (see opening quote). In essence, the Second International in 1907 called upon its constituent members to use every available means to prevent a war from happening, or to shorten a war by the same means should hostilities have already broken out.

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