megalomania
November 14th, 2006, 06:05 PM
I was asked to start this thread because the poster is obligated to a higher authority not to do so. If anyone can assist, please do so…
The History Channel had a recent two hour special: Civil War Terror. It was an insightful little piece. My wife and I could not take our eyes off the television. It was the type of history that doesn't get taught in high school, but should be taught because it is so gripping.
In a few history courses over time, I heard one instructor or another say that the American Civil War (1861-1865) was the first "modern" war. They cited the mass transportation of the railroad, the industrialized state, war of economy, modernized communications in the telegraph (the updated form of which we use today), etc. Only infrequently did any one mention sabotage, or to an organized resistance within the Federal north, and only was there an occasional reference to the Confederate Secret Service, or what that secret service might have been or done.
Most people focus on the large scale of conventional operations, with some human interest stories relevant to the conventional war.
The two hour History Channel special looked at some of the sabotage, use of modernizing chemistry, and intrique fomented by the Confederate Secret Service. It showed that human beings have generalized patterns -- in this case, with the advent of the industrialized state, the program showed the very same patterns we would see in the secret war run by the SOE in Europe during the Second World War. The patterns of human behavior in secret warfare were the same. Only, in 1940, the technology was better.
So, I dialed up my good friend, Mr. Internet. But, Mr. Internet lives in a very cluttered house. It is sorely difficult to sort through millions of hits because it is related to the American Civil War. My time could have spent than trying to sort through those millions of hits.
The program, for example mentioned a Confederate chemist, Richard Sears McColluh, who defected to the South from the North in 1863. McColluh made improved "greek fire" which spontaneously combusted, so that agents could spread mayhem in Northern centers of industrial or political gravity, such as New York City. He also apparently developed poison gases. After the war, he settled in the South to teach chemistry at a regional college.
If, across the broad membership of the forum, you have knowledge of Civil War chemistry, or of the C.S.S. and its operations, might you fill us in?
My knowledge of chemical theory is meager. NBK2000 may jump all over that, saying this is not a teaching forum. However, going through the historical development of chemical progress is not the 1+1 chemistry that provokes people. It is understanding how chemistry developed, where it was in a time of historical importance, and how it influenced that time. In this case, it might be really very interesting to look at chemistry in the Civil War, if anyone has insight into that time period by way of focused study.
If you have a chance, please see Civil War Terror on the History Channel.
In closing, here is a related link to sabotage and terror operations carried out by the Confederate Secret Service in Federal controlled territory:
http://www.civilwarstlouis.com/boatburners/index.htm
The History Channel had a recent two hour special: Civil War Terror. It was an insightful little piece. My wife and I could not take our eyes off the television. It was the type of history that doesn't get taught in high school, but should be taught because it is so gripping.
In a few history courses over time, I heard one instructor or another say that the American Civil War (1861-1865) was the first "modern" war. They cited the mass transportation of the railroad, the industrialized state, war of economy, modernized communications in the telegraph (the updated form of which we use today), etc. Only infrequently did any one mention sabotage, or to an organized resistance within the Federal north, and only was there an occasional reference to the Confederate Secret Service, or what that secret service might have been or done.
Most people focus on the large scale of conventional operations, with some human interest stories relevant to the conventional war.
The two hour History Channel special looked at some of the sabotage, use of modernizing chemistry, and intrique fomented by the Confederate Secret Service. It showed that human beings have generalized patterns -- in this case, with the advent of the industrialized state, the program showed the very same patterns we would see in the secret war run by the SOE in Europe during the Second World War. The patterns of human behavior in secret warfare were the same. Only, in 1940, the technology was better.
So, I dialed up my good friend, Mr. Internet. But, Mr. Internet lives in a very cluttered house. It is sorely difficult to sort through millions of hits because it is related to the American Civil War. My time could have spent than trying to sort through those millions of hits.
The program, for example mentioned a Confederate chemist, Richard Sears McColluh, who defected to the South from the North in 1863. McColluh made improved "greek fire" which spontaneously combusted, so that agents could spread mayhem in Northern centers of industrial or political gravity, such as New York City. He also apparently developed poison gases. After the war, he settled in the South to teach chemistry at a regional college.
If, across the broad membership of the forum, you have knowledge of Civil War chemistry, or of the C.S.S. and its operations, might you fill us in?
My knowledge of chemical theory is meager. NBK2000 may jump all over that, saying this is not a teaching forum. However, going through the historical development of chemical progress is not the 1+1 chemistry that provokes people. It is understanding how chemistry developed, where it was in a time of historical importance, and how it influenced that time. In this case, it might be really very interesting to look at chemistry in the Civil War, if anyone has insight into that time period by way of focused study.
If you have a chance, please see Civil War Terror on the History Channel.
In closing, here is a related link to sabotage and terror operations carried out by the Confederate Secret Service in Federal controlled territory:
http://www.civilwarstlouis.com/boatburners/index.htm