Tag: American History

Information Political

American History: The Confederate Guerrilla

The James brothers were Confederate guerrillas in Missouri during the Civil War.

The Confederate Guerrilla
Frank and Jesse James in 1872.

Jesse James, one of the most violent outlaws of the wild west, got his first taste for violence as a Confederate guerrilla during the Civil War.

Although he came to be known as one of the most dangerous bandits of the west, James started out his life as a religious, peaceful farm boy who seemed destined for a career as a minister, like his father Robert, who died in California while preaching to gold miners.

Those plans changed when the Civil War broke out in 1861 and brought chaos to his sleepy hometown of Kearney, Missouri.

As slave owners with six slaves working on the family hemp farm, the James family sympathized with the Confederate cause.

Born in 1847, Jesse was too young to join the army and begrudgingly stayed behind as he watched his older brother Frank leave home and join a group of Confederate guerrillas known as Quantrill’s Raiders, run by outlaw William Quantrill.

The war soon came home to Jesse when his brother’s activities in the gang led the Union army to the James farm.

Looking for information on Frank’s whereabouts, the soldiers beat Jesse and tortured his stepfather.

Historians believe this violent experience is what pushed Jesse to join his brother and the gang, at just 16 years old, in the spring of 1864.

Led by “Bloody Bill” Anderson, the gang was made up mostly of wealthy, slave owning families seeking to protect Missouri from the anti-slavery Union ideals. They terrorized anyone who sympathized with or supported the Union army in Missouri.

During a raid in the summer of 1864, Jesse was shot in the chest but recovered in time to take part in one of the bloodiest atrocities of the Civil War: The Centralia Massacre.

Described by witnesses as a “carnival of blood,” the Centralia Massacre was a raid on the small Missouri town of Centralia.

While the gang was looting the town and murdering anyone who protested, a train pulled into the center of town with 21 unarmed Union soldiers on leave from the army.

Anderson and his men quickly stripped the soldiers of their clothing, so they could use them as disguises, and shot them dead.

Nearby Union troops caught wind of the violence and headed toward the town to put an end to it. The gang set up an ambush, captured and then killed all 150 soldiers. Jesse himself was credited with killing Union major A.V. E. Johnson in the massacre.

Many of the soldiers were beheaded, disemboweled and slowly tortured. After the violence was over, the gang then proceeded to mutilate and scalp the bodies.

Anderson died a few weeks later after he was killed by members of the Missouri State Militia and most of the gang returned to quiet civilian life after the Civil War ended, except for Jesse and his brother.

Still angry over the defeat of the Confederate army, the brothers vowed to continue fighting.

The James brothers began robbing banks, including a bank owned by the man they believed killed Anderson, and murdered him on the spot.

When the press mentioned Jesse by name it gave him a thrill and spurred him to continue.

Jesse acquired his own gang and together they robbed banks, trains and stagecoaches while declaring themselves heroic Southern fighters:

“We are not thieves,” he wrote in a letter to a newspaper, “we are bold robbers. I am proud of the name, for Alexander the Great was a bold robber, and Julius Caesar, and Napoleon Bonaparte.”

James and his men eventually ran into trouble after a robbery in Minnesota in the summer of 1876 turned deadly and two members of the gang were killed.

The James brothers went into hiding but Jesse eventually became restless and started another gang. Jesse met his end when two men in his group, Robert and Charley Ford, decided to kill Jesse hoping to collect the reward Governor Crittenden had placed on Jesse’s head.

Robert Ford shot and killed Jesse James on April 3, 1882 by shooting him in the head when his back was turned. The Ford brothers later stood trial for murder but were pardoned by the governor.

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Amusing Information

Why Yankee Doodle Called It “Macaroni”

Why Yankee Doodle Called It Macaroni

An explanation of why Yankee Doodle called the feather in his hat “Macaroni”. Both the line and the song have more historical context than many people may realize.

Most of us sing “Yankee Doodle” with a focus on the tune rather than the apparently gibberish words:

Yankee Doodle went to town

A-riding on a pony,

Stuck a feather in his cap

And called it macaroni.

To a kid, the macaroni at the end makes it sound like Yankee Doodle was an ignoramus who didn’t know what mac and cheese was. But a kid doesn’t know a couple of key things about the song, including that:

  1. The whole thing was written to insult Americans
  2. The real meaning of macaroni is a multilayered insult for the ages

“Yankee Doodle” had many different versions, but we know it was sung by British officers before and during the Revolutionary War. And a macaroni was actually a specific type of person — the type of person to be mocked.

“Macaroni referred both to particular short-lived fashion for men in the early 1700s and to a certain kind of man,” professor Kate Haulman writes in The Politics of Fashion in Eighteenth-Century America. “Often derisive, the term applied to elaborately powdered, ruffled, and corseted men of fashion, successors to the Restoration era fops and predecessors to the nineteenth century dandy.”

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Amusing Political

American History: Sergeant Stubby

Original caption: Washington, DC: Meet up with Stubby, a 9-year-old veteran of the canine species. He has been through the World War as mascot for the 102nd Infantry, 26th Division. Stubby visited the White House to call on President Coolidge. November 1924
“Sergeant Stubby” by Stubby: Terrier Hero of Georgetown. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.

While training for combat on the fields of Yale University in 1917, Private J. Robert Conroy found a brindle puppy with a short tail. He named him “Stubby”, and soon the dog became the mascot of the 102nd Infantry, 26th Yankee Division. He learned the bugle calls, the drills, and even a modified dog salute as he put his right paw on his right eyebrow when a salute was executed by his fellow soldiers. Stubby had a positive effect on morale, and was allowed to remain in the camp, even though animals were forbidden. When the division shipped out for France aboard the SS Minnesota, Private Conroy smuggled Stubby aboard. Hidden in the coal bin until the ship was far at sea, Stubby was brought out on deck where the sailors were soon won over by the canine soldier. Stubby was once again smuggled off the ship and was soon discovered by Pvt. Conroy’s commanding officer. The CO allowed Stubby to remain after Stubby gave him a salute. When the Yankee Division headed for the front lines in France, Stubby was given special orders allowing him to accompany the Division to the front lines as their official mascot. The 102nd Infantry reached the front lines on the 5 February 1918. Stubby soon became accustomed to the loud rifles and heavy artillery fire. His first battle injury occurred from gas exposure; he was taken to a nearby field hospital and nursed back to health. The injury left him sensitive to the tiniest trace of gas. When the Division was attacked in an early morning gas launch, most of the troops were asleep. Stubby recognized the gas and ran through the trench barking and biting at the soldiers, rousing them to sound the gas alarm, saving many from injury. Stubby also had a talent for locating wounded men between the trenches of the opposing armies; he would listen for the sound of English and then go to the location, barking until paramedics arrived or leading the lost soldiers back to the safety of the trenches. He even caught a German soldier mapping out the layout of the Allied trenches. The soldier called to Stubby, but he put his ears back and began to bark. As the German ran, Stubby bit him on the legs, causing the soldier to trip and fall. He continued to attack the man until the United States soldiers arrived. For capturing an enemy spy, Stubby was put in for a promotion to the rank of Sergeant by the commander of the 102nd Infantry. He became the first dog to be given rank in the United States Armed Forces. Later, Stubby was injured during a grenade attack, receiving a large amount of shrapnel in his chest and leg. He was rushed to a field hospital and later transferred to a Red Cross Recovery Hospital for additional surgery. When Stubby became well enough to move around at the hospital, he visited wounded soldiers, boosting their morale. By the end of the war, Stubby had served in 17 battles. He led the American troops in a pass and review parade and later visited with President Woodrow Wilson. He visited the White House twice and met Presidents Harding and Coolidge. Stubby was awarded many medals for his heroism, including a medal from the Humane Society which was presented by General John Pershing, the Commanding General of the United States Armies. He was awarded a membership in the American Legion and the Y.M.C.A. When his master, J. Robert Conroy, began studying law at Georgetown University, Stubby became the mascot of the Georgetown Hoyas. He died in 1926.

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Amusing Information

American History: The Texas Giants

The Texas Giants

The four Shields brothers, of White Rock, Texas, were billed as being between 7 feet 8 inches and 8 feet 0 inches tall, but in reality none of them exceeded 7 feet 0 inches. They were between 6 feet 8 inches and 6 feet 11 inches when they joined a Barnum & Bailey sideshow around 1880. They were also known as The Texas Giants.

Shadrick Archibald Shields (a.k.a. Shade Shields at 6 feet 8 inches), Augustus Orion Shields (a.k.a. Guss Shields at 6 feet 9 inches), John Franklin Shields (a.k.a. Frank Shields at 6 feet 10.5 inches), and Jack Robinson Shields (a.k.a. Jack Shields at 6 feet 11 inches) each made about six dollars a day as ‘The Texas Giants.’ Three of the brothers returned to Texas after 10 years, but Shade trouped on into the 1890s. At one point, he and his tall, Irish wife, Annie (formerly knownn as Annie O’Brien, wife of Patrick O’Brien), were billed as ‘The Texas Giant and Giantess.’ After Shade retired, he and Guss ran a saloon in Greenville. But in his last years, recalling the magic of the big top, Shade spent most of his time on Missouri riverboats with his good friend and fellow circus veteran, 36-inch-tall Major Ray, who had formed one half of ‘the smallest married couple in the world.’

One of the newspaper clippings below writes of 7 real Shields Brothers (with a claimed combined height of over 50 feet!). The 1870 census even lists 8 Shields brothers and their approximate birth years:

James Shields – 1839
Robert Shields – 1842
Thomas J Shields – 1844
Josiah P Shields – 1848
Augustus O Shields – 1851
John F Shields – 1853
Shadrick A Shields – 1857
Jack R Shields – 1859

Only 4 of them were tall enough to tour as giants. The line-up of the ‘Shields Brothers’ varied to include other tall men from that period. Other tall man that regularly posed as one of the 4 brothers were Ben Brown and George Sturgis.

Shields Brothers

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