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The General Lee Steam Loco is safe for now

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Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, August 24, 2017 5:19 PM

The locomotives in Buster's film were scrapped shortly afterward.

Now in the Disney film, those locomotives came from the B&O Museum in Baltimore, the "Yonah" is a replica built by the B&O shops of the "Lafayette" and was exhibited in the B&O's Fair Of The Iron Horse in 1927.  The "General" was portrayed by the "William Mason."  Any others I'm not sure about.

Both are still at the B&O museum and both are still operable.

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, August 24, 2017 6:29 PM

Thanks Firelock, another reason to visit Baltimore besides seeing a ball game at Camden Yards and pigging out on spiced steamed crabs! 

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Posted by Penny Trains on Thursday, August 24, 2017 6:37 PM

From the movie:

At the museum:

These pics are from rgusrail: http://www.rgusrail.com/mdboroundhouse.html#bo13lafayette

That site is loaded with great photos.  Big Smile  Here's the General and Texas page: http://www.rgusrail.com/gasmglc.html#wageneral

P.S. Notice anything about the pic of Texas?  Wink

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Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, August 24, 2017 7:11 PM

Sure, actually three things.

1)  Looks like there's an HO layout around the locomotive.

     (Or maybe two-rail O gauge?  Hard to tell.)

2)  There's a helluva gap between the cylinders and the pilot beam.

3)  The recent restoration sure doesn't look like the "Texas" in the picture!

My MTH "Texas" does though, but without that huge gap!

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Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, August 24, 2017 7:14 PM

54light15

Thanks Firelock, another reason to visit Baltimore besides seeing a ball game at Camden Yards and pigging out on spiced steamed crabs! 

 

You bet!  Along with the USS Constellation and Fort McHenry (you've gotta see that! Wow!) the B&O Museum is not to be missed!

Steamed crabs, I wish.  I like crab, but for some reason it doesn't like me.

By the way, the museum fires up the "William Mason" on occasion for a romp through the countryside.  You have to check the museum's website to find out when.

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Posted by schlimm on Thursday, August 24, 2017 9:14 PM

wanswheel
I took basic at Fort Gordon in ’66, named for John Brown Gordon and his twin brother John.

From what I've read, the Gordons were pretty competent. Can't say the same is true of two other generals for whom large forts are named, (Bishop) Leonidas Polk and Braxton Bragg. John Bell Hood had a mixed reputation, outstanding as a brigade and division commander, a disaster as commander of the Army of Tennessee.

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Posted by tdmidget on Thursday, August 24, 2017 9:53 PM

schlimm

While historians and others can argue about R.E. Lee's place today, there can be no justification for statues and other memorials to Nathan Bedford Forrest, responsible for the massacre of Union troops, black and white, at Ft. Pillow.  U.S. Grant quotes from Forrest's original dispatch: 'The river was dyed,' he says, 'with the blood of the slaughtered for two hundred yards. The approximate loss was upward of five hundred killed, but few of the officers escaping. My loss was about twenty killed. It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners.'

The fact that he was a wealthy slave trader and early member of the KKK only makes the case against him worse.  He should have been executed for war crimes.

 

 

Of course you neglect to add that there was an investigation by the North which did not implicate Forrest in the slaughter of the black troops but in fact revealed that he tried to stop it. As I recall he had 2 units of black Southern soldiers in his army. There is absolutely no evidence of a war crime by Forrest.

There is however plenty of evidence of war crimes by William T. Sherman in his "March to the Sea" where civilian homes, crops, and churches were burned. Livestock was killed and left to rot. In a Fifty to one hundred mile swathe civilians were left to starve with no shelter. Yet he is a hero.

Regarding Forest's association with the Ku Klux Klan, He indeed was involved with it's initiation. The Sout6h was in the grip of an oppressive occupation and the Klan was an effort to bring law and order to it beneathe to view of the northern occupation. In 1869 he realized that it had turned into a criminal, terrorist organization and issued  his "General Order No. One"

As Ben Phelan with PBS writes:

“After only a year as Grand Wizard, in January 1869, faced with an ungovernable membership employing methods that seemed increasingly counterproductive, Forrest issued KKK General Order Number One: “It is therefore ordered and decreed, that the masks and costumes of this Order be entirely abolished and destroyed.” By the end of his life, Forrest’s racial attitudes would evolve — in 1875, he advocated for the admission of blacks into law school — and he lived to fully renounce his involvement with the all-but-vanished Klan.”

 

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Posted by CandOforprogress2 on Friday, August 25, 2017 12:11 PM

It would seem that Jim Crow laws like seperate waiting rooms and rallroad cars for blacks came in the latter part of the 19th century as retibution for gains in civil rights made during recontruction. There were a number of black polititions in DC and then Congress put the kabash on that by tighting federal control over the city.

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Friday, August 25, 2017 1:04 PM

NKP guy
  "Think of other people, not just yourselves."

  Isn't that what's needed here?

  Amen.

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Posted by CMStPnP on Friday, August 25, 2017 7:17 PM

BaltACD

For the Confederate Monuments - Establish a 'Losers Memorial Park' - these are the leaders of a failed ideology that commited treason, waged and lost a war against the United States of America trying to implement that ideology forever. The losers fought valiantly and lost. May it be forever remembered THEY LOST and were a large blemish on the history of the USA. The icons they used in battle also lost. 

General Grant stated one of his regrets in life was not adopting a more confrontational stance with the Lost Cause Movement and rubbing their noses more in the defeat instead of letting them run around attempting to persuade people to the fallen South's viewpoint of the war.     Not sure if General Lee sided with him or not but definitely a part of historical record that Grant made those comments. 

The mood in the country after the war was to heal the divisions at any cost and that meant overlooking some peoples behavior 80-100 years after the war was over and that was the main reason Grant held back.

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Posted by CMStPnP on Friday, August 25, 2017 7:26 PM

tdmidget
As I recall he had 2 units of black Southern soldiers in his army.

The conscription laws of the Confederacy allowed a Slave to take your place if the Confederacy drafted you (the slave had no choice in the matter),  you could also buy your way out of the conscription.   It was the same rule used initially on the Union side I believe the Union corrected it later at the behest of Lincoln but I am not sure.   I know the Confederacy had the rule until the very end.     The myth that some blacks supported the Confederacy is a myth that the South attempted to perpetuate with staged photos, news articles, etc.     Most of them have been shown to be inaccurate.     Including the infamous picture of blacks in Confederate uniform taken in New Orleans........that was proven to be staged.

It's the same as the rumor the Civil War was a state rights issue vs an issue over Slavery.    From the very onset of the war it was about slavery.    The South sponsored gangs of people funded by wealthy landowners in the Deep South to infiltrate territories about to become a state and persuade them via intimidation or just plain outright lies they had to legalize slavery.    The North was attempting to ban the practice and the South was promoting it and had their not been a Civil War the South would have tilted the balance in the Congress via their new state recruitment program.     Thats how Texas got sucked into it.    Unfortunately East Texas was where the majority of the population was and Far East Texas were the large cotton plantations that needed the slaves.     Western and Northern Texas were opposed to the Confederacy.    The first Texas Governor that was opposed to the Confederacy had to resign after the Legislature was tilted against him.    However he didn't resign before warning the state what was comming.     All his predictions came true but much more severe than he predicted including the Naval Blockade.   Thousands upon thousands died of starvation, disease, and roving gang activity by Southerners from the East that wanted to see the land purged of all people that voted for the Union (it wasn't enough they won the vote, they wanted their opponents dead).     It's in the letters section of the Libarary of Congress from early Texas settlers.......both sides of the story.

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Posted by schlimm on Saturday, August 26, 2017 10:07 AM

CMStPnP

 

 
BaltACD

For the Confederate Monuments - Establish a 'Losers Memorial Park' - these are the leaders of a failed ideology that commited treason, waged and lost a war against the United States of America trying to implement that ideology forever. The losers fought valiantly and lost. May it be forever remembered THEY LOST and were a large blemish on the history of the USA. The icons they used in battle also lost. 

 

 

General Grant stated one of his regrets in life was not adopting a more confrontational stance with the Lost Cause Movement and rubbing their noses more in the defeat instead of letting them run around attempting to persuade people to the fallen South's viewpoint of the war.     Not sure if General Lee sided with him or not but definitely a part of historical record that Grant made those comments. 

The mood in the country after the war was to heal the divisions at any cost and that meant overlooking some peoples behavior 80-100 years after the war was over and that was the main reason Grant held back.

 

CMStPnP:  Some great, informative posts.  BTW, in his wonderfully well-written atutobiography, Grant stated that the Mexican War was really a prelude to the Civil War, as both shared the core factor - slavery.  There is also evidence that the reason Texans sought independence from the Mexican government (which had invited them as settlers) was because Mexico was increasingly seeking to oppose slavery in Texas, which was part of Mexico.

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Posted by schlimm on Saturday, August 26, 2017 12:04 PM

tdmidget
Of course you neglect to add that there was an investigation by the North which did not implicate Forrest in the slaughter of the black troops but in fact revealed that he tried to stop it. As I recall he had 2 units of black Southern soldiers in his army. There is absolutely no evidence of a war crime by Forrest.

Try reading the Congressional report.  Forrest was in charge.  And other acts of treachery are also shown.  Were it not for Sherman's leniency towards Forrest, he would have been charged, convicted and hung.  Your knowledge of history appears to be limited to revisionist "Lost Cause" garbage and apologias and anecdotes.

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Posted by NKP guy on Saturday, August 26, 2017 12:26 PM

schlimm
Try reading the Congressional report.

   I read the two pages linked here about the Ft. Pillow Massacre.

   From my reading I can easily see why Confederate and Nazi flags flock together these days:  the ideas and behaviors behind them are much the same.

   So much for the Cavalier myth of the Gallant Southern Officer and Gentleman.

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Saturday, August 26, 2017 1:58 PM

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Posted by wanswheel on Saturday, August 26, 2017 4:28 PM
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Posted by schlimm on Saturday, August 26, 2017 4:44 PM

Paul of Covington
If this statue is an accurate likeness, Nathan Forrest looks like a reasonable man.

He was skilled at many of the things he did and I believe he was quite rational.  So was Reinhard Heydrich.  But both were evil and did despicable things.  As the saying goes, "Looks can be deceiving."Image result for nathan forrest

Image result for Reinhard Heydrich

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Posted by BaltACD on Saturday, August 26, 2017 4:52 PM

schlimm
 
Paul of Covington
If this statue is an accurate likeness, Nathan Forrest looks like a reasonable man. 

He was skilled at many of the things he did and I believe he was quite rational.  So was Reinhard Heydrich.  But both were evil and did despicable things.  As the saying goes, "Looks can be deceiving."Image result for nathan forrest

Image result for Reinhard Heydrich

As you can't tell a book by it's cover; you can't tell the mind of a man by his appearance.  Evil can present itself as pleasing.

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Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, August 26, 2017 6:56 PM

BaltACD
Evil can present itself as pleasing.

And therin lies the core of the argument.  There was a PBS documentary I watched a few years back that was about how reliant the Nazi movement was on ole' Schicklgruber's charisma for it's success.  "He may smile and smile and still be a villain" said someone famous once.  There's also the great line from Schindler's List "It's not just good old fashioned Jew-hating talk.  It's policy now."

My point?  It's all too easy to slide down the slope and do things that you never dreamed of being capable of doing.  All it takes is a sense of...how shall I describe it...license.  A pardoning.

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Posted by wanswheel on Saturday, August 26, 2017 7:57 PM

Description of video Battle of Brice's Crossroads - Forrest's Greatest Victory

Join National Park Ranger Matt Atkinson as he explores the controversial Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest entered the service as a private and surrendered as a Lieutenant General. Along the way, this uneducated backwoods fellow learned the art of war, culminating in the year 1864 with the controversy at Fort Pillow, his greatest victory at Brice's Crossroads, and an all-out effort by General William T. Sherman to thwart "that devil Forrest."

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Posted by tdmidget on Saturday, August 26, 2017 11:17 PM

NKP guy

 

 
schlimm
Try reading the Congressional report.

 

   I read the two pages linked here about the Ft. Pillow Massacre.

   From my reading I can easily see why Confederate and Nazi flags flock together these days:  the ideas and behaviors behind them are much the same.

   So much for the Cavalier myth of the Gallant Southern Officer and Gentleman.

 

NKP guy

 

 
schlimm
Try reading the Congressional report.

 

   I read the two pages linked here about the Ft. Pillow Massacre.

   From my reading I can easily see why Confederate and Nazi flags flock together these days:  the ideas and behaviors behind them are much the same.

   So much for the Cavalier myth of the Gallant Southern Officer and Gentleman.

 

I only see one link to anything regarding Ft Pillow. However I recommend the book "Fort Pillow" by Professor Emeritus of American History, Harry Turtledove, University of California,  for an in depth analysis of the evidence. The congressional report is suspect from the get go because every fatality and injury is caused by gunshot wounds. At this point the Confederate troops were often without shoes and decent clothing. Firearms and munitions were severely restricted by the federal blockade. Many were armed with pikes and farm implements and hoped to gain a firearm from the battlefield. Even then ammunition was a problem. These battles became a frenzy of kill or be killed at hand to hand distances which they all became after the first shot from muzzleloading weapons. They would never have wasted ammunition to kill prisoners, if indeed they did so.

To put things in perspective, we have been fighting in Afghanistan for 16 years and as of July 16 2017 we have lost 2304 personnel. The Civil war lasted 4 years and cost officially 629,000 lives, certainly more since many died later from their wounds. There were no medical corps, no anything. Wounded were sometimes left on the battlefield and eaten by hogs. It was probably the most savage war in recorded history. It is not too much to remember their suffering.

So we have some rail content, after the war Forrest got his affairs in order and set about building a railroad from Selma AL to the Mississippi river. Today the line to Meridian is a Genesse and Wyoming shortline and the balance, I believe is KCS.

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Posted by wanswheel on Sunday, August 27, 2017 12:10 AM

RME
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Posted by RME on Sunday, August 27, 2017 12:44 PM

That's Wyeth's biography from 1908, right?

From Wyeth's introduction:

Naturally the volume he [General Thomas Jordan] had written so soon after hostilities had ceased was pervaded by the Southern side of the struggle which detracted from its value as an historical document, and many of  the statements it contained I found were not accurate when tested by the official reports which came out later, and to which  General Jordan and his associate could not have had access.  I have endeavored to exclude from these pages everything bearing upon the civil or military life of Forrest that could not be substantiated. In the reports of battles and campaigns, when any  material differences of opposing commanders were evident, I have analyzed the reports, in the effort to arrive at a fair and unbiassed [sic] conclusion, making every allowance for the natural prejudice of the human mind under the influence of the excitement incident to war.



Care often needs to be taken with historical material from this general period, and Wyeth was associated with the Confederate 'side'.  The introduction seems to indicate that he took more than usual pains to report impartially on Forrest's history.

But I do have to wonder about Forrest's testimony regarding his role in the formation of the early Klan, as Wyeth's account is at odds with much of the Confederate-side account of Forrest's participation.  On the other hand, if the story regarding his response to Rocky Semmes' arrest is correct (and I see no reason to disbelieve it) Forrest doesn't seem like a man who would lie to save his own skin or even reputation; he would rather have trotted out the Southern-by-the-grace-of-God line about how the Klan was intended to protect the helpless against the predations of the Brownlow government, etc. ... but then went sour as bad influences took over.

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Posted by 54light15 on Sunday, August 27, 2017 7:27 PM

The klan was reborn in 1915 due to the Leo Frank case in Georgia. The film, "They Won't Forget" from 1937 (Lana Turner's debut film) is based on it. An innocent man was lynched after a female employee of his pencil factory was found dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Frank was from the North and Jewish so he had two strikes against him. Only a few years later the klan marched in Washington D.C. 

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Posted by schlimm on Sunday, August 27, 2017 9:56 PM

RME
Care often needs to be taken with historical material from this general period, and Wyeth was associated with the Confederate 'side'.

That's putting it mildly, to say the least.  "John Allan Wyeth was born in Alabama, and served as a private in the Confederate cavalry until his capture two weeks after Chickamauga. After the war he became a surgeon. He died in 1922."

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Posted by wanswheel on Sunday, August 27, 2017 11:28 PM
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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, August 28, 2017 9:46 PM

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by schlimm on Monday, August 28, 2017 10:27 PM

The despicable actions of Bedford Forrest are indefensible.  Apologists for him bring into question their own character.

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Posted by wanswheel on Tuesday, August 29, 2017 1:33 AM

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