Profiles in Toxic Masculinity, Part 3
I thought that I’d profile someone a little more palatable – indeed, admirable – this time.
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
The fellow in this photo to the right looks a distinguished figure; a bank president, perhaps, or a judge, a governor, maybe a college professor. He is a figure of great dignity and gravitas, indeed.
Well, he was a college professor and a Governor (of Maine), in fact, but that’s the least of his story. The old man here is Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain, hero of Gettysburg, one of America’s premiere military heroes, a man who may have single-handedly saved the Union on a fateful day in 1863.
His Maculate Origin
Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain (for unknown reasons he is best known by his middle name) was born on September 8, 1828, in Brewer, Maine, to Joshua and Sarah DuPree Brastow Chamberlain. A studious and deeply religious child – his mother raised him in a strict Congregationalist household – he was shy and spoke with a pronounced stammer. His father instilled in the young Lawrence an understanding of the importance of educating one’s self, as well as an abiding interest in military matters. This was to lead to one of the most remarkable feats of American arms in our history.
As a young man he pursued various occupations including lumberjack (hardly a novelty in Maine) and bricklayer, meanwhile studying Greek and Latin, because lumberjacking and bricklaying are both occupations that give you plenty of spare time for studying Greek and Latin. At age twenty he entered Bowdoin College, graduating in four years. Then, perhaps remembering his mother’s insistence on rigid Calvinism, Chamberlain entered the Bangor Theological Seminary. On his graduation from that institution, however, he declined the ministry and returned to Bowdoin, where he was hired as a professor, teaching Rhetoric and Natural and Revealed Religions. In 1855, he married his childhood sweetheart Frances “Fanny” Adams, and no, I will not speculate as to the source of her nickname.
Then, in 1862, Chamberlain was to embark on his military career, and it is possible that no other American Army officer has ever led a more distinguished career with so little preparation.
His Adventurous Career
On the outbreak of the war, Chamberlain lectured his students on the necessity of preserving the Union and, being one to put his money where his mouth was, then wrote to the Governor of Maine, one Israel Washburn Jr., “I fear, this war, so costly of blood and treasure, will not cease until the men of the North are willing to leave good positions, and sacrifice the dearest personal interests, to rescue our country from desolation, and defend the national existence against treachery.” Chamberlain then proceeded to do just that, declining the command of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry until, as he put it, he could “start a little lower and learn the business first.” He didn’t start that much lower, serving first as Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment under Colonel Adelbert Ames. The 20th was assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps of the Army of the Potomac under the command of Brigadier General Dan Butterfield. With these men Joshua Chamberlain went to war.
The 20th saw first action at Fredericksburg, where the inept General Burnside ordered repeated attacks against the Confederates entrenched on Marye’s Heights. The entire mess could have been avoided had Burnside, who despite his impressive facial hair and his invention of a successful breech-loading carbine was only a fair general, allowed one of his subordinates, Winfield Hancock, to cross the river the day before. Had they done so, Hancock’s men could have occupied the heights before Lee’s men arrived; but that was not to be the case, and so the 20th Maine charged the heights.
The charge of the 20th came late in the day, and like the units before them, they failed to take the heights. They were still on the long, deadly slope when night fell and the men of the 20th, with Chamberlain in their midst, spent a cold and uncomfortable night using the bodies of slain soldiers as shields from the Confederate bullets that kept probing their lines throughout. Come morning, they withdrew.
A faulty smallpox vaccine that made much of the regiment ill spared them from the debacle at Chancellorsville, but about this time Colonel Ames was promoted away from the 20th, and Chamberlain ascended to Colonel and command of the regiment.
The next July, Lee invaded Pennsylvania, and the 20th Maine marched towards a little Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg.
His One-Man War
To call what happened on July 2nd, 1863 as a one-man war is perhaps a bit of a misnomer. The entire 20th Maine fought that action, after all, and their commander, Colonel Chamberlain, thereafter, always insisted that credit for their victory on that day properly went not to him but to the regiment. But the command was his, the responsibility was his, and the decisions were his. On that day, Chamberlain prevented another Chancellorsville-style disaster and may have saved the Union.
On that fateful morning the 20th Maine was ordered to secure a hill called Little Round Top, which formed the extreme far left of the Federal line. “You may not withdraw under any circumstances,” Colonel Chamberlain was ordered by his Brigade commander, Colonel Strong Vincent. Realizing that if his men faltered and lost Little Round Top, the entire Union line could be flanked out and rolled up like a cheap carpet, Chamberlain spoke to his men, ordering them to prepare positions, to pile up rocks, to be ready for a stubborn fight.
The attack was not long in coming. The 15th Alabama attacked in force, charging up the steep hill several times. The 20th suffered losses, but for the most part the men fared well in their defensive positions. As the Alabama men probed for the 20th Maine’s flank, Chamberlain reportedly ordered his left flank to refuse the line, forming a new line at a 90-degree angle to the old.
Original Commissioned by the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA.
During the fighting, Chamberlain was hit twice, both minor injuries; a bullet struck his sword scabbard, leaving a large bruise on his leg, and a spent bullet hit his boot.
After several charges by the Alabama men convinced Chamberlain that the Confederates didn’t intend to give up, he decided to change tactics. The Maine men were running low on ammo, and Chamberlain reckoned that charging down a hill beat the daylights out of charging up it, so he ordered his men to fix bayonets.
The 20th fixed bayonets and charged. As they charged, the left flank wheeled forward like a slamming door, hitting the 15th Alabama’s flank. In the charge the 20th took over a hundred prisoners, including an Alabama captain captured personally by Chamberlain.
Thus, ended the Battle of Little Round Top and the threat to the Federal left flank. But while the battle ended that day, the history has stayed with us; when I was a U.S. Army officer candidate in the mid-Eighties, we studied this battle as an example of what thoughtful, courageous and committed leadership can achieve on the battlefield.
The 20th Maine went on to fight at Cold Harbor, Second Petersburg, White Oak Road, Five Forks and Appomattox. Chamberlain was badly wounded at Second Petersburg, taking a bullet through the hip. The brigade surgeon predicted he would die, but he survived and, after an extended leave, during which he was promoted to Brigadier General – an honor that was intended to be posthumous – returned to duty.
Because of his well-known bravery and gallantry, General Grant personally named General Chamberlain to accept the surrender of the arms of the Army of Northern Virginia. Chamberlain, seeing the defeated Confederates lining up to surrender their muskets, raised some eyebrows when he ordered his men to attention, showing respect for a valiant foe.
Thirty years after the Battle of Little Round Top, Chamberlain was belatedly presented with the Medal of Honor for his defense of the Federal flank; the citation described his “extraordinary heroism,” and “daring heroism and great tenacity.” Fewer citations were delivered with such accuracy. By war’s end, Chamberlain had served in twenty battles, been cited for courage four times, had six horses shot from under them and was wounded six times. His biography, The Passing of the Armies, details all these things with much more detail that I could present here.
His Golden Years
After the war, Chamberlain returned to Maine, where he won four one-year terms as Governor, in 1866, 1867, 1868 and 1869. He eventually tired of political service and, in 1871, returned to Bowdoin College as President of the institution, a position he held until 1883, when complications of his Civil War wounds forced his resignation.
But a few old wounds weren’t enough to keep Chamberlain at home. He served as the Surveyor of the Port of Portland, Maine, dabbled in real estate, and even traveled to the West Coast to supervise the building of a railroad. In 1898, he volunteered for service in the Spanish-American War, figuring that even a seventy-year-old man could serve in some way, but was rejected due to his age and the wounds from which he never fully recovered.
Chamberlain died in 1914, not long before the explosion of the Great War in Europe.
This is a particularly interesting piece for me to write. The first two men portrayed in this series were remarkable in many ways; W.D.M. Bell was a man of iron courage and endless lust for adventure and possessor of an enormous set of brass balls, while John Johnston was an unsavory, drunken lout who nevertheless was tough, resolute and fearless.
But unlike them, Joshua Chamberlain is one of my personal heroes, and has been since I first read an account of the battle of Little Round Top. He possessed many admirable qualities, not least among them iron courage. His is an example that young men today would do well to emulate.
Comments
194 responses to “Profiles in Toxic Masculinity III: Joshua Chamberlain”
Fix Bayonets.
“no, I will not speculate as to the source of her nickname”
No need to speculate; obviously she had a puffy vulva.
Frances “Fanny” Adams
Thicc?
Neat. I lived about a dozen miles from Gettysburg when I was in elementary school, but I didn’t know anything about his post-war life.
That’s some pretty epic facial hair.
It is notable that he doesn’t appear to have changed his preferred style over the decades.
Obviously Fanny enjoyed her mustache rides.
Hope so, because – due to his war wounds – Chamberlain had extreme ED when he came back from the War.
Cool story. Bayonet charge was epic. That takes some serious balls.
There must be something about Mainers and bayonet charges.
I’ll take your word for it.
Proper linking is for dumb loser-faced losers from losertown, USA
“Out of about 50 enemy dead, roughly 20 were found to have been killed by bayonets, and the location subsequently became known as Bayonet Hill”
The remaining 30 died of fright.
I’m working my way through Hardcore History and on one of his tangents Dan Carlin talks about hand-to-hand combat in the ancient world and bayonet charges in the gunpowder age. He makes the point that on a certain level battle isn’t about killing X number of the enemy so much as scaring the shit out of them and getting them to run away. Bayonet charges are a morale weapon as much as anything because they’re absolutely terrifying. By the time the bayonets are out one side is close to breaking, and so you see comparatively few casualties over the history of the bayonet from bayonets themselves. He says some historians refer to what they call the “dirty little secret” of bayonet charges, namely that as much as the enemy doesn’t want to be stabbed with a bayonet the attackers don’t especially want to do the stabbing, either, and so most charges end with one side routing or withdrawing before contact. When contact was made, supposedly a lot of soldiers would flip their rifles around and use the butt as a club. For most people, the psychological impact of killing someone by hand in melee range is too great, so they just don’t do it.
I can believe that. I’m 100% certain I could shoot a man. I’m far more doubtful that I could stick a man with a bayonet.
I can see the club thing also. You stick someone with a bayonet, you’ve got less force delivered, and then you have to pull it out. That whole time you’re vulnerable to the guy’s buddies. At least the bayonets then were more like spikes.
Well the bayonet thing is that it’s easier for someone to beat the crap out of another human being than to stab them to death because most people in modern cultures have an abhorrence towards violence, and killing someone is about as far to that end as you can go. Knocking somebody out is a good compromise in that scenario.
Well I’ll be a juggler’s uncle. It’s Crusty!
Fuck off Tulpa, it’s good to have you here.
No security at all. They let anyone in here.
“Open (electronic) borders”
I’m ready to bring joy and laughter and mirth and stories of clam slammin’ just for you.
Is it that they get saccharine about them?
Proud to have worn a 7ID patch on my helmet.
Who could see it under all the cabbage patch camo?
Hah! It was when 7ID was reactivated as a HQ, after it was deactivated as an organic light infantry Nevertheless, still have several desert & OD hourglasses.
That said, I think it was about the last division level uniqueness, other than cav stetsons. Too bad. The army needs more rastafarians.
You army types and your patches…..
When I arrived in Okinawa, MACS-4 had a crusty old Master Guns who had been in since the late ’70s and still bitched about adding nametapes to Marine cammies about 10 years after it happened – “That shit’s for the Army, all we need is an eagle, globe, and anchor and that’s all.”
*cue joke about why Marines put their name tapes on back pants pocket*
Bad Posture?
We need HM’s puppy pic here.
YES!!!
Blame the Navy for that one
Maybe some emojis?
Paywalled
I guess it’s better than the thirty paragraph ass-covering dissertation emails sent to half the company that some of my former engineering colleagues would write.
Still, I think you’d get your ass kicked for that in construction.
Someone’s got a case of the Mondays.
*tunes to channel 9, ignores Gustave*
I hold control over the emoji switch on our teams instance. If anybody was posting teddy bears giving hugs, I’d flip the switch. The only appropriate emojis are ???? and ?
I’ll put some emojis on fabrication prints and see where that goes.
Actually it won’t matter, nobody looks at the prints anyways.
What about their marriage a century in the future?
Seriously, excellent writing.
Look, they paid a good deal for the time travel wedding package.
Forget it, he’s rolling.
And I’ll second JB’s accolades. Very well done…again.
He went forward in time and Fanny had come backwards in time to meet him in 1955 after she had invented twerking in the future.
?
Now go back in time and get rid of Hitler!
https://xkcd.com/1063/
Take it easy on the kid, SilverFox316; everybody kills Hitler on their first trip.
Toxic masculinity plus toxic stupidity. TW: Graphic violence.
https://youtu.be/Bpu6XgtS02w
Not gonna watch that.
My general reaction to someone who has a shotgun trained on me is “Would you like a blowjob with that?”
I’m definitely not going to spread my arms out and say go ahead.
Yeesh. You have to be pretty fucking stupid, or just plain suicidal, to bow up to a dude holding a shotgun on you.
Nice write up, Animal. I too didn’t know a bunch about him other than his actions at Gettysburg.
Same. Thanks Animal!
Ditto
Great article, Animal.
It’s a shame kids don’t hear stories about guys like this.
1. He was a white male
2. He was alive during slavery
3. He used assault rifles
I think it’s safe to say he won’t be featured in history class.
The Little Round Top charge was featured in the Ken Burns PBS series, and rightly so. But I confess I was not aware of Chamberlain, I guess since I grew up in the South.
“Every time you say the word ‘unit’ or ‘box’ or ‘equipment’, I feel a penis here, I feel a penis here, I feel a penis here, I feel a penis here.”
That doesn’t mean you have to be a dick about it.
And since when does ‘box’ euphemise male anatomy?
The male tool requires a female box.
My ex-wife wasn’t much of a wrestler, but you really shoulda seen her box!
(fun fact- ex wife actually was an amateur boxer when not being a high-school English teacher)
I can assure you that there are none like him currently lecturing at Bowdion.
IIRC, one of his first acts as president of Bowdoin was to get rid of ROTC.
“I fear, this war, so costly of blood and treasure, will not cease until the men of the North are willing to leave good positions, and sacrifice the dearest personal interests, to rescue our country from desolation, and defend the national existence against treachery.”
King George III couldn’t have said it better himself.
..and the Brits didn’t.
Sorry for the OT, but this is too precious not to share:
Toxic stupidity
The shortage of workers with at least an associate or bachelor’s degree in the labor force will end up costing the U.S. economy $1.2 trillion over the next decade, according to a new report.
Education has historically had the power to unlock workers’ potential for better job opportunities and higher pay. With increased spending power, workers boost U.S. GDP. The skills gap in today’s labor market, however, is a threat to GDP growth over the next 10 years, according to American Action Forum (AAF), a center-right think tank.
Millions of job openings are left unfilled because employers can’t find suitable candidates. They’re having trouble attracting workers with needed skills that can be obtained through higher education (an associate’s or bachelor’s degree or higher). With unemployment at 3.7%, this is a growing concern for U.S. businesses: according to a recent report, 83% of employers say they are struggling to find workers with the right skills.
Muh krudenshul. I’m pretty sure a shortage pf people with bachelors degrees in grievance studies are not what people are talking about when they bring up the “skills gap”.
What a maroon.
College degrees are magic.
They instantly make you more productive and useful.
I hear they have openings at the Transgender Black Lesbian Medieval Literature factory.
Hey, those grievances aren’t going to make themselves.
We seriously need somebody to bust up the government-higher Ed-HR department complex.
First, sap their power by reinstating absolute right to freedom of association or disassociation.
Nor is checking bachelors degree on the HR requirements list an actual skill either.
Most job gaps are of either employer doesn’t want to increase pay to attract candidates or wants ideal candidates that can do everything on day one (the usual 5-10 years experience on a technology out 3 years).
“candidates that can do everything on day one”
Big League pay requires Big League performance.
You would have to already know the business, the people, the process, and the reasons why things are the way they are in order to jump in at 100% day one. Few jobs ever come by where that comination can be lined up.
And when they do it is when they rehire the guy they just laid off as a consultant at twice the salary
Yeah, I can only speak for IT and particularly web stuff, but the kind of people who are able to jump in on day one and start contributing their best are gonna be half a step above interns, basically code monkeys making zip and doing really basic maintenance coding or being given really simple tasks that are really more about learning the team’s processes than actually getting anything done. Big baller senior developers getting hired for MLB money and expected to kill it on day one are probably being hired to create a dev team and dev processes from scratch. There are too many points of interaction and hand-offs to be a fundamental contributor from day one at an advanced level, particularly in the kinds of companies that can and will pay you a ton of money.
He repeatedly throws bachelor’s in there. I assume to distract the reader from the fact that the many of that 83% of employers are looking for associate degree employees. And a large number of those associate degree folks can get the same education going the apprentice route.
the same
educationskills going the apprentice route.There is nothing you learn in an associates program that you can’t learn on the job. My observation is that 1) most employers have a strong disconnect between the requirements for their work and the work they actually assign and 2) no one with any kind of education wants to take any job that doesn’t involve sitting at a keyboard for 40 (well, maybe 32) hours a week.
Military officer? All commissioned officers have a degree…I don’t remember sitting at a keyboard all week.
Forestry/Zoology/Veterinarians/Doctors/Nurses/Pilots/Oceanographers/Chemists/Biologists? I presume most of them actually go out into their field/area/space/lab.
I remember when a bachelors degree was a requirement for promotion to CPT.
Credentialism creep.
He’s just reminiscing, no need for name-calling.
Or working towards it, some 40 years ago
Yeah, sure, hyperbole and all that. A more rigorous version should be “a decreasing share of young graduates with associates and low-earning-potential bachelors”
And I’d be willing to bet that over 50% of those listed majors result in jobs that spend the vast majority of their time behind a keyboard. Or, I guess other seated-button-pushy-jobs in the case of pilots.
Lots of open positions for people that are willing to swing a hammer, turn a wrench, get dirty, etc, but not lots of people willing to do that kind of work (including me…)
Able to swing a hammer, know how to turn a wrench and willing to get dirty. Unfortunately not many kids leaving high school know how to use a framing square.
Seems awfully dumb to have to send an auto transmission back to China where some young girl all spiffy in her blue uniform and hairnet overhauls the damn thing
Umm…speak for yourself.
That is my fetish.
I wholeheartedly disagree with #2. Unless by “any kind of education” you actually mean bachelor’s and above. Even that would be quite a bit of hyperbole.
However, on #1 I strongly agree that many employers do have that disconnect. Mix that with a dash of elitism and/or credentialism and here we are.
I guess I should specify that I was thinking of academic associates degrees, aka the thing one gets when they drop out of a 4 year bachelors degree, and not a vocational associates degree like auto-tech, machining, drafting, and other trades.
Best fictional account was the book The Killer Angels. The 1993 movie, Gettysburg, isn’t half-bad either, even though Jeff Bridges ‘stache looks as fake as a plastic Christmas Tree.
Reading it was a Thanksgiving weekend tradition of mine back in the 90s.
Jeff Daniels, you mean.
Fake as it looked, it was very realistical compared to Tom Berenger’s beard.
you are correct. Fake beards all the way down.
Second. Also, what LH said about the movie.
We had to read the book at Basic School before we walked the battlefield at Gettysburg. We walked Pickett’s Charge up to the “high water mark of the Confederacy.” For those who don’t know, it’s got to be a mile. It was done on horseback, but even still, as we were walking in platoon formation, I turned to the guy next to me and said, “can you imagine a #%$ing cannonball just ripping through us?” The student LT who was leading us turned and in his deepest, baritone with a genteel southern accent shouted: “Steady, Lads! Steady!”
Chamberlain’s defense at Little Round Top probably did save the Union. If he had gotten turned, the entire Union Army would have been fucked. Make no mistake, though, charging UP the hill they were defending took a shit ton of balls by those Alabamans, too.
About time to go OT:
https://babylonbee.com/news/man-votes-absolving-self-of-responsibility-to-love-neighbors-for-next-two-years
“I love my neighbors through the government, just like Jesus told us to,” he told reporters. “That’s why I’m always sure to vote, so that the government can influence and impact my fellow man for good and I can just lounge around and do pretty much nothing.”
“I’m off the hook, suckers!” he added.
Nail. Head. Hit.
I’m usually not that good a shot with the nailgun, but I’ll try.
Let’s get down to brass tacks, nobody is a good shot with a nailgun
It’s a short range weapon.
No.
Depends on how you frame the question.
Way to hammer home the point.
*narrows gaze*
That’s a pretty mild rebuke. I expected you to be spitting nails!
*frolics away with a shit eating grin*
Aren’t you supposed to gambol away?
Feed that poor cow already.
Unless you cut him off and get him squared away
A piercing stare from a Glib that is tough as nails.
I used to be pretty good. But no longer. I’m officially a has-peen.
Would you call a MTF transsexual a had-peen?
The day after the battle of Little Round Top, the 20th Maine was moved out and replaced in their position.
They were moved to a safer spot in backup, to rest and recover.
That safer spot? The middle of the line, right at the point where Pickett’s charge hit. Hard.
To be fair, Pickett only made it to the fence at one spot, so it was safer than mixing it up in melee.
No, they weren’t. The movie took liberties in order to put the Chamberlains under the artillery barrage and then have Chamberlain’s brother talk to the dying Armistead.
PoMo destruction of objective reality continues apace.
https://spectator.us/trans-english-refinery29/
I heard NPR use the term “all genders” the other day instead of “both sexes” when referring to military service.
…and post puberty, “referring to military service.”
Related
If you are going to pander, go big or go home.
No royal we/ours? I’m surprised out of that large field, someone wasn’t stupidly honest.
Good grief.
He’s claiming to be the Hebrew Diety?
HEY EVERYONE DID YOU KNOW THAT JULIÁN CASTRO SPEAKS SPANISH? JULIÁN CASTRO SPEAKS SPANISH! THAT’S WHY HE PUTS SQUIGGLY LINES OVER VARIOUS LETTERS, BECAUSE HE SPEAKS SPANISH.
I’m guessing you already know the punchline, but others may not – Julian Castro doesn’t even really speak Spanish.
Yo ser mucho grande amigo a los fri..er Mexicanos.
-Julian Castro
What if he and Ted Cruz took some Spanish classes lately?
But does Cruz speak Quebeci French?
Tagalog and Punjabi are much more popular than any French in Calgary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jyGsKOzEVE
I can’t decide if it’s a good or a bad thing that people have so few pressing problems that they can afford to waste time on this sort of thing.
It’s a bad thing, because it means they won’t be in any state or position to handle problems when they do start to press.
People that aren’t sure how they are going to feed their kids tomorrow don’t spend much time worrying about whether a mother should be called a mother or not.
Something is amiss.
U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Del Rio Sector have arrested over 1,100 people from countries in Africa since May 30.
“The apprehension of people from African countries illegally crossing our borders continues to increase,” said Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Raul L. Ortiz. “Our agents this year have encountered people from 51 countries other than Mexico including 19 countries from the continent of Africa.”
I wonder how they got there.
The transatlantic tunnel.
NGOs.
Doesn’t strike me as Andy Ngo’s preferred line of work.
Animal, that was a great article as always. I didn’t know much about the man before.
OT: I read the article in a tire store. I came out of the restaurant after lunch to find no air in one of my tires. I then had to change the tire and replace it with a spare in a torrential downpour. My back and arse are now soaked, but I have a freshly patched tire.
I blame roofers and their lack of common sense nail control.
Please tell me the restaurant served fruit sushi.
What the hell is fruit sushi? I was eating a burger.
Oh, that is a ROBBY SOAVE dig. I lied….I had the auto club change it for me so I didn’t have to get icky.
More toxic masculinity. Lol.
https://youtu.be/G_YM9cCtwz4
Fighting words.
The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire was an abomination.
The famous ruling saying even moon landing skeptics are people… Yeah.
I wasn’t familiar with that ruling.
Indeed.
It wasn’t the speech that was the problem IMO as it was continuing to get in his personal space. That’s an act of aggression and if someone does that to me after I ask them not to, they’re getting a beat down. Don’t care.
Is that so?
YOU ARE A GOD-DAMNED RACKETEER AND A DAMNED FASCIST!
I don’t care what you say.
Pee is stored in the balls.
If that’s the case what’s the prostate for idiot?
Poop gland
Scruffy knows what’s up.
Wrong. It’s to help you lie flat.
It was a simpler time.
Free celery?!?!?!
Buffalo wings are good…
All tables equipped with Diet Coke buttons?
“The apprehension of people from African countries illegally crossing our borders continues to increase,” said Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Raul L. Ortiz. “Our agents this year have encountered people from 51 countries other than Mexico including 19 countries from the continent of Africa.”
I wonder how they got there.
Something something wing beats per minute
Joshua Chamberlain
Are there many (any) of this stripe around any more? It takes a war to bring out the best in individuals, unfortunately. Too often too many end up in the Pentagon cooling it ’til retirement.
“It takes a war to bring out the best in individuals”
I whole heatedly disagree. It’s only in the contrast of the atrocities of war that it appears so.
I would say “in some individuals” i.e. U.S. Grant.
A new cryptid?
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/793323/Half-human-half-dog-creature-seen-lurking-near-Texas-river-video
Well, I’m convinced. The science is settled, new species. The only question now is, what do we call it?
STEVE SMITH’s pet?
If you can’t trust video from ‘The Grimreefar’, who can you trust?
Great. Now the chupacabras are seeking asylum?
Um, they have bears in Texas don’t they?
Another shaky, fuzzy video taken from too far away of a cryptid and incredible claims about what it shows.
I, for one, am sold.
Tuttle Twins book series has been shipped. Saturday had a 1/2 off sale and an option to order a second set for $39. Now I can spread the Shitlord training materials.
My son really liked those. We should re-read them again.
we have the food truck story. that’s a keeper.
https://www.studyfinds.org/hindsight-is-20-20-four-out-of-ten-adults-regret-their-life-choices/
If only I’d spent more time at work!
Cool and accurate retelling.
I respect a soldier doing his job, but this glorious thing about repelling a unit from your well-supplied, comfy uphill position smells overplayed. Notice how much trouble we have to go to from a/we kicked their ass every time they attacked uphill (as one would not bet against) to b/we figured we couldn’t just sit pat so we had to do something to c/fix bayonets and perform some cool parade maneuver in the woods.
Not that reason is useful for retelling, digesting, or predicting past events, but a bayonet defense would have been just as likely to work later should the Bama boys persist as it would when you leave your lines of communication and defense. IOW: it was actually stupid to attack down hill after it had been proven repeatedly unnecessary.
Amazing feats were performed in blue. I find the persistence in the attack up Lookout Mountain and the attack up Fort Sanders to be better examples of Yankee courage. I’m not much into speculating about the when and if of ultimate Confederate victory, but Grant and Sherman were defeated, surrounded, and all but done for the night of 06April1862 after the first day of Shiloh; they were huddled on a bluff and shelled all that night, cut off from further retreat and had only survived the day at all by the the epic resistance at the Hornets’ Nest, delaying and ultimately undoing gray victory because Buell would reinforce by steamboat overnight and allow the Federals to retake the area the next day. If we believe Grant and Sherman’s steering were primary ingredients in victory, the Union was probably saved at Shiloh.
I walked the blue beaver trail as a boy scout back around 1970.
Interesting euphemism
https://www.nps.gov/chch/planyourvisit/upload/LOM-Trail-Map.pdf
Blue Beaver (7.5 miles round-trip)
Access: Kiddie Trailhead | Trail: Hiking from the foot of the mountain to Point Park, this hike in part follows an old Boy Scout route tracing the Union attack up Lookout Mountain. From the Kiddie Trailhead, hike to the Skyuka Trail, then up the Lower Gum Springs to the Upper Truck Trail. Take the Rifle Pits Trail up to the Cravens House, then hike to Point Park via the Cravens House Trail.
Note: This route is different from the historic Blue Beaver Trail. The original route runs through the Chattanooga Arboretum and Nature Center (applicable Nature Center fees apply).
https://sites.google.com/site/tali293patches/home/trails/blue-beaver
I still have my patch somewhere.
https://0c2ff105-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/tali293patches/home/trails/blue-beaver/Blue%20beaver.jpg?attachauth=ANoY7cryjPnW7hkdXJ9jJZ4ef9ZHmmM6qcFpRPU8IzKQZeVtAkcaxRda1D52DBTCFJjEW0jsJTWiQT9y9C5HgtB_mGb4bl3beM1M7pQvYI_AaqBo2PLWjeBhpHs1RI8_ewt-4B7c_m8c-aHlVjuVHyjjTPsXCi4vU2qK0OkhS4iwHd1ytedk4TTDdgDT5p4uSxYseFQix5GcG–351Ark8-4TrbdTFWLSWt37I90ueMaRE1xm0vRLbfusg3KG6wU40aovKjIVaKQ&attredirects=0
Have a connection to the area ?
Correction: I completely mis-remembered Fort Sanders. Hilltop Union works were repeatedly attacked, but, like all over Gettysburg, it was stupid and didn’t work.
we figured we couldn’t just sit pat so we had to do something to c/fix bayonets and perform some cool parade maneuver in the woods.
If I understand the story correctly, Chamberlain was running out of ammo. That sort of changes the situation from the previous repulsions.
Yes, I certainly stipulate that.
But the only (and it’s merely arguable) advantage to leaving his position was the element of surprise. Bayonets later works just as well as bayonets now, but bayonets now subjects you to casualties that might never need come.
Best timeline.
Many people in this country do not yet understand the scourge of paper straws. Useless instruments forced on those who live in leftist-controlled parts of the country, paper straws remind me of the jokes from my elementary school days involving screen doors on a submarine. Well, in a light-hearted (and needed) take down of the absurdity that is the leftist’s desire to push society backwards, President Trump’s reelection campaign is selling environmentally friendly plastic straws.
The straw, which is red, of course, boasts the name of our president written down its side. Going for $15 for a pack of 10, the campaign website astutely urges, “Liberal paper straws don’t work. STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP and buy your pack of recyclable straws today.”
While some may find the straws pricey, can you really put a price tag on irritating leftists while dining out? Think about it. If you are unfortunate to live in one of the leftist enclaves dragging this country down, imagine the angst you can generate when you politely decline the pointless paper straw your server offers you by proudly and loudly proclaiming, “No, thank you. I brought a President Trump plastic straw that helps make drinking great again.”
Troll level: Legend.
What a miserable human being the author is. I can think of a million things I’d rather do that “irritating leftists while dining out.”
Virtue signalling: Not just for pinkos. It is nonsense. You buy the straws and stow them away for your grandchildren. They will be worth a fortune one day.
15 bucks for 10 straws? No. It is a 15 dollar donation to the trump campaign with the straws as a gift. I have to admit it is clever trolling.
It’s sad he depraved some people are and that they think everyone wants to be a duck like them.
Based on the twatter reactions in the linked HuffPo article, the desired triggering worked.
Of course its working. People getting into shitfits over this kind of thing, on whatever side of the culture war, are predictable.
And sad, because they are total slaves to their lizard brain / Type 1 thinking.
Like a few others here, I read Shaara’s The Killer Angels, so I was at least familiar with Chamberlain. Good article, Animal.
I’m way late to the party, but I second that sentiment about the article.
I am just starting to tip my toe in the water that is Civil War obsession
If you like Chamberlain’s story, look for a new biography by Eric Wittenberg (foremost U.S.expert on the Union cavalry during the CW) coming out in the next year. I heard him speak in June; Chamberlain was courageous as hell but, in hindsight, the Rebs were in no position to roll up the Union left if the 20th Maine had evaporated.