College of Political Knowledge
Subject: American History
Today is learn your American history day…….a few little known facts and events than most of our textbooks teach…….
Back about a year go Syria used WMDs, chemical weapons, against its people and the rebels…….and of course the world went crazy screaming all sorts of one lners and calling for the Assad admin to be charged with genocide or something equally horrendous…..
Chemical weapons (CWs) have been used in recent history….WW1 comes to mind with its Muster gas….Saddam gassing the Kurds as a punishment for the rebellion against his authority…
Let me step back for a moment….I live in the South and they are still proud of their actions in the American Civil war…..to many the South did NO wrong…..the South was just standing up for its rights….so on and so on………
I know….just what the Hell does that have to do with the use of CWs, right?
Bear with me and I will connect the dots for you………..
The US Civil War foreshadowed World War I in important ways—like trench warfare, new technologies, and violence against civilians—but few of us know about its forays into chemical warfare, the New York Times reports. For one thing, leaders on both sides saw the importance of disease before scientists fully knew how germs worked. Union leaders blockaded Southern ports, cutting off medical supplies and widening the spread of malaria. Meanwhile, Southerners planned to send clothing from yellow-fever patients to Union units, or ship dead patients to Union-occupied New Orleans. Neither plan went into action, but other innovations arose:
A Southern sympathizer in Kentucky planned to lace clothing with smallpox and sell it to Union men in Washington; one Union lieutenant may have gotten sick that way.
Confederate troops retreating from Vicksburg drove animals into ponds and shot them, apparently to contaminate drinking water.
Union troops employed various kinds of Greek fire—incendiary mixes that gave off noxious fumes and sometimes floated on water. Long-range shells with incendiary compounds were used to limited effect.
Confederates had various chemical-weapon plans, such as raiding the Monitor ironclad with chloroform, or firing a shell with chemical agents, but neither were used.
For more on the Civil War, Business & Heritage Clarksville reports on a new documentary series, Civil War: The Untold Story, which looks at the Western theater and little-known roles played by African Americans.
There are always events and facts that are left out of the story……personally, I want to know it all……I do not care whether it is good or bad….all the facts need to be presented and in doing so….taught.
I hope I have given you a new insight into history……for…THAT IS WHY I AM HERE!
