danieldwilliam: (machievelli)
Whilst walking round the Dean Cemetary over lunch this afternoon I was caught out by the rain and sheltered under a tree. Looking around I caught sight of a few flags clustered around a memorial stone. Confederate flags? Once the rain eased I made my way over to the memorial. The flags were Confederate flags. Two battle flags and the flag of Mississippi. The enscription on the stone was too weathered and too wet to read but it looked like I had found a Confederate War Memorial in Edinburgh. But too whom?

The answer is one Colonel Robert A Smith, of the 10th Mississippi Regiment, who was killed leading his men in an attack at the Battle of Mumsfordville, September 14, 1862.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Munfordville

He had been born in Edinburgh but followed his brother to the United States and settled in Jackson, Mississippi. Joined up, was elected colonel of the regiment and


The wikipedia article on Colonel Robert A Smith

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Robert_A._Smith_Monument

and his life and times

http://andspeakingofwhich.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/col-robert-smith-in-life-and-death.html

Col Robert A Smith's Memorial in Dean Cemetary Edinburgh

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3860774

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1207754

His actual grave


http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=smith&GScid=59613&GRid=5900906

And the memorial erected on or near the site Mumsfordville Battle

https://www.flickr.com/photos/whsieh78/6098806506
danieldwilliam: (machievelli)
Item one on my year of self-improvement was the US Civil War. This post is going to be a short review of the literature and some longer thoughts on the US Civil War.

Expand<i>You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it … Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth — right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.</i> )

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danieldwilliam

May 2025

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