Friday, March 25, 2016

Who Were the Child Soldiers of the Confederacy?



Sergeant William T. Biedler

Sergeant William T. Biedler, 16 years old, of Company C, Mosby's Virginia Cavalry Regiment is pictured above.   Many of Mosby’s soldiers were too young to join the regular army.  Mosby favored these young troopers. “They haven’t sense enough to know danger when they see it, and will fight anything I tell them to,” he once said.

Charles Biedler was born November 9, 1847, and in his teens served with Mosby's Rangers. At one time, while guarding a squad of Federal prisoners in a barn, he, singlehandedly, foiled their attempted escape. One of the prisoners, whose life Biedler spared, presented his youthful captor with a golden trinket as a mark of gratitude.  Biedlar had this gift fashioned into his wife's wedding ring. Charles E. Biedler died in Baltimore, Md., on October 11, 1926.



Women Doctors in the Civil War

In both the North and the South, thousands of women served as nurses to help wounded and suffering soldiers and civilians. A few women served as doctors, a remarkable feat in an era when sex discrimination prevented women from pursuing medical education, and those few who did were often obstructed by their male colleagues at every turn.



The 1865 Fall of Richmond in Pictures

The last death agonies of the Confederacy captured in pictures.

Gifts for Dog Lovers





Saturday, March 12, 2016

Disputed American Elections

In virtually every American presidential election, candidates vilify and demonize their opponents. The meme in the last several elections has been "Hitler", with everyone from  George W. Bush and Barack Obama to Hillary ("Hitlery") Clinton and Donald Trump being compared to the evil German dictator.

Historically, American presidential campaigns have always been messy, loud, and controversial. Here are some of the worst.