Veteran's Day

November 11 is Veteran's Day, and although the Boys in Blue & the Boys in Gray aren't here to thank any more, there are plenty of men and women who are currently serving or have served in the past.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum has a pretty good idea. They have taken images of Illinois soldiers from the Civil War and created postcards from them.

Beginning on 11/11 and ending on 12/7, the "Boys In Blue" postcards will be available at the Museum. For the paltry donation of $1, a visitor can purchase a card and write a message on it for a currently-serving Illinois soldier.

The postcards will then be mailed to 3 Illinois units currently serving in Afghanistan--the 1-14 Agribusiness Development Team, the 1644th Transportation Company, and the 661 Engineers.

This event complements an exhibit I would love to see: the Presidential Library's "Letters To Soldiers" holiday tree showcasing the beautifully crafted and emotional letters written to and from Illinois soldiers during the Civil War. I cannot but hope something is there from Elmer to Carrie, or Carrie to Elmer. They were such sweethearts!

The link for more information is http://ow.ly/7lRKk

or just google up the ALPLM. And thank a service member.

How Tintypes Are Made

When researching history of the nineteenth century, there are, thankfully, photographic images of a lot of things that it would be next to impossible to imagine.

Thankfully as well, the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War has brought a ton of wonderful historical resources together on the Internet. What a treasure trove!!! I am daily blown away by what I find. How did historians ever work before they had computers?

On Twitter, I Follow civilwarphoto, which is from the Center for Civil War Photography. They have so many great images--I even got my official cwp 3-D glasses to look at stuff they have digitalized into three dimensional images. (so kewl!)

They had a link up tonight to the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY5KQQLBbcs, which is a short (less than 4 minutes) film by the George Eastman House on how tintypes are made.

OMG!! Not only is the music sweet, the film itself is simple and very accessible. The Comments which follow are interesting, as are the Suggestions in the right-hand column. You gotta see this!!!

And of course, the picture tonight is a tintype of my favorite soldier--in rarely seen civilian attire. Remembering Ellsworth is much easier with images such as this one available.

Other Famous Ellsworths

It had to happen--it was inevitable. Someone asked me just how many things were named in honor of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, and I got to digging . . .

May I present Ellsworth, the pet mynah of Disney's Goofy? This particular image of Ellsworth was drawn in 1949, and shows a mynah that looks suspiciously like a crow. Nevertheless, the bird was created as Goofy's pet and appeared in a variety of Sunday Funnies world-wide.

Usually he wears clothes, a red-orange shirt and a beret, and he had a "Y" on his shirt in early incarnations, for "Yarvard," his alma mater.

He is sarcastic and supercilious, and his catchphrase is a warning, "Let's not, shall we?" He isn't seen very often any more, but he is, indeed, an Ellsworth.

Next time someone asks me to look up random information, I think I shall quote the bird. "Let's not, shall we?"

Dick Cheney at Appomattox?

I am always both surprised and awed at where the Civil War shows up. It is such a touchstone for our lives. Even politicians can be identified with labels from the War. Copperheads, wanting to bring down the government, Fire-eaters making a lot of noise without much substance--it goes on and on.

I thought this worth sharing.

Henry Clay Didn't Do It!!

In researching First Fallen, I read several interesting books about being a man in the nineteenth century--sort of proto Iron John stuff. The whole "Self-Made Man" idea started then, and was an important part of nineteenth-century male identity, especially for those hard-working, money-grubbing Yankees, such as--oh!--Abraham Lincoln, for instance. And Elmer Ellsworth.

Basically, it involves leaving family money and identity behind and going one's own way, creating an identity based solely on personal achievements.

Henry Clay is credited with coining the phrase, "self-made man," in a speech made before the Senate on February 2, 1832. "In Kentucky, almost every manufactory known to me, is in the hands of enterprising and self-made men, who have acquired whatever wealth they possess by patient and diligent labor." The OED even claims this to be the first use of the term.

However, in further study, I found an article by a gentleman, SubtropicBob, who disputes this. He googled that great online research tool, newspaperarchive.com and found a print article--a letter signed by a Professor Newman--about Roger Sherman, Declaration signer and . . . self made man! Professor Newman claimed that Sherman rose from humble beginnings, etc. And--he wrote this letter to the Delaware Advertiser on October 9, 1828, predating the Clay quote by 5 years.

Who cares? SubtropicBob and I. I have changed my References and Endnotes, as well as the text of First Fallen, to reflect this new information.

It never hurts to keep researching.