Sunday, August 21, 2011

NY Times “Disunion” 150 year start of Civil War

The Future of 'Freedom's Fortress'

As a former US President, James Monroe was reported to be an important, well-liked resident of New York City. When he passed on he was interred in one of the first non-denominational cemeteries in the City, the Marble Vault Cemetery in a then very different Bowery, apparently by choice. The Virginia legislature voted to have him reburied in Virginia, in the Hollywood Cemetery. Historians report the whole city stopped to show its respects as his body was taken down to the ship at the dock and sailed to Virginia. I would hope the "Fortress Monroe" be preserved, as has recently Fort Jay has in our own harbor on Governors Island, where a future President Ulysses S. Grant once served as an Army captain. Friday at 11:48pm

How to Lose Allies and Alienate People

The British Navy was blockading slave-running ships on the west coast of Africa. A yacht, "Wanderer" was stopped and boarded. Built in East Setauket, NY on the north shore of Long Island, and out-fitted in Port Jefferson with water tanks for the trans-Atlantic crossing, was thought "too luxurious" in 1858 to be a slaver by the British officer according to his later testimony. "The Wanderer (slave ship)" Wikipedia entry is quite extensive. Hard to see how they might be pro-Confederacy. In 1861, the "Alligator (submarine)" was constructed and perhaps a story I heard about a fleet of them if Great Britain entered the war in the Atlantic is true. As it was they were later fined for the C.S.S. Alabama. August 12 at 9:46pm

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