Avatar

@reclusive-cat-lady / reclusive-cat-lady.tumblr.com

INFJ | Virgo | Reality is not my thing. I daydream fanfiction more often than I write it.
Posts
Avatar
reblogged
ringasunn
Avatar
plaguedocboi

Feeling hostile about seeing Christmas advertisements in October

Avatar
zaprowsdower27

The war on Christmas will end when it ceases its illegal occupation of Autumn and retreats back behind the Thanksgiving armistice line.

Avatar
reblogged
Avatar
quicksiluers
Known as “the Christian General,” Oliver Otis Howard is a unique figure in Civil War history. Despite lackluster performances by troops under his command, Howard’s reputation as an efficient and personally courageous officer would lead to command of an army by the war’s end.
Born in Leeds, Maine to Rowland Bailey and Eliza Otis Howard, young Oliver was educated in North Yarmouth, Maine before graduating from Bowdoin College in 1850.  Immediately upon graduation, Howard received an appointment to West Point, joining a long gray line that also included Jeb Stuart, Dorsey Pender, and Commandant Robert E. Lee’s son, Custis.  Howard graduated in 1854, fourth in a class of forty-six, one place behind future General Thomas H. Ruger.
In 1857, after routine assignments on the East coast, Howard took part in the campaign against the Florida Seminoles.  It was here that the previously religious officer underwent a serious conversion to evangelical Christianity.  Though he remained in the army, Howard often contemplated entering the ministry—even while serving as assistant professor of mathematics at West Point.  Howard’s piety would later be source of ridicule for the general, and the sobriquet “the Christian General” was rarely used without some disdain.
But as history would have it, a certain grace seems to have accompanied Howard’s wartime service.  In May of 1861, he was made colonel of the 3rd Maine Volunteer Infantry, resigning his regular army commission.  He commanded a brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run, and though driven from the field in confusion, was promoted to brigadier general that fall.  Again at the head of a brigade in the Union Second Corps in the spring of 1862, Howard lost his right arm at the battle of Seven Pines but would return to the field in time to form the Army’s rear guard at Second Manassas.  Three weeks later, at the battle of Antietam, he relieved wounded division commander John Sedgwick, and would retain the command until the end of the year.
In the spring of 1863, following his promotion to major general, Howard was elected to replace Franz Sigel as the head of the XI Corps.  A revolutionary from Germany, the immensely popular Sigel was the perfect choice to lead the predominantly German unit.  Howard, however, with his penchant for strict military and moral discipline, did little to gain the respect of his troops before the battle of Chancellorsville.  Posted on the right flank on May 2, 1863, Howard’s men bore the brunt of Stonewall Jackson’s devastating flank attack.  Though the corps commander displayed personal  bravery in attempting to rally his troops, many—including Army commander Joseph Hooker—blamed Howard and his “flying Dutchmen” for the Union rout.  These same troops would flee in confusion two months later at the battle of Gettysburg.    Their commanding officer, however, would receive the thanks of the United States Congress for selecting the ground upon which the next days’ battle was fought—a deed most attributed to Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock.
Sent to the aid of William Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga in the autumn of 1863, Howard remained in the western theatre for the duration of the war.  In May of 1864, he led the IV Corps during William T. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign.  Following the death of James B. McPherson, Sherman selected the Christian General to head up the Army of Tennessee during his scorched earth campaign through the Carolinas.  Howard finished the war a brigadier general in the Regular Army, ranking from the capture of Savannah.  
An ardent abolitionist before the war, Howard’s postwar days were spent looking after the welfare of the recently emancipated slaves.  In May of 1865, he was made the first and only commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and though the organization itself was rife with corruption, Howard again emerged from the ordeal unscathed.  He went on to serve as superintendent of West Point and in 1893 received the Medal of Honor for bravery at the Battle of Seven Pines.  He retired from the Army, a major general, in 1894.
Howard continued to be interested in education late into his life.  Having founded Howard University in 1867, the general was also instrumental in the establishment of Lincoln Memorial University in the mountains of Tennessee.  Oliver Otis Howard died in October of 1909 in Burlington, Vermont, where he is buried in Lake View Cemetery.
#oliver otis howard#super intrigued by o.o. howard and need to learn more#just too busy reading all the little mac bios to get interested in anyone else
Avatar
reblogged
Avatar
theamericanparlor

Miss Maj. Pauline Cushman, the famous Union Scout and Spy of the U.S. Secret Service, Army of the Cumberland

Pauline Cushman was an American actress and spy during the Civil War. She was caught and nearly executed, but was freed. She later toured the country recounting her exploits in lectures and one-woman plays. (Recto, mount): imprited title at center below image. (Verso, mount): imprinted in black ink: H.C. FOSTER, / PHOTOGRAPHER, Morris Island, S.C.“

https://www.biography.com/people/pauline-cushman Pic Getty Museum

#american civil war
Avatar
reblogged
Avatar
saucy-history8

what did Major General George B. McClellan look like?

“At first everybody admired the thirty-four-year-old general. Handsome, with blue eyes and reddish brown hair, he gave an impression of strength and vigor[…] ‘looks as if he ought to have courage, and I think, is altogether more than an ordinary man.’” (Lincoln, David Herbert Donald, 317)

“He appeared well cast for the part: short and broad-shouldered, with a quick eye and a jaunty confidence, he never displayed anything less than a commanding presence.” (To The Gates Of Richmond, Stephen W. Sears, 1)

“Short, handsome, and broad-shouldered, ‘Little Mac’ valued the pomp and circumstances of the military.” (Surgeon in Blue, Scott McGaugh, 55)

“He did not seem young; he was young, with all the vigor and clear-eyed forcefulness that went with being thirty-four. His eyes were blue, unclouded by suspicion, his glance direct. He wore his dark auburn hair parted far on the left and brushed straight across, adding a certain boyish charm to his air of forthright manliness. Clean-shaven save for a faint goatee and a heavy, rather straggly mustache which hid his mouth except when he threw back his head to laugh, he had strong, regular features that gave cartoonists little to catch hold of. He was of average height, five feet nine and one-half inches, yet he was so robust and stockily built- his chest massive, his well-shaped head set firmly on a muscular neck; ‘a neck such as not one man in ten thousand possess,’ an admirer wrote- that he seemed short.” (The Civil War Fort Sumter to Perryville, Shelby Foote, 100)

“The youthful-looking McClellan, short and compact of build, with gray eyes and dark hair, attracted much favorable notice at West Point. […] Dabney Maury, his friend from Virginia, thought he bore ‘every evidence of gentle nature and high culture, and his countenance was as charming as his demeanor was modest and winning.’” (George B. McClellan The Young Napoleon, Stephen W. Sears, 7-8)

“[Jacob D. Cox] described McClellan as ‘rather under the medium height, but muscularly formed, with broad shoulder and a well-poised head, active and graceful in motion.’ From the first, Cox recalled, he made a strong impact on those around him: ‘Personally he was a very charming man, and his manner of doing business impressed every one with the belief that he knew what he was about.’” (George B. McClellan The Young Napoleon, Stephen W. Sears, 70)

“William Howard Russell of Times in London thought in fact McClellan had a Napoleonic look about him ‘in actual weight and breadth,’ with the same tendency toward embonpoint.” (George B. McClellan The Young Napoleon, Stephen W. Sears, 101)

“In person McClellan was five feet nine inches tall, with great breadth of shoulders and solid, not superfluous, muscle. He measured forty-five inches around the chest. His physical strength in his younger life was very great[…] To the very last day of his life his step was quick, firm, elastic, the expression of that uniform cheerfulness, buoyancy: and enjoyment of life which he possessed and which he always communicated to those around him.” (W. C. Prime)

“A compact, red-headed, well born man, McClellan had known only success in his career as a railroad executive and military officer.” (Lincoln’s Melancholy, Joshua Wolf Shenk, 179)

Avatar
reblogged
Avatar
saucy-history8

“I have all sorts of kind and pleasant messages for you from everyone I met. I am very sorry that I did not bring you on, for I find that I have no chance in Washn without you! Mrs. Stoeckle sent all sorts of kind messages for you as-did everyone else that I met, and I sincerely believe, you little scamp, and you are far more popular in Washn today than your husband is.”

- George McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, February 28, 1863

i don’t think i’ve ever known peace since i read the letter where mcclellan calls his wife a “little scamp”

i was like oh 👁👄👁💧 ok then

#oh#my#god#i'm dead#i may have accidentally developed an obsession with mcclellan and reading thing like this isn't helping any#George McClellan
You are using an unsupported browser and things might not work as intended. Please make sure you're using the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.