I Used To Think...

[Stryker65]

Like my other whimsy-related thread, Funny Research Finds, this thread is mostly for fun, and would rely on audience (your) participation. I saw this in a YouTube video once, and I thought it could be applied here -- what is something you used to think when you were first starting out with research, and learned it was not so later on?

I used to think a "12-pounder" meant that the cannon weighed only twelve pounds. Embarrassing that I even considered it.

 

[Mint Julep]

I used to think that Lincoln was an automobile.

 

[jackadven]

I used to think that Lincoln was an automobile.

Well it is!

 

[WinterLeia]

I couldn't figure out how Grant and his armies moved south from Cairo, Illinois along tributaries of the Mississippi River Valley and ended up at a landing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, how they could have flying artillery when planes hadn't even been invented yet, or why the High Watermark of the Confederacy was called that when the Confederates were further north when they began the charge than they were when they got to the High Watermark. I also thought that "to refuse the line" meant that the soldiers refused to get in a line.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Honestly, the list is too long to start - suffice to say I learn new things everyday and now treasure primary sources.

 

[G Low]

Like my other whimsy-related thread, Funny Research Finds, this thread is mostly for fun, and would rely on audience (your) participation. I saw this in a YouTube video once, and I thought it could be applied here -- what is something you used to think when you were first starting out with research, and learned it was not so later on?

I used to think a "12-pounder" meant that the cannon weighed only twelve pounds. Embarrassing that I even considered it.

No wait, how much DOES a twelve pounder weigh!

 

[Stryker65]

No wait, how much DOES a twelve pounder weigh!

According to Wikipedia, it's 1,227 lbs.

 

[G Low]

According to Wikipedia, it's 1,227 lbs.

That's pretty impressive and without the balls right?

 

[G Low]

A couple of things that stand out. I'd always heard we were Americans and lived in the south. On first finding a globe I figured we lived in South America!!! I also thought that a "case" quarter contained 2 Dimes and a nickel. Never tried to break one open.

 

[WinterLeia]

I used to think that Lincoln was an automobile.

Fun fact : The Lincoln Motor Company and the Lincoln line of Ford luxury models that the company built were named after Abraham Lincoln. The founder of the company, Henry Leland, was a huge admirer of Lincoln and stated that Lincoln was the first President Leland voted for in1864.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

For a long time I didn't know that case shot existed; I thought there was only solid shot and canister.

Farther back, I thought that Buell, McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, and Rosecrans had been dismissed from the Union Army completely when they were relieved from army command.

My understanding of the causes of the war and what the men on the two sides were fighting for has also changed a lot.

 

[Belfoured]

When I first got into this about 8-9, I couldn't figure out why they fought battles in a place that was intended for male cattle to race each other.

 

[John Winn]

When I first got into this about 8-9, I couldn't figure out why they fought battles in a place that was intended for male cattle to race each other.

No, no. See, they were just free to run around; they weren't racing. They were much more humanitarian regarding such things then; e.g. all the chickens were free range.

 

[Coffeelover]

That the pictures I looked at in old books that were black and white that the world back then was actually black and white.

 

[Stryker65]

When I first got into this about 8-9, I couldn't figure out why they fought battles in a place that was intended for male cattle to race each other.

I've said this many times before, and I urge you all to take this up again: the best name for that battle that combines both choices is First and Second Man Run. An apt name, if I do say so myself, since Man did in fact Run.

 

[luke1861]

When Civil War authors would refer to guns being captured I thought they meant muskets and revolvers, not cannons. You can imagine my puzzlement when I read that the numbers of guns captured during a battle were oftentimes in the single digits.

 

[jackadven]

That the pictures I looked at in old books that were black and white that the world back then was actually black and white.

Well it was. They didn't invent color until much later.

 

[Coffeelover]

Well it was. They didn't invent color until much later.

Yes. I actually believed that. I asked adults what year the Earth changed to color.

 

[Sheltowee]

My world was small. Thought the capital of the CSA was Richmond……..Kentucky.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

Well it was. They didn't invent color until much later.

I believe that landmark moment was recorded in the famous documentary The Wizard of Oz.

I have heard that the invention of TV really did cause many people to start dreaming in black and white from the 1940s through the 1960s. Not sure if any of our resident oldtimers had that experience?