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.

 

[Cavalier]

I guess I qualify as one of those old timers so I will jump in and state I don't dream in black and white.

Even now most of the movies I watch are in black and white but it hasn't affected my nocturnal mis - adventures as of yet.

John

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

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

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,

I also thought that "to refuse the line" meant that the soldiers refused to get in a line

I thought all those things! I remember asking a question about "refusing the line" because I was so confused about why would the soldiers on Little Round Top refuse to get in line to fight!

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

Maybe over severely nearsighted people have this problem (and it's probably exacerbated by my ADHD): I have an above average tendency to misread words, especially long unfamiliar words. Most notably with the Civil War, it took me many years to realize Spotsylvania rhymes with Pennsylvania, rather that being pronounced "Spots-vil-ia." I'm still not sure if Trevilian Station is pronounced the same way as the Bond villain (Trevelyan).

In a similar vein to the geographic confusion others have mentioned: I was having lunch after visiting Manassas battlefield when I overheard the folks at the next table were from Gainesville.

"Hi, we're from Florida too!"
*puzzled look* "No, we live a few miles west of here."

 

[Lubliner]

I never realized the people of that era could be well educated. Everyone signed their name "X".
Lubliner.

 

[stu613]

I never realized the people of that era could be well educated. Everyone signed their name "X".
Lubliner.

Apparently Malcom was a very popular name back then :>).

 

[gjpratt]

Apparently Malcom was a very popular name back then :>).

Or Elon.

 

[CWdiaryPA]

I know this is ridiculous, but it never even occurred to me the war happened so far North.... In Virginia? Really? I thought it all went down in the extreme southern states, like Alabama, Mississippi. Being from PA, I'd heard of Gettysburg, but somehow thought it was an anomaly. Still getting over that, Virginia? Somehow never tied the taking of Richmond as being in VA.

 

[Coffeelover]

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?

I read somewhere many years ago that the first time the shock rocker Marilyn Manson watched Wizard of Oz as a kid that when the movie went to color it scared him so bad he went himself. Not sure how true that was.

 

[Coffeelover]

Wet. Jeezzz.

 

[Belfoured]

I think this group could publish an Alt Civil War book.

 

[Belfoured]

I read somewhere many years ago that the first time the shock rocker Marilyn Manson watched Wizard of Oz as a kid that when the movie went to color it scared him so bad he went himself. Not sure how true that was.

He was looking in a mirror.

 

[damYankee]

I still want a pet brass monkey

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

I think this group could publish an Alt Civil War book.

Don't give @TallTallMan any ideas.

I still want a pet brass monkey

You and The Beastie Boys.

 

[damYankee]

Don't give @TallTallMan any ideas.



You and The Beastie Boys.

Never listened to them,

 

[rob63]

I used to think that military positions were chosen for some mystical grand strategic reason that was totally beyond my comprehension because I never studied at West Point or something similar. It took an embarrassingly long time for me to realize that logistical considerations and the terrain features that impacted them such as roads, rivers, mountains, etc. dictated the movements and that a hill that was defended wasn't necessarily chosen because it was the most perfect place in the entire region, but rather because it was the best available spot near the road, or whatever, that needed to be defended. In other words, I made it way more complicated than what it really is, while at the same time totally missing the things that actually mattered.

 

[Pat Answer]

I used to think that for it to be a real Civil War battle there had to be a peach orchard, wheat field, sunken road, or bloody lane somewhere about. I now think…well, wait a minute…

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

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.

Hahaha! At least you are strong enough now to admit a past mental blunder. Good show!

 

[G Low]

I used to wonder how you could be civil and be at war.. as in a civil war!!

 

[Lubliner]

Anyone else have a problem with "Masked Battery"?
Lubliner.

 

[Stryker65]

Anyone else have a problem with "Masked Battery"?
Lubliner.

Looking up "___'s (state) Battery" so often on Google was what taught me that "battery" was a crime of some sort.