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.

 

[J C J Barefoot]

I understand that that case was the first successful insanity defense. His attorney was Stanton.
When I was young I would see the occasional tourist from up north and wonder HTH his great grand dad could whip mine. My first trip to NYC put that to rest. I was standing at the corner of 42st, and Broadway at 1:30 in the morning and could see more folks there than lived in the town I grew up in.

 

[G Low]

Was the "lost cause" ever found?

 

[G Low]

And I thought confederates lost cause they had less men, weapons, ammunition, clothes and food. Is there another cause that I'm missing?

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Was the "lost cause" ever found?

Hahaha!

 

[G Low]

Hahaha!

So after all the lost causers died , did everyone else quit looking for it?

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

And I thought confederates lost cause they had less men, weapons, ammunition, clothes and food. Is there another cause that I'm missing?

Another consideration is: Was the "Lost Cause" simply a term used by people after the Civil War to throw stones at Southerners, verbally piling on after the defeat of the Confederacy, and nothing more?

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

Another consideration is: Was the "Lost Cause" simply a term used by people after the Civil War to throw stones at Southerners, verbally piling on after the defeat of the Confederacy, and nothing more?

The Lost Cause was a term coined by a former Confederate in his book about the Confederacy.

 

[G Low]

That could be true, people tired of hearing about their "lost cause". The southerners were defending their own country and the Yankees were defending the union but soon became the attackers.

 

[Stryker65]

I thought it was Union defeats all the way up to July 4, 1863, and then Union victories all the time after. Naturally, there were big Union defeats after 1863 as well.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

The Lost Cause was a term coined by a former Confederate in his book about the Confederacy.

You're right, of course. I was thinking of the way that people jumped on the term on a widespread basis.

 

[Stryker65]

You're right, of course. I was thinking of the way that people jumped on the term on a widespread basis.

It certainly could be. I might be remembering this wrong, but I thought ex-Confederates also used the term as a symbol of pride.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

It certainly could be. I might be remembering this wrong, but I thought ex-Confederates also used the term as a symbol of pride.

There were probably some of those. I have heard the term predominantly in criticisms, though.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Another consideration is: Was the "Lost Cause" simply a term used by people after the Civil War to throw stones at Southerners, verbally piling on after the defeat of the Confederacy, and nothing more?

I know the list of things I've come to understand better is too long in its entirety, but your post makes me want to add one thing on this list.

I used to think that Northerners looked down on Southerners. I was certainly raised to believe that all Northerners thought we were stupid. Full stop - by default. Any Northerner you meet is going to think you are dumb. Lots of years have passed since I was young and I think it is time for Southerns to stop passing along this myth to their children because it just isn't true. Maybe at one time it was, back when there was a lack of public schools in the south, but that hasn't been true for a long time.

It is kind of a persecution complex I think, that some, mostly older, folks just can't seem to shake off. It's a "play the victim card" that gets whipped out as needed. Any discussion, argument, conflict, etc. in which the person disagreeing with me is someone from north of the Mason/Dixon line - Well! The problem is that person thinks I'm stupid!

No- they are just disagreeing with you on that issue. No more, no less. The two of you could no doubt find a number of things to agree on, but whatever you are discussing now just isn't it.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

I know the list of things I've come to understand better is too long in its entirety, but your post makes me want to add one thing on this list.

I used to think that Northerners looked down on Southerners. I was certainly raised to believe that all Northerners thought we were stupid. Full stop - by default. Any Northerner you meet is going to think you are dumb. Lots of years have passed since I was young and I think it is time for Southerns to stop passing along this myth to their children because it just isn't true. Maybe at one time it was, back when there was a lack of public schools in the south, but that hasn't been true for a long time.

It is kind of a persecution complex I think, that some, mostly older, folks just can't seem to shake off. It's a "play the victim card" that gets whipped out as needed. Any discussion, argument, conflict, etc. in which the person disagreeing with me is someone from north of the Mason/Dixon line - Well! The problem is that person thinks I'm stupid!

No- they are just disagreeing with you on that issue. No more, no less. The two of you could no doubt find a number of things to agree on, but whatever you are discussing now just isn't it.

Your comments are well conceived and well stated, @Reconstructed Rebel.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

used to think that Northerners looked down on Southerners. I was certainly raised to believe that all Northerners thought we were stupid. Full stop - by default

I never knew that! And I certainly never thought that!

I used to think that "the South" was in South America though when I was little!

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

I never knew that! And I certainly never thought that!

I used to think that "the South" was in South America though when I was little!

Hahaha!

 

[G Low]

I used to think that "the South" was in South America though when I was little!

I used to think the same thing….. and the north was in North America.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

I used to think the same thing….. and the north was in North America.

Now, this is getting to be too funny!

 

[RedRover]

It certainly could be. I might be remembering this wrong, but I thought ex-Confederates also used the term as a symbol of pride.

Pollard's "Lost Cause" books ("Lost Cause," "Lost Cause Regained," "Lee and His Lieutenants," "Jefferson Davis, with a Secret History of the Confederacy", etc.) promoted a new philosophical struggle to redeem what he considered, for his and his backers' purposes, a formerly hidden "true" cause of the South lost by the Confederates, particularly Jeff Davis, etc. (viz. something of a union with the northern copperhead democracy). Some minor selections:

....

The Winchester Home Journal of Tennessee, among others, observed that Mr. Pollard was espousing northern copperheadism as the true Southern cause, and new South's future, and openly doubted it.

Jeff Davis countered in his "Rise and Fall..." vol. II that the only "lost cause" in the war was relative to States rights, etc.

Consequently, the subject was politically contentious, and not all former Confederates cared for the phrase one way or another, which was rather loaded, in spite of its popular use in succeeding decades. The "Confederate Veteran" magazine, of the United Confederate Veterans, did not use it generally...

Some in its pages also suggesting the phrase was unpatriotic, etc., and in contradistinction promoted monuments to Confederate veterans, etc.

...

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Pollard's "Lost Cause" books ("Lost Cause," "Lost Cause Regained," "Lee and His Lieutenants," "Jefferson Davis, with a Secret History of the Confederacy", etc.) promoted a new philosophical struggle to redeem what he considered, for his and his backers' purposes, a formerly hidden "true" cause of the South lost by the Confederates, particularly Jeff Davis, etc. (viz. something of a union with the northern copperhead democracy). Some minor selections:

View attachment 557119
....

View attachment 557120

The Winchester Home Journal of Tennessee, among others, observed that Mr. Pollard was espousing northern copperheadism as the true Southern cause, and new South's future, and openly doubted it.

View attachment 557122


Jeff Davis countered in his "Rise and Fall..." vol. II that the only "lost cause" in the war was relative to States rights, etc.

Consequently, the subject was politically contentious, and not all former Confederates cared for the phrase one way or another, which was rather loaded, in spite of its popular use in succeeding decades. The "Confederate Veteran" magazine, of the United Confederate Veterans, did not use it generally...

View attachment 557104
View attachment 557105

Some in its pages also suggesting the phrase was unpatriotic, etc., and in contradistinction promoted monuments to Confederate veterans, etc.

View attachment 557102
...
View attachment 557101
View attachment 557103

Excellent post, @RedRover.