CSS Alabama Flag = $180,000

     A flag said to have been on the CSS Alabama when it went down in battle off the coast of France sold at auction in New York today for $180,000

     While that's a lot of money, it was below the anticipated  $200,000 - $400,000 Sothby's expected.

     The flag, like many other Civil War relics, was handed down through the years by family members, and there's no irrefutable proof that if flew on the ship.

     The flag was given to the family after the ship sank as a result of a battle with the USS Kearsarge. This Sunday is the anniversary of that battle in 1864, portrayed in Harper's Magazine below. The photograph below the sketch is one of the few actual photos of the ship itself. There are no known quality photos showing the full ship.

Photo of the Day: Devastation in Mogadishu

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From The Globe and Mail: "The shattered ruins of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, look almost like Stalingrad after the famous battle that turned the tide in World War II."

Almost 20 years after Black Hawk Down, Somalia is barely a country. It has been destroyed -- literally, as this photo shows -- by civil war.

There is some hope that the new government of Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed can institute lasting reforms and bring much-needed stability, but the Transitional Federal Government controls only a small part of the country and not even all of the capital, Mogadishu, and Al-Shabaab, the Islamist insurgent group that is the government's main opposition, continues to be a major force.

It's hard to see how this gets any better anytime soon.

Black Confederates

     The State of Virginia is eliminating a history of Virginia textbook that claims there were thousands of black Confederate soldiers fighting for Virginia and across the South.

     The claim is disputed by most historians, though it's long been a talking point of the Sons of Confederate Veterans groups...a way to erase, or at least diminish, the slavery issue.

     This Tuesday, by the way, is the 150th anniversary of Alabama voting in favor of seceding from the Union...and also the day the current Alabama Legislature will meet in organizational session.

     Anyone know what the Alabama History textbooks say on the subject if black Confederate soldiers??



  

An Early Statement of Alabama Secession

     The Yankee...er, New York..Times...has a wonderful dispatch about a message of Alabama Secession that was sent to Abraham Lincoln a half-dozen days before the Alabama Legislature's official declaration on January 11th.

     Being the Northern media that they are, the story focus is on the life of a Federal soldier. Still, an interesting read,as they say. (-:

(Too Fast) Headline Reading

     I'm not sure what this posting says about the current political climate...or about me. But as I scanned the online NY Times a few minutes ago I came across this headline:

Would The South Really Leave?

...and I HONESTLY thought it was a current story about the political divide in the U.S. Then I saw the date: 1860. Part of the Times coverage of the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Civil War.

     But for a moment there......