R and R—This page was last updated:  10 November 2009.

 

E-mail:  esmr00ts@gmail.com

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Don Monroe’s Civil War, Philippine Insurrection, World War II, Viet Nam Era, Cold War, Current Troubles, Maryland Eastern Shore, Reflections, Connections.

 

R and R—Ranting and Raving—Rest and Recreation—Regrouping and Reality

 

This is my opportunity to vent.  Since this is the last page on my web site, it should not really bother

anybody too much, even if they care one way or another.

 

I have put a lot of time and effort into building all of this, particularly into gathering and documenting all the information and images.  This is the place where I will put the stuff that only I care about, along with possibly some others who have taken a thoughtful and caring approach to all this.  Please feel free to make contact and continue the conversation.  This is only the beginning.  The Rand R Page will grow, particularly if there is interest.

 

Please stay tuned, and Cheers.

 

 

 

 

R and R.  When I began researching my Civil War Forebears’ participation in that great conflict, I had very little to go on, except for second hand information provided by my Father and by my maternal Grandmother.  If you object to my referring to this war as the Civil War, then you may not want to bother reading any further.  Civil wars are brutal, nasty conflicts, not glorious and wonderful patriotic parades.  In my home state of Kentucky and my adopted state of Maryland, the war was at its worst.  It was fought on the home territory of many of the combatants.  When they say it was brother against brother, they don’t mean it was a minor spat, and everyone kissed and made up at the end.  There was no quarter asked and none given.  There is no such thing as “politically correct” in any war, including this one.   It is all in your point of view, and whether you are the winner or the loser. 

 

My father, Pleasant Monroe’s grandson, had told me from a very early age that Pleasant was with Grant at Appomattox, and that he had been wounded by a bullet in the neck, and that the doctors were afraid to remove it, so they left it in.  He further said that Pleasant lived to a very old age with a bullet in his neck.  My grandmother, John Dillehay’s niece, had told me that her Uncle was known to be a Confederate veteran.  There was no unit identification, no photograph, and no record other than word of mouth.  It should be fairly obvious, if you have gone over any of my web pages at all, that Dad’s information was totally in error, and that Grandmother’s information was very much lacking.  One of the things that I am attempting to accomplish with my R and R Page is to express some opinions that I have developed in the process of doing research on my Civil War Forebears and people and events connected with their participation in that Great Conflict, and to make connections and observations with regard to other conflicts, including current and recent ones.

 

Easterner versus Westerner.  Some folks believe the western theater of the Civil War was just a backwater, and the definitive events that settled the outcome of this conflict, along with the primary armies that fought this war, were located in the eastern theater.  The presence of that attitude is a disservice to those of us who have an interest in the western theater and certainly to the legacy of those who lived and fought in the western theater.  For the north it took a while for the cream to rise to the top.  Virtually all the top leaders of the northern armies who fought this war through to its successful conclusion, were westerners, or loyal southerners.  Lincoln finally began to achieve a successful outcome to the nation’s efforts after he had placed generals who had achieved early success in the western theater in command of his armies in the east. 

 

Some folks believe that the eastern civil war soldier was inherently better and more reliable than his western counterpart.  There were both real and superficial differences.  Most westerners wore that very unmilitary, but very practical wide brimmed hat similar to our modern cowboy hat.  It kept the sun out of their eyes and the rain and snow off their face, and it gave the westerner a separate sense of identity and pride from the easterner.  The wide brimmed hat allowed the westerner to display his sense of independence, a very unmilitary trait, but very important to the westerner.  The western soldier had a case of “attitude”, very similar to the southerner.  The westerner was probably not the best “soldier”, but he was arguably the best “fighter.”  You do not see grizzled old veterans in the western armies.  These men, the ones that survived intact, were in great physical condition.  They were lean and mean and young, every one of them, with few exceptions.  They wore loose fitting outfits, call them uniforms if you like, and they disdained useless military trappings, like gold stripes, gold braid, and even badges of rank and unit badges.  They were very proud and very competitive, even with men from another county or with men from a neighboring state, particularly easterners.   They were aware that most easterners were oblivious to what was going on in the west.  

 

The western leaders and their men had bigger physical problems and bigger logistics problems to overcome.  Just look at a map.  These men had a huge expanse of territory in which to perform their work, roughly from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains and from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico.  These men marched everywhere they went, over very poor and sometimes non-existent roads.  They crossed mountains and they crossed rivers, often using their own ingenuity, along with their endless supply of bridge builders, railroad builders, boatmen, carpenters, farmers, millers, and craftsmen of various sorts.  These men were more than willing to pick up the tools of their trade along with their muskets to defend their country. 

 

When the northern armies finally succeeded in ending this conflict, large portions of both the eastern and western armies were brought to the nation’s capital to march in a grand review.  Somehow it was decided that the two major northern contingents would march on separate days.  Some say this was because the difference in attire and attitude between the easterners and westerners would not be so obvious if they were kept separate.  Others say fights and riots would have broken out and the parade would have been interrupted by violence, if easterners and westerners had been thrown together.  Thankfully we will never know the answer regarding this matter.  Just be aware that the westerners more than held their own with both the news media and the women who attended both parades.  It was widely noted that the western men, despite their well worn and non-distinct attire, marched with an obvious sense of pride and a very distinct sense of arrogance.  This was their moment in the sun before they returned to their farms and villages and towns, and they took full advantage of the occasion.  Then they got on with life and finished building this nation. 

 

Historical truisms:

 

The Brits (and the Israelis) are still the best at conducting intelligence and special operations.  They don’t worry about politicizing The Business, or publicizing Success, or covering up Failure, or phony Morality, or the lack thereof.  They just do their job very well, and keep methods and techniques very Secret, and protect their Sources.  They are also very good at developing Cover Stories to keep the Media and the Political Wags happy. 

 

Historical misperceptions:

 

· If you survived Little Big Horn, you were a coward.

· If you were a Democrat, you were a traitor.

· If you used profanity, you were a bad soldier.

· If your regiment had the highest number of casualties, it was the best fighting regiment.

· If your regimental officers came and went like flies, your regiment was demoralized.

· John Wilkes Booth was a patriot and a saint.

· The South had a constitutional right to secede.

· Texas has a right to secede now.

· War is the final answer.

· There will never be peace in Northern Ireland.

· There will never be peace in the Balkans.

· There will never be peace between the Palestinians and the State of Israel.

· You can force peace at the point of a gun.

· If you are good guys and you are right, everyone will follow you without question.

· Terrorists bent on our destruction have been dragging Weapons of Mass Destruction across the Canadian and Mexican borders without interference, and they have waited over eight years for the go-ahead to use them. 

 

Historical parallels:

 

· Afghanistan; Imperial Britain; Former Soviet Union; U.S.A.

· Viet Nam; France; Imperial Japan, U.S.A.

· The Philippines; Imperial Spain; Imperial Japan; U.S.A.

· Mexico; South America; Cuba; Imperial Spain; U.S.A.

· Korea; China; Imperial Japan; U.S.A.

· Mid-East; Palestine; Iraq; Iran; Imperial Rome; Medieval Europe; Ottoman Empire; Imperial Britain; Imperial France; Imperial Germany; U.S.A.

 

Historical paradoxes: 

 

· A map of the Red-State Republican States looks very similar to a map of the Old Confederate States.

· After the Civil War, the white population of the Old Confederate States became staunch Democrats and vehement anti-Republicans, and retreated into a shell for 125 years.  They then came out of their shell, looked around, noticed that they were more like Republicans than Democrats, and voted accordingly. 

· Democrats who shouted down supporters of the Viet Nam War, Segregation, Prayer in School,  Right to Life, anti– Labor activities, anti-Feminism, and Strict Constructionists on the Supreme Court, are now complaining about being shouted down by Republican Opponents of the Democratic Health Plan.

· We were very happy as a nation when we took a major part of Mexico after the Mexican War and converted it into territories that eventually became part of the U.S.A.  Now we are very perturbed that Mexicans are entering and reoccupying their ancestral lands and more, and even worse, that they are becoming a vital and necessary part of our national economy and some of our most patriotic citizens.

· The Department of Homeland Security was created after 9/11 to secure our homeland.  Name one thing it has accomplished other than:  totally botching Katrina; leaving New Orleans in a shambles; inventing security levels with beautiful colors; scrapping security levels with beautiful colors after the population perceived that the procedure was totally useless; politicizing the intelligence process; sucking resources away from the few intelligence producers that actually produced usable intelligence; driving professional, capable people either out of the business or into the hands of contractors.

 

Comments on recent history: 

 

· Right after 9/11 I thought, like most other folks, that we were going into Afghanistan to get You Know Who.  We were all proven wrong.  I can’t believe it is over eight years later and we still have not got Him.  Now we are trying to refocus on getting Him.  It may be too late now folks.  The American People have lost their incentive to send their sons and daughters to die.  They do not want another eight years of endless war.  The debacle at Fort Hood will increase our collective feeling that the Army has had enough.  The Army is, and always has been, good at “closing with and killing the Enemy.”  That remains its primary mission, believe it or not.  They are not good at second guessing and analyzing Political and Religious Zealots.  They used to either weed them out or kill them.  Now, thanks to political correctness,  the Army has to figure out how to include them and how to deal with them.  You don’t win wars with political correctness.  That has never been part of their mission and never should be.  We can’t kill Americans who are Political and Religious Zealots, but we can allow the Army to weed them out, and get on with their primary mission, “closing with and killing the Enemy.”   Go Army!  Prove me wrong and get Him. 

 

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time.

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.

Out, out, brief Candle.

Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

 

—William Shakespeare