Remember them all.

I would imagine nowadays that there are a substantial number of Americans who have no ancestry as far back as the War. To them I suspect the memory of it means very little and they have no cause to remember, other than as history at school.

I myself only have one American relative, Willie Gow of Roanoke, Va. who emigrated from Blair Atholl, Perthshire in the 1950’s. So I have no connection whatever with the War.

However, I have been intrigued by the War since I was a kid in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s. Being interested in Westerns and especially the US Cavalry (books, movies and TV), it was a short hop to seeing Civil War items in Western subjects (like Buffalo Bill during the ACW). I then became intrigued by the ACW itself. TV shows like The Gray Ghost and films like The Horse Soldiers, How the West Was Won and especially Shenandoah and Major Dundee (I really liked little Jimmy Lee's accent) whetted my imagination and had me looking for serious books on the subject. Being a kid, I was also into bubble gum (like many Scottish kids in the early 1960’s, everything American was good – and it was !) and a series of bubble-gum cards came out in the UK on the ACW. Amazing ! Each card showed a piece of artwork (usually gory) about an aspect of the war (a battle, siege, naval engagement etc) on the front and a newspaper type report about that aspect on the back. Also included was a reproduction CSA money bill. Therefore you could collect all 50 or more cards plus different denominations of CSA money. One thing these cards taught me, shallow as the bubble-gum card medium appears to be, was just how cruel and bloody the war was - as terrible as the First World War. The British still lament the number of British servicemen killed in WW1 but to many Brits, the ACW is American history, an extension of the Wild West and they wonder why Americans go on about it. What they fail to realise is that nearly as many servicemen died in the ACW as the British lost in WW1 !

I have been very interested in the War ever since. I will state that I have always favoured the South, mainly because I saw that side to be the underdog, making do with less of everything, yet showing a dash, vigour and imagination to make up for deficiencies and hardships.

My favourite ACW units both come from Louisiana – Wheat’s Tigers and Coppens’ Louisiana Zouaves. The Tigers especially seem larger than life and are worthy of a historical film about them ! They were often tough rogues and not pleasant to be around in camp, but were in the hot of the action every time. Even after being destroyed at Gaines Mill, they refused to die, their Pelican successors becoming Harry T Hays’ Tiger Brigade which assaulted Cemetery Hill, unsupported, on the evening of 2nd July 1863 and served with ANV until war’s end. Today, they are remembered in the LSU’s sports teams. On the other side, I have a favourite Union unit, the 79th NY, heroes of Fort Sanders, Tn.

That reminds me – today is Harry T. Hays’ birthday.