VanZandt92 said:

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What is a historical fact or situation you learned about this year of which you were not aware previously?

For me here are a couple:

1. The majority of Confederate soldiers were married and / or had families.

I didn't know this and it has caused a great deal of change in my view of some things. I am blanking on the academic source where I read this sorry.

2. Native Americans in Canada during the French and Indian war and in those times used slavery a good deal. This seems to make sense, but I actually didn't know how precarious life was in the Canada in the 18th century.

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HollywoodBQ said:

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I don't know exactly why but some of them went to Canada in the 1800s. I know a gal from Mississauga, Ontario who claims Pottawatomie heritage from Kansas. So depending on the way she's feeling each day she'll play the Native American card or the Canadian card - as to the reason why regular American rules don't apply to her.

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BQ78 said:

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Ha ha, they aren't called Native-Americans in Canada, they are known as First Nation People, so when they cross the northern border, their name changes.

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AtlAg05 said:

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I think they even killed some French sailors in the process.

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VanZandt92 said:

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The large number of captives taken were not necessarily made slaves in many areas south of Canada. The source I was reading seemed to indicate a higher incidence in Canada. If you believe otherwise then give some sources.

I'd again note that regardless of moniker, native Americans aren't homogeneous as we'd like. My best familiarity is with publications and documents associated with Cherokee, Wampanoag, Mohicans, Tuscarora and Shawnee. Im pretty familiar with Pueblo, Navajo, Zuni and other SW tribes. No idea about Plains Indians.

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DartAg1970 said:

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I didn't know that the British fired on and attacked French battleships during WW2. Evidently, after the surrender of the French there were several battleships in the Mediterranean and once the French declined to give the battleships to the British, they decided to sink them rather than risk them falling into the hands of the Nazis.

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JR69 said:

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VanZandt92 said:

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The large number of captives taken were not necessarily made slaves in many areas south of Canada. The source I was reading seemed to indicate a higher incidence in Canada. If you believe otherwise then give some sources.

I'd again note that regardless of moniker, native Americans aren't homogeneous as we'd like. My best familiarity is with publications and documents associated with Cherokee, Wampanoag, Mohicans, Tuscarora and Shawnee. Im pretty familiar with Pueblo, Navajo, Zuni and other SW tribes. No idea about Plains Indians.

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Perhaps that's true - I don't recall arguing to the contrary. And I certainly agree that the various tribes are not as homogeneous "as we'd like". That's why I used the term Indigenous People. The term "Native American" doesn't fit the tribes of Canada or Mexico or South America. As someone else remarked, in Canada they are called People of the First Nations - a term they themselves chose. Similarities in customs and culture exist more on a regional basis than anything else, thus we tend to refer to them as SW or Pueblo tribes, Plains, NW Coast, etc.

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IDAGG said:

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Something I read just recently. James Wilkinson who at one time was General of the Army in the early 1800s was a traitor who sold secrets to Spain. In addition he tried to pull the Kentucky area into alliance with Spain. He even signed a document declaring his allegiance to Spain.

And maybe worst of all, he tipped off Spain to the Lewis and Clark expedition and suggested they send a small force of Calvary to intercept Lewis and Clark's expedition and dispose of them.

I had no freakin idea we had such a traitor that was at such a high level for so many years.

Quote:

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Soon enough, though, Wilkinson had found another, more lucrative form of survival: selling American secrets to the Spanish empire.

"As a spy, his tradecraft was excellent. Wilkinson sent his information in a code just rows of numbers in groups of four," Linklater says. "It was never broken."

Through these coded messages, Wilkinson informed the Spanish of the Lewis and Clark expedition and its secret goal of finding a land route through the Western mountains and to the Pacific Ocean. He suggested that his paymasters send armed patrols to intercept the expedition which the Spanish did.
"Only by the grace of God did they fail to find them," Linklater says. If the Spanish patrols had been luckier or more skillful, we might remember Lewis and Clark if we remembered them at all as two explorers who vanished in the West. And the course of American history might well have been dramatically altered.

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Quote:

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The real problem for Wilkinson was getting paid for his intelligence, which was the only reason he had become a spy in the first place. Wilkinson was hard pressed to find a way of secretly transporting the loud, unwieldy payments the Spanish sent him thousands of silver dollars at a time.

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Quote:

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During the winter of 1804/1805, Wilkinson began his fateful relationship with Aaron Burr. His actual involvement in the Burr conspiracy to separate western lands from the Union remains somewhat unclear. It is known that he corresponded frequently with Burr and was privy to the vice president's plans. In 1805 he furnished Burr with a barge, escort, and letter of introduction to the Spanish officials at New Orleans. Later, in his position in St. Louis as governor of the upper Louisiana Territory, Wilkinson was visited by Burr and then kept in regular communication with him.

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Quote:

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Wilkinson has been one of the most elusive characters in the history of the American west. His subsequent career in the military, despite the fact that he reached the rank of major-generaL was marred by numerous accusations of impropriety. His activities, at various times after 1790, were the subject of more than one formal inquiry, including a court-martial in 1811. On Christmas Day of that year, the court-martial found him not guilty. During the War of 1812 Wilkinson was relieved of his command and ordered to Washington, where he remained a critic of the wartime policies of the Madison administration. He died in 1825 while in pursuit of a Spanish land grant in Texas. Historian of the American west Frederick Jackson Turner called Wilkinson "'the most consummate artist in treason that the nation ever possessed

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He apparently was quite the charmer. He charmed Washington, Jefferson and many others. Unbelievable.

http://biography.yourdictionary.com/james-wilkinson

https://www.npr.org/2010/04/28/126363998/the-man-who-double-crossed-the-founders

https://history.hanover.edu/hhr/98/hhr98_1.html

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Quote:

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The majority of Confederate soldiers were married and / or had families.

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Nagler said:

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Quote:

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The majority of Confederate soldiers were married and / or had families.

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What does this mean? They were more married than the Yankees? or you just thought they were all single dudes?

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CanyonAg77 said:

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Yeah, Lucky Lindy REALLY loved the Germans

Did you know he flew WWII combat missions, but only against the Japanese

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Jaydoug said:

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Kennedy knew the Vietnam War was unwinnable but felt he could not get re-elected if it seemed he was soft on communism if he shut down the war

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