Earlier in this thread I posted about the Lee family's penchant for marrying cousins. But it seems to have been popular among the middle class as well.

Jesse James' wife Zee was his first cousin and was named after Jesse's 6-foot tall mother Zerelda. Me thinks Dr. Freud would have loved to get Jesse on his couch.

Jesse fell in love with Zee when she nursed him back to health after his lone wound during the Civil War. Jesse had tried to steal a saddle off of a fence in front of a house and the owner took exception with a bullet through Jesse's lungs. Ironically his second wounding at the beginning of his outlaw career two years later was a shot that practically followed the path through his body of the first wound.

Why was Germany so well prepared for WWII?

Germany conducted government and military wide After Action Reviews (AAR) several years before the onset of WWII to counter the military problem of the highest magnitude: Going on the offense and maneuvering toward the enemy with efficacy. This military problem manifested itself in the US Civil War as well.

Blitzkrieg, "Lightening War", was born from the AAR process which entailed the use of Air and Mechanized Ground Forces simultaneously. The objective was to attack with enough violence and speed to overwhelm the enemy without the complete destruction of the opposing forces. Germany's doctrine and technology were years ahead of the Allied Forces.

It is paramount for visionaries to create doctrine and technologies during the inter-war periods to prepare and win future wars. Sometimes nations get this right, sometimes they get it wrong.

The basic format of the AAR is:
- What was planned.
- What happened.
- How to shrink the delta.