Uncommon History

As time allows, I remain on the lookout for strange, interesting, and uncommon snippets of history. This morning I came across an interesting General Order issued byt General Ulysses S. Grant. The content of the order smacks of antisemitism.

General Order No. 11 (December 17, 1862) :

1. The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the Department [of the Tennessee] within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.
2. Post commanders will see to it that all of this class of people be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from headquarters.
3. No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application of trade permits.

Later in the day when this order was issued, General Grant sent a letter to the the assistant United States Secretary of War to further explain his reasoning:

Sir,

I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into Post Commanders, that the Specie regulations of the Treasury Dept. have been violated, and that mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders. So well satisfied of this have I been at this that I instructed the Commdg Officer at Columbus [Kentucky] to refuse all permits to Jews to come south, and frequently have had them expelled from the Dept. [of the Tennessee]. But they come in with their Carpet sacks in spite of all that can be done to prevent it. The Jews seem to be a privileged class that can travel any where. They will land at any wood yard or landing on the river and make their way through the country. If not permitted to buy Cotton themselves they will act as agents for someone else who will be at a Military post, with a Treasury permit to receive Cotton and pay for it in Treasury notes which the Jew will buy up at an agreed rate, paying gold.

There is but one way that I know of to reach this case. That is for Government to buy all the Cotton at a fixed rate and send it to Cairo, St Louis, or some other point to be sold. Then all traders, they are a curse to the Army, might be expelled.

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According to an entry in Wikipedia.org:

Following protests from Jewish community leaders and an outcry by members of Congress and the press, it was revoked a few weeks later by order of President Abraham Lincoln. Grant later claimed it had been drafted by a subordinate and that he had signed it without reading.

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I have not had time to further investigate these things, but find it interesting none-the-less.

What would be more fitting today than a St. Patrick’s Day message? I contemplated writing a little about the man who was Saint Patrick, but after reading his Confessio, I decided to simply post some of what he wrote. I believe that once you read some of this, and go beyond to the entire document, you will have a better idea of who Patrick was than any biography I can give.

1. I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most
contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to
remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.
2. And there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied my youth and ignorance. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.
3. Therefore, indeed, I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper, so many favours and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity. For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him, our way to repay him is to exalt him and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven.
4. For there is no other God, nor ever was before, nor shall be hereafter, but God the Father, unbegotten and without beginning, in whom all things began, whose are all things, as we have been taught; and his son Jesus Christ, who manifestly always existed with the Father, before the beginning of time in the spirit with the Father, indescribably begotten before all things, and all things visible and invisible were made by him. He was made man, conquered death and was received into Heaven, to the Father who gave him all power over every name in Heaven and on Earth and in Hell, so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, in whom we believe. And we look
to his imminent coming again, the judge of the living and the dead, who will render to each according to his deeds. And he poured out his Holy Spirit on us in abundance, the gift and pledge of immortality, which makes the believers and the obedient into sons of God and co-heirs of Christ who is revealed, and we worship one God in the Trinity of holy name.
5. He himself said through the prophet: ‘Call upon me in the day of’ trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.’ And again: ‘It is right to reveal and publish abroad the works of God.’
6. I am imperfect in many things, nevertheless I want my brethren and kinsfolk to know my nature so that they may be able to perceive my soul’s desire.

7. I am not ignorant of what is said of my Lord in the Psalm: ‘You destroy those who speak a lie.’ And again: ‘A lying mouth deals death to the soul.’ And likewise the Lord says in the Gospel: ‘On the day of judgment men shall render account for every idle word they utter.’
8. So it is that I should mightily fear, with terror and trembling, this judgment on the day when no one shall be able to steal away or hide, but each and all shall render account for even our smallest sins before the judgment seat of Christ the Lord.

You can read the entire document here:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/patrick/confession.i.html

Anyone interested in the genesis of the modern US Army Rangers will love this book. As I read each page of Darby’s Rangers, I felt more like I was reading a well-written fiction account of World War II. The amazing part was, this was NOT fiction. The descriptions and stories about the Rangers and their experiences is superb!

My Rating

Please join the discussion about Darby’s Rangers

As a historical fiction writer myself, I am quite a sucker for just about any Civil War era fiction book I see. It was a suprise that I was given the entire Bernard Cornwell “Starbuck Chronicles” series as a gift.

At my very first opportunity I peeled open the cover to book 1; “Rebel”, and poured myself into it. It didn’t take long for Mr. Cromwell to transport me back in time to a favorite setting. Soon after however, I found myself scratching my head and wondering if indeed I was reading a Civil War era novel.

The settings, descriptions and characters were real, believable, and I certainly felt for them, but…it seems that the well respected Cornwell broke one of my personal taboos for this genre.

The language was much too modern and while some of the visualizations seemed plausible, I began to feel personally dirty as I muddled further into the story. I by no means despise romance, but the female character seemed like she was begging to be molested and maligned.

Perhaps I have read too many Victorian characters and as a result am too sensitive to a “lower” class of society that certainly existed at the time. I was simply not prepared for the lude scenes and explicit language that appeared page after page.

The unfolding drama of the men in the story was indeed compelling and the descriptive machine that is Cornwell captivated my attention. But every time I was drawn more into the story, I was interrupted by lurid, mind-numbing scenes.

To be gentle to a great fiction writer such as Mr. Cornwell, I put the book down next to the rest of the series and have not gone back to it in several months. I do intend to read the series at some point in the future due to my interest in the overall plot.

My Rating