Well, here I am again at the END OF THE WEEK, bringing up the rear, I guess you could say. I guess I’m feeling a little “uncivil” today, but I really did like Major Tom’s and Hairy Trotter’s posts about the courageous and loved animals of the Civil War. I guess I’ve been “champing at the bit” to tell you about my family history and my great, great grandfather Captain Franklin T. Iguana. As you can see from the photo, Captain Frank and his “Little Pony” were eating before another long ride. I really wish I had a picture of him in his uniform. Knowing him, he just jumped on his horse bareback without any armor, except for his wickedly long tail and toes! My GGG Frank served his country well, and I wanted to share some interesting facts about the Civil War:
- More than three million men fought in the Civil War; about 900,000 for the Confederacy and 2.1 million for the Union.
- An estimated 300 women disguised themselves as men and fought in the ranks.
- There were over 2,000 boys who were 14 years old or younger in the Union ranks, 300 were 13 years or less, 200,000 no older than 16 years.
- Not fond of ceremonies or military music, Ulysses S. Grant said he could only recognize two tunes: "One was Yankee Doodle, the other one wasn’t."
- In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized the first paper currency, called "greenbacks."
- Surgeons never washed their hands after an operation, because all blood was assumed to be the same, nor did they wash their instruments.
- Not surprisingly, disease killed twice as many men during the war than did battle wounds.
Now it's time for some fun facts about barbecuing (I may "grill" you on these later!)
- Henry Ford invented the briquette in 1920 from wood scraps and sawdust from his car factory (he thought he could use the charcoal for a clean smoke-free source of heat), then E.G. Kingsford bought the invention and put the charcoal briquette into production. The initial purpose was for heat in stoves, heaters, etc., but then people started to use it for outdoor cooking!
- Thomas Jefferson (our 3rd president), began the tradition of holding barbecues at the White House when he served from 1801-1809. Lyndon B. Johnson (our 36th president) introduced Texas-style barbecued ribs. Jimmy Carter (our 39th president) hosted a pig pickin' for about 500 guests. Ronald Reagan (our 40th president) and his wife Nancy often entertained with barbecues at their ranch. George H. Bush, our 41st president, held a barbecue for Members of Congress annually on the South Lawn of the White House, a tradition continued by his son, George W. Bush (our 43rd president). However, that tradition was interrupted on September 12, 2001, the day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Secret Service agents, who had evacuated the White House a day earlier, cancelled the barbecue and the White House kitchen released 700 pounds of beef tenderloin to feed the hundreds of rescue workers who had traveled to Washington.
