Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Texcaster Loc: Queensland

"He said ... 'clip' instead of magazine. NO credibility! He has NO business talking about Guns!" MAGA-2A-Gunner-Bros

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

To ensure the people were armed and could resist the government if it became a tyranny.
To further that goal all abled bodied men were part of the unorganized militia. States, counties, cities, towns and other groups formed organized militia units. And those included, infantry, cavalry and artillery units. Even naval militia along the seacoasts and on the Great Lakes. Each militia designed their own uniforms. Those militias either supplied their own weapons or the local government or some rich militia members bought them. Yes, even the artillery guns were privately owned.

That is in part why the Civil War got off to such a fast start with all the various militias* joining either the Union or Confederate Armies as volunteer troops. The Union army also had units of "Regulars". All those uniforms caused a lot of "friendly fire" incidents in the early battles. Later in the case of the union forces the Regulars wore all dark blue, volunteers wore dark blue over light blue and some special units wore green. Though some units held on to their own uniforms as long as they could.

*Though many of them were little more than social clubs who only practiced marching and drilling. As combat troops, they were mostly a confused, armed mob. Western troops of the Union and many Confederate troops were good individual fighters due to hunting etc. but not much good in coordinated fighting until they learned the hard way. Then add in that the officers only knew the Napolianic and earlier style of formation fighting and mostly kept it up until the end was largely responsible for the awful casualty rates. 2% of the total population of both sides died = 620,000 of just over 31million population on both sides, including slaves.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

Do you think a second Civil War may be on the horizon?

Kraken Loc: Barry's Bay

Oh, for sure. Unless they let Trump run for President,

a temporary fix to prevent rioting and looting in the

streets of which may happen anyway when Trump loses.

They will holler fixed and it will be "game on".

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Well, it is a faint possibility*, but today's disagreements don't carry the weight that slavery did. Take away slavery, and the rich plantation owners who ran the South would have been instantly broke. After the war, many of them who lived through the war did go broke. The smart ones instantly got their former slaves to sign on as share croppers.

Also, a new one would not be state against state, but individuals scattered through the population against others. And since the military and the Guard units are mixed in their own beliefs about the problems and in addition are friends and relatives of everyone else, they might refuse to take sides or even threaten both sides to keep the peace in the country.

Wyantry Loc: SW Colorado

A major portion of the casualties on both sides of the conflict was 1). The types of munitions used — largely 50 to 68 caliber lead mini-balls, 2). The lack of sanitary health care and wound-treatment, 3). Primitive “march in line and die” formations.

scooter1 Loc: Yacolt, Wa.

Seems to me you're forgetting the ridiculous crap when the democrats attacked our country's women and children when Trump got elected. I have never seen such infantile asinine childish tantrums by people who are supposed to be adults. If Trump loses after the country has seen what damage the democrats are capable of in the last 3+ years then we're done. Better take a class in Chinese so we'll be able to converse with our dictator from China.

Kraken Loc: Barry's Bay

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

More died of "camp fever" as they referred to the diseases that were common, then died of wounds or outright killed in action.

My Paternal Grandmother's own grandfather, two of his brothers, two of his brothers-in-law and one sister's father-in-law fought in the war, 3 on each side. One of his brothers who fought for the Confederates never returned home, they never found exactly what happened as very few in his unit survived the war and they were confused as to if he died of disease or wounds. They weren't even sure of the date and place but remembered he and others who died were buried together somewhere in the woods.
And the sister's father-in-law who fought for the Union was the only one in the extended family who ever owned a slave. He was against slavery but his wife's family gave them a married couple as a wedding gift. He couldn't free them without insulting his in-laws so instead he educated them (illegal), paid them a wage: the husband became the manager of his business in town and the wife helped his wife run the farm and was her assistant teacher in the one-room school house the family built and ran for all the kids in the area. The slave couple's kids were raised free as just part of one big family of the kids of both couples. The day he heard about the Emancipation Proclamation, he freed the couple, raised their pay and even helped their children to move out west and obtain land of their own after the war.

There was also a family story about one of his sisters who had a prize winner grade horse she raised as a spoiled pet. Both Union and Confederate troops made sweeps to confiscate horses for the war. She managed to keep the horse hidden in the tobacco barn until one day a Union cavalry unit came by while the horse was outside. The sister, who was only about 5' stood between her horse and the troops with a small colt .32 pocket pistol and told them they couldn't have her horse. The troops, looking at this petite women ready to take on their whole patrol with a tiny pocket pistol, broke into laughter and their officer told her that anyone as brave as her deserved to keep her horse. Then they just rode off.

skylane5sp Loc: Puyallup, WA

I have a diary from a distant relative.
Charles H. Sears, Company D, 23rd Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers. Capt. Howland commanding.
He got sick and died after less than a year. These are a couple of snaps I took for one of my grandsons teachers. When I was a kid it was in a box with some hardtack. That got lost over the years.

ArtzDarkroom Loc: Near Disneyland-Orange County, California

Somebody we both know recently told me: You can tell one's intention by what they've written.

Seems like that should apply here too.

...lol

scooter1 Loc: Yacolt, Wa.

That's beside the point.