Touch the Elbow - Blogging the Civil War

The best way to judge a city or town, in my humble opinion, is to ask yourself whether you’d move there by choice. In considering Lexington, Virginia as an option for myself, I’d answer no, without hesitation. It’s not a pretty town by any stretch of the imagination, although its image might improve a little if they got rid of the telephone poles and wires overhead. On a scale of one to five, I’d give it a two, because there are, in truth, a lot less attractive places I’ve visited, like Augusta, Maine, which rates a half star and which has to rank as the ugliest State capitol in the entire country.













Closeup of a Lexington sidewalk. I liked the pattern of the brick.


Here's the story behind this picture. To the right of the electric candle is a case of wine called Chateauneuf Du Pape. I lived in the town of Chateauneuf, France for almost three years as a kid, in what can best be described as the happiest time in my life as a child.









I love taking pictures of people and their dogs. Maybe someday I'll post a blog devoted exclusively to that photo subject matter.


Lee Chapel, used as a multi-purpose center for Washington and Lee University, houses a museum in the basement, where Robert Edward Lee and family members are also entombed. Don't even dare taking pictures inside, because anyone caught trying will be sentenced to four years of college life at V.M.I. I wandered in toward the end of one tour and the start of another. Both groups, with the exception of one person (guess who), reacted with positive excitement over the guide's announcement that Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas would be speaking the following night. .


Jackson's VMI statue looking away toward the Blue Ridge. If you look closely enough at the clouds on the right you can see the image of Little Sorrel.

This from Ben H. Hill of Georgia, a graduate of the University of Georgia, whose political career was marked by his defeat in an 1857 run for governor against Joseph Brown, his membership in the Georgia State legislature, engaging in fisticuffs with William Loundes Yancey on the floor of the Confederate Senate, and the only Non-Democrat at the Georgia secession convention, speaking to a group of Georgia citizens on the push by Southern politicians for separation from the Union.




“How long will you suffer politicians to flatter you as sovereigns and use you as victims, without awakening your resentment? How often shall they settle and unsettle the slavery question before you discover the only meaning they have, is to excite your prejudices and get your votes? For how many years shall changing demagogues shuffle you as the gambler shuffles his cards – to win a stake – and still find you willing to be shuffled again?”

Take a look at the pictures below. It’s the Virginia Military Institute, though not the same structure which opened in 1842 and where Thomas Jonathan Jackson taught natural and experimental philosophy. That place was torched under orders from Union general David Hunter on June 12, 1864. But take a good hard look. Then let me know when you’re done.






Done? Ok, now for a little pop quiz VMI style. One of the questions that “Rats” are supposedly asked by upper classmen is: "How many incoming cadets have literally pissed in their pants before walking through the gates to start their four-year college education?" The answer is pretty simple. Just total up the number of students who have enrolled since 1865.

Ok, you can stop your groaning now, because I paid good money for that joke.