A rare humorous post on the truly grim American Civil War:
Thursday Oct. 2 1862
TELECOM TECHNOLOGY TRIUMPHS
It is well known that war is a stimulus to new technology. Abraham Lincoln, in fact, was such a fan of any new gadget or gizmo that came down the pike that he would frequently go out to see new devices in action, from an early machine gun (called the “coffee mill gun”) to tethered balloon flights intended to spy out enemy movements. It should not be thought, however, that the Confederacy was lacking in technological innovation or the willingness to use it. Today a telegraph machine was installed right in the office of Confederate Secretary of War George W. Randolph. The line to which it was connected ran all the way to Warrenton, Va. This was, unfortunately, occasionally tapped by Yankee vandals who would send messages of their own, sometimes deceitful and sometimes simply rude.(emphasis mine)
I wonder what the rude ones were.
"Yo, I got yer "Stonewall" right here!"
"So Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and a slave walk into a bar..."
"Hey, this Egyptian cotton really breathes."
Recent Comments