Outing Canoerebel

[geofflambert]

Canoerebel is from northern Georgia? I am sorry, but anyone from the north of anything is a damn carpetbagger!

[Cribtop]

Quite right, my Gorn friend (actually, I always played the Romulans in Star Fleet Battles and Federation & Empire and thus have few Gorn friends, but - whatever).

I am, quite appropriately, a resident of South Texas who descends from South Carolinians. We had a few weird cousins from Stone Mountain, Georgia, but, well - enough said about them. Still, it seems that Canoerebel has done his best to rise above his unfortunate genetic lineage, so I suppose we can let bygones be bygones. [:D]

PS - This is all totally tongue in cheek as Dan is a fine Southern Gentleman if ever there was one. Just poking fun at my own ancestors' odd tendency to decide who was the top ant on the dunghill, which was truly a silly obsession where Clan Cribtop got its start.

[mike scholl 1]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

  It wasn't and the book is a pile of stinking poo from an overheated jungle bat. There is no way I'm gonna fess up to reading this POS. 

You're kidding, Reb? COMMANDER STORMWOLF wrote a book? [:D][:D]

[ilovestrategy]

You guys are killing me! I have tears coming out of my eyes! [:D]

[Sardaukar]

I think this is..epic. [:D]

[Reg]

One for Dan.....

[Canoerebel]

That's Antietam.  Dunker Church would be below the lower left corner.

The guy who is my Avatar - Lt. Colonel Emory F. Best, was second in command of the 23rd Georgia Regiment at this battle.  The 23rd Regiment was in heavy combat in the cornfield (depicted on that map) when its commanding officer, Colonel Barclay, was killed in action.  Lt. Col. Best took command.  He was wounded and taken prisoner.  While a prisoner of war in Baltimore, where his father had once been the preacher at the Seaman's Bethel, this photo was taken.

After Best was exchanged and promoted to colonel in command of the 23rd Georgia, he led the unit into action at Chancellorsville.  The 23rd, in Colquitt's Georgia Brigade, led Stonewall Jackson's famous flanking march that day.  At a point where the road passed close to the Union lines, Jackson ordered a regiment to be posted to protect the exposed Confederate column.  Best's 23rd Georgia was given the assignment, and JEB Stuart personally placed the regiment in line at Catherine Furnace.

David Birney's division, led by Berdan's U.S. Sharpshooters, assaulted the Confederate position at about noon.  Greatly outnumbered, the Georgians fell back to a railroad cut and called for aid.  A battery of Tennessee artillery responded, but the Confederate line was overwhelmed - it was a regiment of 235 men against a division.  Best, who was at the left of the regiment in the railroad cut, ordered the regiment to retire to the left and rear.  Instead of standing at his post as each company filed by, Best led the withdrawal.  He and about 20 men escaped while the remainder of the regiment was captured.

When the captured portion of the regiment was paroled a month later, charges were preferred against Best for cowardice at this battle and at South Mountain the previous autumn.  He was tried and found guilty in Charleston in November 1863.  He was then dismissed from the service.

After the war, he served for a time as a judge in Macon, Georgia (he was appointed by Governor Alfred Colquitt, his former commanding officer who had forwarded the charges against Best for court martial and trial).  Then Best worked as a clerk in the Interior Department in Washington, D.C. until his death in 1912.  He is buriend at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon.  There is no marker at his grave indicating his service in the Confederate army.  He was, as one Confederate congressman noted in a letter to Jefferson Davis, "Shamed and ruined by the decision of the court."

Fifteen years ago, I spoke by telephone to Best's great-nephew, Emory Fred Best, a 76-year-old retired used-car dealer in El Cajon, California.  He said that the family was dismayed to learn in the 1960s of what had happened to Best.  Apparently his trial had never been mentioned by the family, so the descendants stumbled upon the information and were horrified.  When I asked him if he thought the charges were true, he replied:  'I would like to think not."

At the end of that conversation, Fred Best asked me, "Are you related to Daniel C. Roper, Secretary of Commerce under FDR?"

I replied, "Yes, he was a distant great-great-great uncle" (or something like that).

"He gave me my first job in Washington in 1930," Best told me.

A shiver ran up my spine.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Quite right, my Gorn friend (actually, I always played the Romulans in Star Fleet Battles and Federation & Empire and thus have few Gorn friends, but - whatever).

I am, quite appropriately, a resident of South Texas who descends from South Carolinians. We had a few weird cousins from Stone Mountain, Georgia, but, well - enough said about them. Still, it seems that Canoerebel has done his best to rise above his unfortunate genetic lineage, so I suppose we can let bygones be bygones. [:D]

PS - This is all totally tongue in cheek as Dan is a fine Southern Gentleman if ever there was one. Just poking fun at my own ancestors' odd tendency to decide who was the top ant on the dunghill, which was truly a silly obsession where Clan Cribtop got its start.

Actually, you are not far off the mark. There was very little slave ownership in North Georgia and a fair amount of ambiguity towards succession if not actual pro Union sentiment. I have some records of my family's participation and note that they did not join up at the beginning of the war but in 1862 when many were faced with the prospect of conscription.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

Hmmm I am from SOUTH Germany if that counts [:D]

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

Hmmm I am from SOUTH Germany if that counts [:D]

Cool! Did your family own any slaves[:D]?

[Grfin Zeppelin]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

Hmmm I am from SOUTH Germany if that counts [:D]

Cool! Did your family own any slaves[:D]?

I own one myself, we call it husband here. So yes ma and grandma had a slave also Hmmm maybe I should plant cotton o.O

[SierraJuliet]

I live north of the river and the cotton fields are a long ways off. Does that mean I have to fall in line with the Union?

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

Hmmm I am from SOUTH Germany if that counts [:D]

Cool! Did your family own any slaves[:D]?

I own one myself, we call it husband here. So yes ma and grandma had a slave also Hmmm maybe I should plant cotton o.O

[Grfin Zeppelin]

Yep, sorry but YOU have to wear that blue uniform *nods*

[ilovestrategy]

All this reminds me of when I was a kid the people in charge of the Civil War re-enactments had problems finding people to dress as the Yankees. [:D]

[tocaff]

But even though SJ lives north of the river he lives in the Land Down Under so that would make him from the Deep South.

I live in South America making all of you Yankees.  [:'(]

[JohnDillworth]

Well being he is from North Georgia ... it is also understandable why he works in the dental field, having only three teeth remaining after the childhood consumption of Moon Pies and RC Cola.

Reminds me of the old joke:

"Why Doesn't the Tooth Fairy go to West Virgina?"
"No Teeth!"

[SierraJuliet]

Touche Grafin. I’ve worn blue most of my working life and have never before given thought to how that could link me those Yankees.[X(] How am I meant to gain the trust of Canoerebel and his merry band of southerners if they see me as a representative of the Union?

Thanks for the rescue Todd. There is plenty to be said for living south of the equator. I do, however, live in a northern state but in the south of that state. Now I’m confused. There wasn’t a neutral state in that war was there. If there was I could align myself with them and remain aloof to all this southern/northern brotherly love. Guess there was no in between was there. Perhaps it is best to look to my mostly German heritage for my inspiration.

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Well being he is from North Georgia ... it is also understandable why he works in the dental field, having only three teeth remaining after the childhood consumption of Moon Pies and RC Cola.

Reminds me of the old joke:

"Why Doesn't the Tooth Fairy go to West Virgina?"
"No Teeth!"

Hey now... no need to start pickin on us Mountaineers.

[JohnDillworth]

Hey now... no need to start pickin on us Mountaineers.

Sorry, you can just substitute Arkansas for West Virginia. Anybody from Arkansas out there?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Hey now... no need to start pickin on us Mountaineers.

Sorry, you can just substitute Arkansas for West Virginia. Anybody from Arkansas out there?

You mean like "How do you compliment your date if she's from Arkansas? Hey, nice tooth!"