161 years ago; The Battle of Gettysburg

The American Catholic – Politics & Culture from a Catholic Perspective

The new Republican Party was a threat to the Southern way.  

"Julius Howell, Civil War General (January 17, 1846 - June 19, 1948) joined the Confederate Army when he was 16. After surviving a few battles, he eventually found himself in a Union prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. In 1947, at the age of 101, Howell made this recording at the Library of Congress."

"You can hear in this man's accent how the English accent morphed into the American Southern accent. His accent is closer to the English accent than the speakers of today, still recognizable even as English."

British tourist Arthur Fremantle observed that Southern men spoke with English accents while Southern women spoke in the musical "southern twang".

An Englishman's Journey Through the Confederacy During America's Civil War (historynet.com) "After graduating from Sandhurst, Great Britain’s West Point, Arthur James Lyon Fremantle entered the army in 1852 and soon became an officer in England’s renowned Coldstream Guards (both his father and grandfather had served with distinction in the same regiment). At the age of 25, Fremantle was promoted to lieutenant colonel and eventually rose to the rank of full general, becoming along the way one of the most senior officers in the British army. In 1885, he commanded a brigade of Guards during the Sudan campaign and was later appointed governor of Malta, a strategically important British possession in the Mediterranean.

"Fremantle’s credentials certainly bespeak a distinguished military career, but perhaps his greatest importance to military history lies not in his service to queen and country but rather in the form of a short three-month diary he kept while on ‘vacation.’ Fueled by a strong desire to get a firsthand view of the boiling crisis in America as the Southern states struggled to free themselves from their Northern counterparts, Fremantle secured six-months’ leave and crossed the Atlantic.

"Upon entering the Confederacy, Fremantle made a breathtaking tour, visiting every Southern state except Arkansas and Florida. Within three months he had met most of the top Confederate leaders in both Eastern and Western theaters, including Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Joseph Johnston and Jefferson Davis, to name a few. But by no means did Fremantle limit himself to the leading figures; he befriended a gamut of men and women from all walks of life, and left behind an excellent account of the common soldier and the fiery Southern womenfolk on the home front." . . .

. . ."Even the Pennsylvania women who were disgusted to see the Confederates failed to daunt that Southern good humor. One creative woman protested the invaders by covering her sizable chest with a Union flag. Fremantle stood by as one cheeky Texan warned the woman, ‘Take care, madam, for Hood’s boys are great at storming breastworks when the Yankee colors is on them.’ " . . .

 What the Rebel Yell Sounded Like