New York City Will Also Secede!      New York City banks and other businesses were so entwined with Southern cotton planters, Mayor Fernando Wood persuaded  the New York City Council to vote on seceding from the state of New York and the United States in December, 1860. NY City Mayor Fernando Wood circa 1855  Mayor Fernando Wood, January 6, 1861 A statement by the mayor published in New York newspapers "Much, no doubt, can be said in favor of the justice and policy of a separation. It may be said that Secession or revolution in any of the United States would be subversive of all Federal authority, and, so far as the central Government is concerned, the resolving of the community into its original elements - that, if part of the States form new combinations and Governments, other States may do the same. Then it may be said, why should not New York City, instead of supporting by her contributions in revenue two-thirds of the expenses of the United States, b...

  Mid 1800s Samoan warrior with his machete sword         Long before Graham Greene wrote his classic novel "The Ugly American," Americans were already doing an outstanding job of being ugly, condescending, and threatening destruction if their demands were not met.      From the early 1820s on through the rest of the 1800s, growing numbers of European missionaries and settlers in the South Pacific increasingly demanded protection from their respective navies.  This was very similar to the pattern of settlers in the American West asking the US Army for protection against Native Americans.       The United States was a participant in at least a half dozen punitive expeditions against various island tribes before the American Civil War not counting the ad hoc bullying  by an American naval officer recounted below.      Today, Apia and its harbor are part of the Samoa,  under Commonwealth protecti...

  Confederate Desertion Desertion was a tremendous problem for the Confederate army. At General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia in April 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia was as much as 1/3 below its official strength due to desertion.   Confederate newspapers howled for strict and harsh punishments for deserters until late 1863. July 3rd, 1863 saw Lee's defeat at Gettysburg and July 4th, 1863 General Grant conquered Vicksburg, closing the entire Mississippi River to the Confederacy as well as cutting it in half. Sober military men from general to private could see the Confederacy was doomed. The question of who wants to be the last man to die for a real “lost cause” arose. Who wanted to die so draft exempt rich slave owners could continue to be rich slave owners. At first, desertion was often a matter of obtaining leave and then not returning. By late 1864, large areas of the Confederacy not under Union control were actually controlled by organized bands of de...