On April 12, 1861, the bombardment of Fort Sumter opened the Civil War encompassing the gifted commander in chief Abe's entire term with the terrible price that thereafter persuaded isolationism toward involvement in foreign wars. 




I waited a day posting to continue celebrating ch.com's birthday, but I'd think for this whole year there may be programs revisiting the time.  I wouldn't be surprised if this year's convention site, Nashville had an ongoing display, TN was an important battleground in the war.

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We'd seen enough to ever involve ourselves in the war affairs of other countries, until it became our affair.  This sentiment was strong, the terror of it not forgotten before entrancing WWI and II.  Had we not well learned this lesson at home, we may have had the oats to be more... gallant-minded earlier, less appraised of its hell. 

Gallant-minded were the French entering WWI, rushing headlong into machine guns shouting "Rosa Pantaloons!"

Yes they charged with bright red pants.  They very soon changed them.

Joshl924 wrote on Apr 14^th, 2011 at 8:12pm:


After the Civil War, our army size was greatly drained, state militia volunteers, National Guard, and green recruits were largely used.  The Spanish were in an even weaker position.  We anticipated no world involvement again.

"Remember the Maine" actually helped continue to reconcile lingering North-South differences by presenting a common enemy.

We didn't annex the Philippines, but occupied Manila and the bay pending the disposition of that country.


There is of course more to the Spanish American War.



Domestically, decisions had to be made for over a century after the Civil War concerning the continuous rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan formation immediately following, and civil rights.

I thought we were talking about the Civil War???  How the Philipines get into this?    LOL

Josh...the West Wing series was probably the most intelligent T.V. program ever broadcast.  I have the entire series on tape and even though I've seen it in it's entirety several times, there's always something I've missed. 

Kevin you're right.  The PBS documentary of the Civil War by Ken Burns was excellent.

No Kevin...I was talking about Joshe's comment about the Philipines & what has THAT got to do with the Cilvil War.   lol

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Linda, I was referring to this:

Linda_Howell wrote on Apr 17^th, 2011 at 10:57pm:


George mentioned the documentary.    

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We took a different turn at the Cold War, that's why I mentioned up to WWII.




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After Pearl Harbor, it then became our affair.

Even at the outbreak of WWI, France threw over 350,000 into war.  Us being very much larger, would barely be able to muster 200,000 at the time.  Foreign war involvement wasn't anticipated after the Civil War as we looked inward.  Wilson's second term platform was about not sending our boys over there, GDP almost tripled from the dawn of the 20th century to WWI.  America was rebuilding, we had our war and were hopefully done.

They may not have thought about the Civil War at WWII, but the isolation influence was established much prior and wasn't born of itself.

This changed at the Cold War. 



It is difficult to grasp that the Civil War did not affect decisions once that generation was gone.  It laid in the background in other aspects 100 years later through Johnson's administration.

Joshl924 wrote on Apr 21^st, 2011 at 9:36am:



Granted, Josh, the original post said

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imprecise and vague because it was only an aside comment, so I left it as generally speaking.  However, when you asked to elaborate I gave the more enclosing time in post #3 

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meaning from after the Civil War and encompassing up to those two landmark events.









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