Day 123. July 1, 1862.
July Quotes:
Touched by Fire: The Best of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Edited by Harold Holzer From “Introduction to 1862” P. 171 Stephen W. Sears: And so 1862 ended as it began, with the Union war effort seemingly stalled on dead center.
Mahmoud Darwish: The war will end. The leaders will shake hands. The old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son. That girl will wait for her beloved husband. And those children will wait for their heroic father. I don’t know who sold our homeland. But I saw who paid the price.
Prelude to David Strother’s diary: It will one day be considered a great privilege to have lived in these days, to have played a part in the greatest war that has shaken the earth for many a year, to have been acquainted with the actors, leaders, and localities of so famous a drama—the crushing out of the last traces of feudalism in the United States.
The Civil War: The Complete Text of the Bestselling Narrative History of the Civil War– Based on the Celebrated PBS Television Series Ward, Ward, & Burns P. 235
Robert E. Lee: It was all my fault. Get together and let us do the best we can toward saving that which is left us.
George Orwell: There is something wrong with a regime that requires a pyramid of corpses every few years.
Carl Sagan: That’s Earth as photographed by Voyager 1 from 6 billion km. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Richard Hofstadter: What is most exceptional about the Americans is not the voluminous record of their violence, but their extraordinary ability, in the face of that record, to persuade themselves that they are among the best-behaved and best-regulated of peoples.
Shelby Foote: But those people should command our sympathy. The South conducted itself bravely in an extremely difficult situation. Many of the things we’re proudest of in the American character were exemplified in the southern soldier, for instance. We take a justifiable pride in the bravery of those men, North and South.
Shelby Foote: It is absolutely true that no list of facts ever gives you a valid account of what happened.
What Caused the Civil War: Reflections on the South and Southern History Edward L. Ayers P. 178 The personal and public struggles involved in that multifarious conflict were more complicated than any of the categories historians have devised to explain them.
The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates (New York: E.B. Treat, 1866), P. 752 Edward A. Pollard: All that is left the South is the war of ideas.
Robert Penn Warren: By the Great Alibi, the South explains, condones and transmutes everything. By a simple reference to the “War,” any Southern female could not too long ago, put on the glass slipper and be whisked away to the ball. Any goose could dream herself (or himself) a swan– surrounded, of course, by a good many geese for contrast and devoted hand-service. Even now, any common lyncher becomes a defender of the Southern tradition, and any rabble-rouser the gallant leader of a thin gray line of heroes, his hat on saber-point to provide reference by which to hold formation in the charge. By the Great Alibi, pellagra, hookworm and illiteracy are all explained, or explained away, and mortgages are converted into badges of distinction. Laziness becomes the aesthetic sense, blood-lust rising from a matrix of boredom and resentful misery becomes a high sense of honor, and ignorance becomes divine revelation. By the Great Alibi, the Southerner makes his Big Medicine. He turns defeat into victory, defects into virtues. Even more pathetically, he turns his great virtues into absurdities–sometimes vicious absurdities.
Margaret Atwood: Because the dead control the past, they control the stories, and also certain kinds of truth.
(On Primo Levi’s suicide) Joan Acocella: It is a species of sentimentality to think that the end of something tells the truth about it.
The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History Gary W. Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, Editors P. 167 From “Continuous Hammering and Mere Attrition.” Brooks D. Simpson: It is one thing to fight it out on the same line if it takes all summer; it is quite another to continue to fight along that line for another century and a half.
Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era 1829-1877 Walter A. McDougall P. 493 Let no one persuade you that the American Civil War was anything but a catastrophe.
James McPherson: There was nothing inevitable about Northern victory in the Civil War.
The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History Gary W. Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, Editors (2000) P. 23 The South could have won simply by not being conquered. It did not have to occupy a foot of ground outside its own borders.
The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War Andrew Delbanco P. 300 William Greenleaf Eliot: A true history of that fierce struggle will probably never be written. There were no impartial judges, no unprejudiced witnesses, to observe or record the facts. Right-minded men could hardly tell where the lines of right and wrong crossed each other. Living in St. Louis the whole time and long before, and knowing many of those engaged in the strife on either side, I thought I saw both sides as they really were, but, in truth I saw neither. The complications of actions and motive, both right and wrong, were past finding out. One thing, however, is sure; that the right prevailed at last. Thank God for that.
Note: Along with the true history of that fierce struggle never written are entire swaths of Black American history, though their vestiges remain in places like Tulsa, Oklahoma: Tulsa was the site of the 1921 Race Massacre (as it’s now termed) where Whites burned more than 40 blocks in Black Wall Street (Greenwood section). 100-300 dead over a 48 hour White rampage, 9k lost their homes, 1,200 Greenwood buildings decimated, & 800 sought hospital care. Over $50-1 million in property damage in today’s currency, & because insurance didn’t fund riots damage, no one was reimbursed or given any type of reparation whatsoever. Greenwood was then seized & rezoned. Planes actually flew over Greenwood dropping bombs. Survivors reported seeing bodies thrown into mass graves. Graves, plural. Tulsa mayors through the decades have vetoed digging any bodies up & providing them with a proper burial. All this because a Black man accidentally stepped on a White woman’s foot when he walked into an elevator at the Drexel Building on May 30, 1921. The Tulsa Tribune‘s headline was, “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator.” In 2005, the Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by riot survivors, & descendants of those killed. They made no comment.
Olivia Hooker, born in 1915, was 6 during the riot. She is quoted in her obituary in the Washington Post:
“As a little girl, her most searing memory of the massacre was what the mob did to her doll. “My grandmother had made some beautiful clothes for my doll. It was the first ethnic doll we had ever seen….She washed them and put them on the line. When the marauders came, the first thing they did was set fire to my doll’s clothes. I thought that was dreadful.” Washingtonpost.com “Olivia Hooker, one of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, dies at 103.” 2018 DaNeen L. Brown
Ursula K. Le Guin: Imagination is the instrument of ethics. There are many metaphors beside battle, many choices besides war, and most ways of doing good do not, in fact, involve killing anybody.
William Blum: No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine.
Lincoln: Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
123
the records of the wind are those of almost an entire calm….
July Tuesday 1st
Quite warm this morning. I was at home all day. I helped ¾ of a day hauling in hay. I was very much woren out. I scarcely do much towards evening
[Telegram.]
Washington, July 1, 1862. 3:30 p. m.
Major-General George B. McClellan.
It is impossible to reinforce you for your present emergency. If we had a million of men, we could not get them to you in time. We have not the men to send. If you are not strong enough to face the enemy, you must find a place of security, and wait, rest, and repair. Maintain your ground if you can, but save the army at all events, even if you fall back to Fort Monroe. We still have strength enough in the country, and will bring it out. A Lincoln.
Note: This is his bat signal moment now currently underway. By the end of December, 1862, Lincoln will say to Illinois Senator Orville Hickman Browning, “What do these men want? They wish to get rid of men, and I am sometimes half disposed to to gratify them. We are now on the brink of destruction. It appears to me the Almighty is against us, and I can hardly see a ray of hope. Why will men believe a lie, an absurd lie, that could not impose upon a child, and cling to it and repeat it in defiance of all evidence to the contrary.”
Note the infamous Christmas Eve, 1862: Balfour Ball: Vicksburg citizens celebrating the impregnability of their “Gibraltar of the West” at a gala ball are alarmed by the sound of artillery, as gunboats and and ports bearing the first of General Grant’s army pass on the river on their way to establishing a base south of the city. (Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference)
In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859-1864 Edward Ayers P. 297
“Throughout July 1862, Lee watched the Union forces in northern Virginia and on the Peninsula, worrying about both Pope and McClellan. The Federals might follow several plans to overwhelm the Confederates. The Northerners might cut off the rail connection to the vital Shenandoah Valley and then push to Richmond against a weakened Confederate force, or they might coordinate their armies and launch simultaneous attacks on Richmond and the Confederates in northern Virginia, forcing Lee to sacrifice one for the other. A third possibility was that McClellan would leave the Peninsula, where he had failed to seize Richmond, and join with Pope in northern Virginia, crushing the heavily outnumbered troops under Lee while protecting Washington.
It appeared in the blazing days of midsummer that the Federals were pulling back on the Peninsula at the same time that Pope was occupying Culpepper and posing a threat to the railroads to the Shenandoah Valley. The Confederates, running low on supplies of every sort, depended on the railroads that ran into the interior of the Confederacy to keep them alive.”
Making and Remaking Pennsylvania’s Civil War William Blair and William Pencak P. 213
James McPherson wrote, “Gettysburg represented the Confederate war effort in microcosm: matchless valor, apparent initial success, and ultimate disaster.”
In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859-1864 Edward Ayers P. 410
“The great preponderating impression” made by the Confederates, Jacob Hoke thought, “was its immenseness. No idea of its magnitude can be formed by any description which can be given.” If the army, artillery, wagon trains, ambulances, and the rest “had all been placed in a line in usual marching order, it would have extended nearly from Chambersburg to Harrisburg- fifty miles.” He saw one wagon train fourteen miles long and another twenty-five miles long. “Like a huge serpent, it slowly and cautiously made its way into our State, turning its head now in one direction and then in another….”
Lincoln’s Spies: Their Secret War to Save a Nation Douglas Waller P. 189-190
“Still feeble from what ailed him, Pinkerton found a wretched crowded encampment when he arrived at Harrison’s Landing in early July. Temperatures soared past 100 degrees and swarming flies from the James River bottomland drove soldier and beast mad. McClellan’s men lived in filth and drank polluted water. By the end of the month more than 42,000 of them would be on sick call. McClellan set up his headquarters at the Harrison Mansion on Berkeley Plantation, where soldiers strung telegraph lines and a signal station was perched on the roof to communicate by flags to Navy ships on the river. Though harboring private delusions and bitter resentments, McClellan retained his showman’s flare, staging grand reviews at Harrison’s Landing, firing off gun salutes with the band playing, and putting out propaganda for the public that he had scored a victory over superior forces. Swallowing the line, newspapers like the Washington Evening Star published glowing accounts of the campaign or like the New York Herald excoriated Stanton for not supporting the general.
To resume the campaign, McClellan messaged Washington that he now had only 50,000 men and needed 100,000 more. Lincoln found the request absurd and cabled back that it could not be done. Fed with alarming prisoner reports by Pinkerton’s team, the Union commander feared the entire Confederate Army would now attack him, which was not the case. Lowe’s balloons made regular ascents but detected no Rebel activity. Lee, it turned out, was receiving intelligence reports on McClellan as exaggerated as the reports McClellan was receiving on Lee. Confederate spies tracked Union steamers sailing in and out of Harrison’s Landing with troops aboard, Lee wrote Davis, concluding that the Yankees had been reinforced and were planning “further operations.” Chastened by the spy reports and his own battlefield setbacks, Lee decided to leave McClellan alone.”
The Peninsula & Seven Days: A Battlefield Guide Brian K. Burton P. 107
“Lee had also ordered the Southern infantry to charge when they heard a cheer from a forward-placed unit. Through a combination of unfortunate circumstances, some of Magruder’s troops charged the line, an unplanned cheer was raised, and D.H. Hill, hearing the yells, ordered his division to the attack.
The result was a slaughterhouse. Successive Confederate brigades attacked without coordination, and the Union defense, well handled by Porter and Darius Couch of the infantry and Col. Henry Hunt of the Artillery Reserve (McClellan again being absent from the field most of the day), broke every assault relatively easily. Union reinforcements were summoned and arrived at the right place at the right time in every area of fighting. Only once did the Rebels get to the Union line, and then just briefly before they were thrown back. The battle continued until after dark, and the result was one of the most complete defeats suffered by any army in the war.”
In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859-1864 Edward Ayers P. 402-403
“Despite Lee’s order, the line between fair dealing and retribution remained unclear. After all, the Pennsylvania merchants “had to sell goods at their old prices for Confederate money.” And Confederate money, everyone knew, held little value in the Confederacy and no value at all in the North; Lee’s army simply carried printing presses to print all the money it needed. The fiction of payment permitted the Southerners to imagine themselves gallant and generous. As a member of the generals’ staff, Hotchkiss won a chance at goods that enlisted men would be denied. “I bought about $100 worth of calico, wool delaine, bleached cotton, hoops, gloves, thread, gingham, pins &c &c which I hope to get home in due time if we stop short of N.Y.” he happily wrote Sara. Such sundries were in short supply in Staunton, and Hotchkiss knew his wife would be thrilled at the valuable but light and portable gifts.”
“I spent some hours in Chambersburg, which is a pretty town of 5600 inhabitants,” L.M. Blackford wrote back to Virginia. “The stores were all closed when we entered the place, but many of them were opened by threats of violent entrance by armed force if it was not done quickly. When opened, guards in most instances—not all—were posted at the door and but a limited number allowed to enter at a time. When we did get in we bought what few things we could find that we wanted with C.S. money.” The merchants raised their prices a little, “but at this no one complained.” It was true that “at some of the stores the soldiers got in, and not being restrained by a guard, took a good many things without pay. There was, in short a good deal of lawlessness, but not as much as might have been expected under the circumstances. I did not know of more than 6 or 8 stores in all being opened.” Blackford bought himself “a handsome black felt hat”; indeed, “our whole party re-hatted themselves.”
There could be no doubt in late June that the Confederate invasion was a brilliant maneuver in every way. “Providence has abundantly blessed our movement, few casualties of any kind—and our success wonderful—we shall get nearly a million dollars worth of horses, supplies of all kinds &c from this county,” Hotchkiss wrote with satisfaction. Who could have imagined that invading the rich and powerful North would have been this easy. “The people are very submissive and comply, meekly, with the demands made on them—I think we shall be able to do a good deal towards bringing about an honorable peace.” “The army is in splendid condition: marches almost wholly without straggling, and is in the highest spirits,” Blackford assured his family back in the Valley of Virginia. “Lee is making a bold stroke for peace. Pray that it may succeed.”
Joseph Waddell soon saw the results of the Confederate occupation of Pennsylvania down to Staunton. “A number of wagons loaded with hardware, stationery +c purchased by our Quartermasters in Chambersburg, Pa., arrived to-day.” The underlining of “purchased” conveyed irony rather than emphasis, as the next sentence made clear. “The benighted Yankees have been excluded by the blockade, from Southern market for so long, that they are away behind the times in regard to prices.” A file that cost three dollars in Staunton cost only twenty cents in Chambersburg.”
Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War David Silkenat P. 116-117
(Recounting the first day of Gettysburg, 1863:) Overwhelmed by Confederate soldiers, Hardman later recalled that “the men were almost instantly surrounded, standing in a vortex of fire from both flanks and rear, with their cartridge boxes empty.” At first, Hardman’s commanding officer “encouraged them to fight with the naked bayonet, hoping to cut his way out.” Quickly realizing that continuing to fight would be suicidal, he raised a “white handkerchief and waved it in token of surrender,” resulting in an immediate ceasefire. In the noise and confusion, however, not all of the Union soldiers realized that they were surrendering. Among them was a wounded sergeant who had “not seen the colonel’s signal” and continued to fire on the advancing Confederate soldiers. In response, the Confederates “opened fire again with tremendous effect,” killing many of the men alongside Hardman, some of whom had already dropped their weapons to surrender. The commanding Union officer hurried into a nearby house, seized a large white tablecloth, and attempted to surrender a second time. This larger “token of surrender,” Hardman noted with relief, “the Rebels acknowledged and quit firing.”
Ken Burns’s the Civil War: Historians Respond Robert Brent Toplin P. 90-91 “Lincoln and Gettysburg: The Hero and the Heroic Place.” Gabor S. Boritt
Gettysburg, day one. “The greatest battle ever fought on the North American continent began as a clash over shoes.” Folktale. The series uses these masterfully but ahistorically. “The South came in from the North that day and the North came in from the South.” A fine sentence that stresses paradox. But the Confederates came in from the west, then the north. Mundane facts at times lose out to the well-turned phrase or the enticing image. “Compared to what was coming, the first day had been a skirmish.” Without going into arguments over exact numbers of troops and precise times– a veritable labyrinth– it is clear that the first day, producing close to one-third of the three days’ casualties, was anything but a skirmish. It foreshadowed what was to come.
Day one also illustrates the impossibility of providing on film the detailed scrutiny, the sophistication of interpretation that we demand from books. Toward the evening of July 1, General Lee ordered the commander of his Second Corps, Richard S. Ewell, to take Culp’s Hill, “if practicable.” Ewell did not attack, and the Hill remained an anchor of the Union line for the rest of the battle. Folklore, and historical writers who tried to absolve Lee from responsibility for Gettysburg, amde Ewell one of its great scapegoats. Many a Civil War buff is certian that had the aggressive Stonewall Jackson not died a few weeks earlier at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg might have been a different story. The film devotes but a moment to the topic, simply and subtly blaming Ewell. We get no intimation that historians themselves disagree, that it is quite possible to make a case for the bold-headed Lieutenant General from Virginia.
Note: President Lincoln calls 300,000 volunteers into service today; also urges 17 states’ worth of governors to fill their quotas.
Note: See start of manuscript under “Monuments” for the 2 memorials that stand for or otherwise mention the 110th at Gettysburg. In Gettysburg Park there are 1,328 monuments & markers to the Civil War in one form or another, like statues, plaques, markers, boulders. 410 cannons, 148 historic buildings, & 41 miles of roads according to Wikipedia. The park is “one of the largest collections of outdoor sculpture in the world.” For 3 time-lapse videos on monument building at Gettysburg, visit civildiscourse-historyblog.com, “The Transformation of Gettysburg as a Commemorative Space, 1863-2020.”
It’s a common misconception there exist Confederate State monuments at Gettysburg, but no regimental statues, obelisks, etc. for the South. That’s right: traitors are even memorialized on northern soil. 11th Mississippi’s regimental marker is on Seminary Ridge across from the North Carolina memorial where the 11th gathered to fight on July 3, 1863. Unbelievably, a second plaque exists to indicate their farthest advance today near the stone wall at the Bryan Barn. That’s not all. Seven monuments to individuals & nineteen specific to the CSA (whether infantry, brigade, cavalry division, artillery, battery) remain here on the very land they could not take. And there’s even one to Longstreet’s headquarters, plus a marker for “Armistead’s Last Stand.” As if Pennsylvanians are saying, darn it, nice try, wish you boys would have pulled it off.
The “Virginia Monument” at Gettysburg is a bronze statue of Lee on Traveller and a “bronze group of figures representing the Artillery, Infantry, and Cavalry of the Confederate Army.” One Union veteran– Lord Byron Green– wrote to a PA. newspaper, “They knew full well that they were engaged in a wicked war; the objective point aimed at being the destruction of the government founded on the principle of personal liberty and universal freedom, and the creation of a class government that would uphold and perpetuate human slavery. It is a gross reflection upon their intelligence to argue otherwise. Now, in all sincerity, I ask, would it not be just as proper for the legislature of Pennsylvania to appropriate $10,000 to build a monument for Jefferson Davis on the capitol grounds at Harrisburg as it would be for them to appropriate $10,000 of the people’s money to build a monument for Lee at Gettysburg? Why not? Why should they not be honored alike by the people of Pennsylvania?” Lee went up in 1917, & was unveiled by Lee’s niece. PA. has 4 Confederate monuments, markers, or public symbols according to the SPLC. According to the Washington Post, 1 in 12 Confederate memorials are in Union states. The Confederate dead and the “last Confederate bivouac” markers were erected in McConnellsburg in 1929, 1948, & 1930. Over half of the Rebel monuments have taken the field since 1980, & 16 were placed between 1960 to 2000. On the ongoing revision of these McConnellsburg markers, see In 2020, the plaque commemorating the final Rebel encampment was taken down then “accessioned into PHMC’s collection for interpretive purposes.” Revision of language on other markers is due to their “outdated cultural references” and now will “depict the Confederates as a destructive invading force.” https://www.spotlightpa.org “Pennsylvania revises Confederate markers, recasts forces as “enemy” soldiers 12/14/21
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause Ty Seidule P. 117-118
Note: Discussing Lee Chapel, at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia (constructed 1867-1868). Traveller was 16 hands, 1,100 pounds, a gray American Saddlebred. You’ve seen the pictures.
“Another religious relic resided outside the basement masoleum and Lee’s office– the buried remains of Traveller, Lee’s warhorse. Traveller died soon after Lee. The horse stepped on a nail, developed tetanus, and had to be euthanized. Lee’s son Custis had the horse buried in a ravine behind the Colonnade. In 1874, his bones were disinterred and began a circuitous journey. First to Rochester, New York, to a “museumologist” who promised to preserve the bones. He never sent them back. Forgotten, the bones remained out of Lexington for thirty years.
In 1907, the centennial of Lee’s birth, Traveller returned to Lexington. Someone screwed the bones together as a skeleton and displayed it in a natural history museum on campus. Students would carve their initials in the bones for luck on exams. In 1929, the skeleton moved to the Lee Chapel museum. When the chapel was fully restored in the 1960s, the bones had deteriorated beyond repair. Finally, in 1971, Traveller’s remains were buried in a wooden box under a concrete vault as close as possible to Lee’s office so the horse was close to his master. Visitors place carrots and apples on Traveller’s grave and pennies as well. Always heads down. No one wanted to have the hated Lincoln’s face visible to Lee’s grave. Traveller’s bones became another relic for pilgrims, and Lee Chapel became the St. Peter’s Basilica of the Lost Cause religion.”
Note too: 108 miles away, Shanksville, is the Flight 93 National memorial, the plane where they took a vote whether to storm the cockpit or not, somewhere in air close enough over where Lincoln stood. They took a vote on the way down to their deaths.
scarcely do much towards evening….
Over 360,000 Pennsylvanians fought for the Union cause, serving with distinction on the battlefields across the South and at home. Another 14,000 Pennsylvanians served the nation at sea, sailing on vessels all over the world. Only the state of New York exceeded Pennsylvania’s troop contribution. And they got home, some of them. And they were tired.
I scarcely do much towards evening. It might be that this was the deciding factor for him, today, that he was capable of working for most of the day but by night, he was done for. He could also mean that in general, that every day, as night arrives, he’s down for the count. It’s hot, humid, and dried grass weighs a lot. He likely had a pitchfork and a horse or two. He pitched it onto a wagon, then pitched it back off when it was sold, or stored. (Hay is fed to cows, horses, sheep, etc., & tractors were not invented yet, nor balers.)
Southern Pennsylvanians are not generally supporting the war right now due to Curtin as Governor & his new conscription laws. Also, many were hiding out in PA. mountains. They were like PA.’s own version of the Arkansas Peace Party. They wanted no part, if they’d ever had a part the last two years, a fact which made national news. This was big deal in the North, but even south of the Mason-Dixon, this news seemed strange.
Lee thought PA. might decide the war, or at least provide supplies. 20k dead or wounded, nearly 1/4 Lee’s army, July 1 plus 16k Northerners due to rifled muskets. Gettysburg would have been worse but “tens of thousands” of muskets found later were loaded wrong because men were too scared during battle to load them correctly, or they’d put in two bullets. Or maybe they just got sick of the killing. Gettysburg was understood at the time to be the turning point, & some still call it that, except as many men died before this point as after. Still others say it was Vicksburg. Maybe the entire war was the turning point. Maybe there was no point until the house where Lee picked the pen up & swept it across the contract. Then put the pen down and slid the page across the room’s thick air to Grant. Stood up, walked out, jumped on Traveller, & rode off. If the war ended in ’65, and Gettysburg was two years earlier, it couldn’t have been a turning point. Why do we so want to know? Why do we try so hard to pin it down? To prevent war? Because that hasn’t worked. (Most Americans don’t know, for instance, that 480,000 people have been killed by direct violence due to the United States’ post-9/11 wars in the Middle East. (Brown University Watson Institute calculation.) In fact, the U.S. has been at war over 90% of its existence. Pretty strange for a newly inhabited country full of mainly immigrants.
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