Showing results for "civil war echoes"

Civil War Echoes: O Canada!

With the recent controversy involving O Canada in the NBA news, it might be of interest to our readers to note that the song is an echo of the Civil War. The song itself dates from 1880, when it was commissioned for Ste. Jean Baptiste Day in Quebec. Its lyrics (in French) came from Sir Adolph-Basile […]

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Civil War Echoes: The Desert War II

A charismatic general fights for an extended period in one theater against the same force under a succession of generals. Despite being outnumbered and often under-supplied, he manages to win a series of spectacular victories that capture the world’s attention and push his opponents to the brink of strategic despair and defeat. In the end, […]

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Civil War Echoes: The Desert War I

75 years ago today, the German high command decided to send a contingent of German troops to North Africa to bolster Italian forces that had suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the British. This contingent fell under the command of General Erwin Rommel, and was known as the Afrika Korps; later reinforcements […]

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Civil War Echoes: Philippine Scouts

As many of you know, I’ve been working on a book about Bataan and Corregidor (it went to the publisher today). I’ve blogged and spoken about several Civil War connections to those battles and their participants. Here’s one I just found a few days ago, and was not aware of previously.

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From the ECW Archives: Civil War Echoes Bataan

I recently returned from the Philippines, where I had the opportunity to visit sites related  to the World War II Campaigns in 1941-42 (Clark Field, Bataan, Corregidor), the Bataan Death March, and the liberation operations in 1945 (Manila). While there I found some echoes of the Civil War, which reminded me that for World War […]

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Civil War Echoes: Graf Spee 1939

75 years ago today, the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee fought a British squadron off the River Plate on South America’s coast. After an hour of battle, the Graf Spee’s captain, Hans Langsdorff, ran into neutral Montevideo harbor for repairs. The Civil War connection to this battle may not be completely apparent at first, […]

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Civil War Echoes: Douglas MacArthur and the Return to the Philippines

70 years ago today, General Douglas MacArthur waded ashore on Leyte, fulfilling his famous pledge to return to the Philippines. The photo of him at that moment (shown here, center, with his staff) is one of the iconic images of World War II in the Pacific. It is also an echo of the Civil War. […]

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Civil War Echoes: College Football

As another college football Saturday passes, I cannot help but be struck by the various Civil War connections that can be found on today’s gridiron. Like any deep-rooted regional organization, colleges and universities are an expression of each state and reflect the values and heritage of their respective areas. In some states, rooting for the local […]

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Civil War Echoes: Erich Raeder’s Navy

Raphael Semmes published his Memoirs of Service Afloat During The War Between The States in 1869, providing a far-ranging discussion of the Confederate naval war and his role in it as a commerce raider, squadron commander, and field commander. This book so impressed Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II that he made it required reading among his […]

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