Winston Groom, known to most as the author of Forrest Gump, was a well-respected writer of historical stuff including Shrouds of Glory, Shiloh 1862, and Vicksburg 1863.  What makes Groom’s Civil War books different from most is the stuff he inserted into the narrative. Like these, for instance….

ONE. Rebel General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a case study in a hundred things–ego, confidence, brilliance, foolhardiness–caught up with Union Colonel Abel Streight near the Georgia line. Flying a flag of truce, Forrest invited Streight to surrender.  Now, bear in mind that Forrest was out-numbered over three to one.

General Streight agreed to surrender if Forrest could convince him that he had a completely superior force.

Forrest was ready.

He had arranged for his soldiers to haul the only two pieces of artillery they possessed around in a circle, across and behind a high cut in the road, so that it would appear to Streight that whole batteries were being brought up to the front.

Finally, Streight gave in. “How many guns have you got? There’s fifteen I’ve counted already!”  Forrest said, “I reckon that’s all that’s kept up.”

Sensing the futility of his position, the Yankee colonel handed over his 1,466 troops with all their horses, artillery, and equipment. When he learned that Forrest had only 400 men and two guns, he demanded that his men and arms should be returned and that they should fight it out.  Forrest laughed, patted him on the shoulder, and said, “Ah Colonel, all is fair in love and war, you know.”

In wartime, so much of tactics involves fooling the opposition into thinking you are somewhere you are not, have weapons you do not, and are about to accomplish something you cannot. All is fair.

Those involved in warfare against Satan and his forces would do well to take note.  He is smarter than any military tactician and infinitely less scrupulous. Resist him, however, and he will flee. We have the Word of God on that (James 4:7 and I Peter 5:9).

TWO. Recounting the attempts of the Union to take control of the Mississippi River, which was defended by the Rebel guns on Vicksburg’s high bluffs, Winston Groom noted: Then there occurred one of those weird and wonderful incidents, which on the rarest of occasions can make war actually seem like fun.

The Union’s David Porter, admiral of the Navy, grew tired of the Confederates destroying his ships as they tried to sail past Vicksburg, so he concocted a ruse to embarrass them. Commandeering a large flatboat, he set a crew of carpenters to work turning it into what appeared to be a Union ironclad. In a few hours, the barge was 300 feet long, with 40 ft high wheel-houses (made from a cabin hauled from a nearby plantation), two small smokestacks (barrels atop one another, with smoldering tar pots providing the smoke), and a huge “Quaker gun” (a log painted black) poking forward.  The dummy ship was painted with tar and christened “Black Terror.” The Stars and Stripes flew from a flagstaff. According to Admiral Porter, the entire project cost $8.63.

Just before midnight, a towboat pulled this dummy ship to the bend above Vicksburg and set it adrift.

The Rebel batteries on the bluff, seeing it only in the moonlight, assumed it was the real deal and opened fire.  The swift current of the river carried it by with no damage.

When word leaked out–the Union saw that word did get out–the Rebel forces were embarrassed, commanding General Pemberton was humiliated, and even the southerners got a kick out of the ruse.

Whether anything was accomplished of significance is another question altogether.

Have you been wasting valuable resources fighting a fake threat? Fake threats work best in the darkness, another lesson to keep in mind.

THREE. One morning, the Rebels defending Vicksburg were having breakfast around a fire. As John Harper was spooning boiled rice into his mouth, suddenly a small piece of shell flying through the air struck the spoon, tearing a hole in it, and spattering Harper’s face with the rice.  He calmly muttered, “That was cool,” wiped his face, and went on eating his breakfast.

Winston Groom comments that this was a hundred years before saying something was cool was in vogue.

That put me in mind of when Abraham Lincoln used the same word in the same way.

In  Lincoln’s “Cooper Union” speech, delivered in New York City on February 27, 1860, Abe was discussing the puzzling situation the nation was facing in the upcoming election.  At the time, no one had any inkling he would be the Republican presidential candidate and the eventual winner.

Lincoln addresses the position of Southerners who say that if the nation elects a Republican, they will be forced to secede from the Union. So, it will be the nation’s fault if they secede.  Lincoln said, “That is cool.” According to Harold Holzer’s book Lincoln at Cooper Union, laughter followed that line.

Lincoln stressed the point he was making. “A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!’” Holzer adds: “Continued laughter.”

I emailed Dr. Holzer inquiring about Lincoln’s saying “That is cool.”  I was fascinated to learn he had said such a thing.  Holzer, author of numerous books on the 16th president, responded that he gets more questions about that than anything else in the speech.  When Lincoln it was cool, he meant it was odd.

Look up “cool” in Wikipedia and you will come away with the impression that this was an expression coined in the Jazz Age by hipsters.  Hardly.  If we have the future President of the United States using it as slang in 1860 and a Confederate soldier doing the same three years later, it’s no stretch to believe the expression “That is cool” or “That’s cool” was always widely known and used.

I love reading this kind of history.