ClicksyPicsWiggle animations and anything old timey!

AP story:

WASHINGTON – In the Confederate circles he navigated, John Scobell was considered just another Mississippi slave: singing, shuffling, illiterate and completely ignorant of the Civil War going on around him.

Confederate officers thought nothing of leaving important documents where Scobell could see them, or discussing troop movements in front of him. Whom would he tell? Scobell was only the butler, or the deckhand on a rebel sympathizer’s steamboat, or the field hand belting out Negro spirituals in a powerful baritone.

In reality, Scobell was not a slave at all.

He was a spy sent by the Union army, one of a few black operatives who quietly gathered information in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with Confederate spy-catchers and slave masters who could kill them on the spot. These unsung Civil War heroes were often successful, to the chagrin of Confederate leaders who never thought their disregard for blacks living among them would become a major tactical weakness.

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RICHMOND, Va. –

Two Civil War-era dolls thought to have been used to smuggle medicine past Union blockades were X-rayed Wednesday, disclosing hollowed papier-mache heads that once could have contained quinine or morphine for wounded or malaria-stricken Confederate troops.

The 150-year-old dolls, dubbed Nina and Lucy Ann, were likely packed with the drugs and shipped from Europe in the hope that Union troops would not inspect toys when looking for contraband, a museum official said.

Nina and Lucy Ann were taken to VCU Medical Center from their home next door, The Museum of the Confederacy, to see if the contours inside their craniums and upper bodies were roomy enough to carry the medicines.

The conclusion: yes.

The next step could be forensic testing for any traces of the drugs.

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This is the animation that crashed on me Sunday.  He could be Brad Pitt’s grandfather.  Below is a bigger view.  View the original at the loc website here.  I will have this print up for sale in the next few days at deviantart.com.

The only thing I dislike about this blog layout is the restrictions on the sizes of the images I can post.  Horizontally they can only be about 620 pixels before they start to slide into the margins.  I will eventually try and learn enough css to be able to expand the actual photo page, until then, click on the image and it will take you to the big version.

View the original at the loc website here.

George Stoneman, Jr. (August 8, 1822 – September 5, 1894) was a career United States Army officer, a Union cavalry general in the American Civil War, and the 15th Governor of California between 1883 and 1887.  Wiki page.

View the original at the Library of Congress website here.

View the original at the Library of Congress here.

Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe was appointed Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps in 1861 by Abe Lincoln.  The year after the above photo was taken, Thaddeus resigned because of disputes over his operations and pay.

Following his stint in the war, he spent time on his inventions, creating an ice making machine and a water gas process which produced hydrogen gas from charcoal and steam.  His patents and inventions made him a millionaire.  In 1887 he moved to L.A. building a 24,000 square foot mansion, and opening several ice making plants and even a bank.  In 1891 he opened a railroad company which was initially successful but became costly and he lost the company.  He died at 81 having lost his fortunes, living in his daughter’s home in Pasadena.  Click to read more about him at wikipedia.

Download the original stereo card at the LOC website here.

Photographs of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, Civil War.

View the original image from the Library of Congress here.  To find out how these are created, go here.

“Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship.”

-Frederick Douglass

Of all of the images I’ve seen on the LoC website, this has been by far the most striking. If my guess is right, this man is a Corporal in the Union army. Perhaps guarding this building, or just resting with a book. This was taken when the Union General Sherman was in Atlanta, after forcing the Confederacy away from the munitions center. He allowed his men to rest and recover in Atlanta for a couple of months before moving on, during which time a photographer documented the scene (unfortunately most of his images were destroyed in a fire). Most people don’t realize how many black soldiers there were on the Union side. According to the National Archives, “By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy.” Find more about participation of blacks at the National Archives here. This image was badly warped, and isn’t a particularly striking animation.  I think the image stands very well on it’s own.

View the original image from the Library of Congress here.