The true father of our country.
I am a direct descendant of this man, General William Raine Peck. He was a wealthy plantation owner in Louisiana. In spite of his wealth he enlisted as a private and eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General. He was the last commander of the
Louisiana Tigers. He was known as one of the largest men in the Civil War and at 6 feet 6 inches and 330 pounds was the largest in the Confederacy. You can
read his obit here. It's the 6th one down the page.
- Today is the day our Civil War started 150 years ago. One of the first things I thought of when reminded of this is all the civil wars we and other developed nations interfere with all over the world in any given year.
- We are so proud of ours though- we spend millions of dollars a year preserving battlefield sites and paying people to tell the story of these battles. Every year several new books on our Civil War still come out.
- We are proud of our war.
- That war was also inevitable politically- it was the only thing that was going to bring our nations (yes, it was that sharply divided-nations is essentially correct) back together. Why don't we let other nations have their wars and just get it over with?
- I know part of the answer is in modern warfare more- a lot more civilians are inevitably killed than combatants, but still I've never heard anyone frame our involvement abroad in terms of our Civil War.
The true father of our country. 
I am a direct descendant of this man, General William Raine Peck. He was a wealthy plantation owner in Louisiana. In spite of his wealth he enlisted as a private and eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General. He was the last commander of the Louisiana Tigers. He was known as one of the largest men in the Civil War and at 6 feet 6 inches and 330 pounds was the largest in the Confederacy. You can read his obit here. It's the 6th one down the page. 
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Mother noted the 150th Civil War anniversary after learning that my sister and I planted a Confederate Jasmine at the former's place today. =)
Kathleen- Whoa how cool. It's been a long time since I was there, but I lived in Tennessee for a couple of years. You would simply not believe how deep the roots of that war still ran in the deep South and the resentment elderly people could demonstrate.
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