#1: Pointless counterfactuals.*
Get out of my head, old man!
So why, all day, was I haunted by the fact that today is the sesquicentennial of Robert E. Lee resigning his commission in the United States Army? I think it must have been the papers I should have been grading–procrastination created a vacuum, and in rushed Marse Robert.
WTF?
Because honestly, there are few things less interesting to me than military counterfactuals.
And I am so very much NACWH.**
*Are there any other kind?
**Not A Civil War Historian
I find historical counterfactuals interesting too, but less the military ones than the dynastic ones. Infant mortality in medieval and early modern royal families were extraordinarily high, with dramatic consequences. My favorite one is the early death of Miguel de la Paz, who would have become king of a united Spain and Portugal and prevented the empire of Charles V. Thinking through the implications of that one really brought home how contingent the fate of nations were.
You just like the word “sesquicentennial,” admit it.
What is a “counterfactual?”
I saw a PBS thing on Lee, and it said that he went from pretty much no grey to total grey in the few years he was a confederate general. What a sad way to spend such great talent (obviously, I’m not a white southerner, eh?)
Bardiac, a counterfactual is a “what if. . .?” game. So, in this example, I was wondering what would have happened if Lee hadn’t resigned his commission in the U.S. Army, and had instead led that army.
Yes, but You and Mr. Lee go way back.
By the way, do you really do the Dance of Shiva? I so want to have some epiphanies, but I have an extremely low tolerance for frustration in physical endeavors. I feel like I’d be pulling my hair out all the time. You?