President Joe Biden on Wednesday awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry to two Union soldiers who stole a locomotive deep in Confederate territory during the Civil War and drove it north for 87 miles (140 kilometers) as they destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines.
This is a great historical story. The raid was conceived by a civilian who wanted to steal a train behind confederate lines and then ride it while destroying the tracks behind in order to disrupt confederate logistics. The raid turned into a chase as the conductor of the stolen train chased the raiders on a series of handcarts and trains, while the raiders attempted to disrupt telegraph wires and tracks. Eventually the raiders had to abandon their stolen train and were captured, with some escaping, some being executed, and some being held as POWs. I actually made a post about the man who conceived of the raid a while back in the American Civil War community here.
The other soldiers (except for one who still doesn’t have an MOH) in the raid were awarded the newly created MOH during the war. These two soldiers were retroactively awarded the MOH by Congress in 2008, so I am not sure why it took so long for the award to be presented.
Fighting against slavers is something that should be celebrated. It’s like punching a Nazi, there’s just no situation where it isn’t the right thing to do.
Almost all of the soldiers in the Andrews raid were awarded Medals Of Honor in the 1860s. Shadrack and Wilson were captured and executed by the Confederacy, and didn’t get medals. This long post humous award is in line with what they seemingly should have earned by being part of the raid. (The medals were authorized for both of them in 2008, so the extended delay in actually presenting them is something to look into.)
And that’s more of a fact than a joke… I read too much is never enough. He was a very delusional child and so much of that was the fault of his father. Not that that is any excuse for him as an adult to do the shit he does. It just explains it
I agree, this is important to emphasise. I don’t want to ever slip into the mindset of dehumanising Trump in the same way that him and his allies dehumanise people like me, because I think that drive to so thoroughly otherize political opponents is a key driver of fascistic thinking. Having empathy for people like Trump (and those that follow him) doesn’t excuse their actions or beliefs, but I think it’s important
I pity them all, including all the poor conservatives that’ve fallen for the rhetoric, though of course I still want them imprisoned for their crimes. There need to be systemic changes in education and mental health support to prevent the possibility of continued fascism, but the system is broadly self-reinforcing.
Instead of giving medals of Honor to a bunch of dead people he could actually be doing something serious by pardoning whistleblowers that were targeted by the Obama administration
Tell me you didn’t actually go back and recheck the conversation without telling me.
Because in reply to “pardon Snowden” someone posted an irrelevant link about Trump pardons and that link is what I replied to. If you actually read the conversation you’ll see they were drunk and don’t know why they posted it either.
So it sounds like the only thing irrelevant in this entire thread was the post comment you replied to. My remarks on Snowden are relevant to the thread because the thread started as a topic about Snowden.
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