Radio War Nerd EP #604 — US Civil War, Pt. 20: The Red River Campaign

I just listened to the 1st episode of the Civil War serious and Mark says there is "so much there," in the civil war. John responds "I know, we could do 20 episodes... we're not gonna."

I will celebrate by going back to the beginning of the Civil war series

Shreveport is a horrible place, all of at least northern Louisiana is as well. I have anecdotes. I was forced to visit various relatives in Shreveport and NW Louisiana growing up. The baptist church my shreveport relatives attended was still racially segregated until at least the mid 80s (the last time I had to visit). If a black family attended they were surrounded by the men of the church and told to leave. My NE Louisiana relatives were no better, the children (my peers) talked about the Klan and the confederacy constantly. They were young so this was something they definitely got from their fathers and older brothers. We would play war, I would be the only union soldier, they all played as confederates. Another batch of relatives were Louisiana cops and told told stories around me and the other kids not thinking we were listening. You did not want these men to arrest you if you were black, and if you were black you were already guilty of being non-white, a grievous offense in their eyes. In the early 2000's I drove through the Shreveport area and stopped at a rest stop. An elderly black man called me "sir" as I walked by him. How he said it and the inflection stuck with me. I was just a random guy in random clothes. Speaker Mike Johnson is from that district. He had a black child put "into his custody" or something similar prior to Johnson making it big time. Not adopted. Every action I've seen him take to date validates every other experience i've had with that state being a perpetual klan hellhole. If and when there is a reconstruction 3.0 Louisiana's ruling white caste and the poorer klan enforcing whites need to be ground into the dirt for real this time.

New Orleans is (culturally) the northernmost point of the Caribbean! That’s why it’s so different from the rest of the US and it makes things like jazz and creole culture make sense when you think about it

TIL Marks son is cool as shit

Speaking of the FDD, Graham Platner’s brother in law (Seth Frantzman) who he has a close relationship with (although he scrubbed his social media of very recent pictures of the two chumming around after an internet slooth started posting them on Twitter) is a FDD guy and a blood and soil Zionist who’s wrote insane books justifying Israeli genocide.

america doubling down on losing a war is an awesome distillation of how gambling is all that we have to unify culture

Excuse me, waiter, there’s USreal/iran in my red river campaign

Excellent, as usual. I’m not certain that Portis is as bitter or tactically silent about civil rights as John implies - Portis covered the civil rights struggle for the Herald Tribune as a young reporter - this reportage can be found in “Escape Velocity” - and I would encourage any Portis fan to check it out and draw their own conclusions.

Dick Taylor got the better of Ol Commissary Banks

I never knew cinco de mayo was regional lol. Legit every Mexican American I know are pretty “patriotic” about it, even the most non political people. Maybe Mexican Americans are like Irish Americans , “we” all love st Patrick’s day and the Irish Irish think it’s for frauds lol

Real treat to get off work and see a civil war ep

Marks son going beast mode let’s go

Sounds like the elite of that area have their own stabbed in the back myth to fuel their resentment since they were never directly defeated and occupied. On a note, I have traveled that area and its in my top three God forsaken parts of America. Its becoming a retirement hub for wealthy right wingers and white nationalists. Definitely a different world than New Orleans. Population is Scotch Irish, Protestant and very opposed to having fun. Shreveport is the home district of Speaker Mike Johnson if that puts things into perspective

In friend of the show Christian Parenti’s book “Radical Hamilton” he wrote about how the Red River was notorious for logjams, where you could walk on the logs for 150 miles. It was called “The Great Raft”

HELL YEAH WOOOOOOOOO

Banks makes for an interesting comparison with Benjamin Butler, who he relieved in occupation of New Orleans. Both from industrial Massachusetts backgrounds, Butler’s wild career is consistent mainly in his ability to meet the moment, allowing pragmatism to guide him down a more radical path. He started the war a Democrat, agnostic on slavery, but set in motion the “contraband” policy that ultimately led to the Emancipation Proclamation because he thought it was an effective way to win. Banks just seems like a blunderer.

My favorite thing about war nerd is john talking about the civil war.

I was always embarrassed, as a life long Union fan, of the failure of this campaign. It was late in the war and in a theater where Union forces won more battles than they lost. Unlike many wars, “political officers” fighting for the North often acquitted themselves reasonably well- Nathaniel Banks is a glaring exception.

It's official, this series has lasted longer than the Confederacy

just when the world needed it the most ... the War Nerd Revisionist History of the US Civil War returns