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Hmmm... "Booth"; revenge for what...?
General Sherman's "Christmas Gift" to President Lincoln was the city of Savannah, including the capture of 25,000 bales of cotton.
Dec. 22, 1864 | Gen. Sherman Offers Savannah as a ‘Christmas Gift’ to President Lincoln
By THE LEARNING NETWORK DECEMBER 22, 2011
National Archives Mathew Brady Photographs Series Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in 1865.
Sherman’s message was published in the Dec. 26 edition of The New York Times. It read, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.”On Dec. 22, 1864, as the Civil War entered its final months, Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln notifying him that he had captured the city of Savannah, Ga., thereby completing his 300-mile “March to the Sea” that had begun in Atlanta on Nov. 16.
The Learning Network - The New York Times
At $1.60 a pound, and an average weight of 500 pounds per bale, that would have a retail value of some $20,000,000.
A tidy sum in 1864!
Of course, there were some "transaction costs" associated with the liquidation of those assets. President Lincoln complained about the high cost of "commissions."
The more one studies it, the more interesting becomes the subject of cotton during the Civil War.
Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
HA! WHAT'S in the blanket...?
LOL!The sack of crap that has been printed in the history books!
I am reading the excellent April 1865. It states Booth was earning $20,000 a year as an actor - twice what Gen. Robert E. Lee was being paid to command the Confederate Army (and Booth was probably being paid in hard currency - not worthless paper money).
Why would such a rich man need to be paid to be an assassin? It's possible, of course, he was provided with funds for some of his co-conspirators. Apparently Jefferson Davis authorized Secret Service payments of $1.5 million in gold from the cash-starved Confederate treasury in the final years of the Civil War. Then as now, a good deal of that probably stuck to the fingers of the operatives.
There is an interesting theory that Booth was driven, at least in part, by a theatrical tradition of eliminating despotic rulers. At least, that was his perception of President Lincoln.
Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo, CM
General Sherman's "Christmas Gift" to President Lincoln was the city of Savannah, including the capture of 25,000 bales of cotton.
Dec. 22, 1864 | Gen. Sherman Offers Savannah as a ‘Christmas Gift’ to President Lincoln
By THE LEARNING NETWORK DECEMBER 22, 2011
National Archives Mathew Brady Photographs Series Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in 1865.
Sherman’s message was published in the Dec. 26 edition of The New York Times. It read, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.”On Dec. 22, 1864, as the Civil War entered its final months, Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln notifying him that he had captured the city of Savannah, Ga., thereby completing his 300-mile “March to the Sea” that had begun in Atlanta on Nov. 16.
The Learning Network - The New York Times
At $1.60 a pound, and an average weight of 500 pounds per bale, that would have a retail value of some $20,000,000.
A tidy sum in 1864!
Of course, there were some "transaction costs" associated with the liquidation of those assets. President Lincoln complained about the high cost of "commissions."
The more one studies it, the more interesting becomes the subject of cotton during the Civil War.
Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo
I am reading the excellent April 1865. It states Booth was earning $20,000 a year as an actor - twice what Gen. Robert E. Lee was being paid to command the Confederate Army (and Booth was probably being paid in hard currency - not worthless paper money).
Why would such a rich man need to be paid to be an assassin?
Good luck to all,
The Old Bookaroo, CM