WWTBAM Bored

Just started a biography (Fierce Patriot) of General Sherman and ran across this surprising tidbit that makes me smile.

Apparently, the man never stopped talking. He just could not shut up.

>>>"If there were a contest for who spoke the most words in a lifetime, Sherman would have been a finalist--He lived a long time and slept very little, otherwise he was talking. He said exactly what was on his mind at that instant, until his quicksilver brain turned to an entirely different matter, then to a third, and perhaps to a fourth, then back to first-unceasing-spewing orders, analysis, advice and anecdotes in a random pattern that often left listeners stunned and amazed."<<<<

Bet he would have burned up Twitter if they'd had it back then.

Which made him a nd Grant, who was quite laconic, quite the pair. I would love to have seen the scene after the first day of Shiloh where Sherman is going on on about how badly they had been beaten that day and Grant just simply replies, "Yep. Lick 'em tomorrow."

Ran across another fun paragraph on Sherman as geography prodigy.

>>>"Sherman was a prodigy of geography. During the Civil War, no matter how befuddling the swamp or forest or mountain range, if Sherman had been there, he remembered it exactly. And since he had seen so much of the South, he became a kind of human geo-location system. It was an awesome military talent, but at the time he was developing it, it was nearly invisible to those around him. It may not have even struck Sherman as that unusual; it was simply something he did and assumed others shared."<<<<

While geography is obviously handy for a general, more generally, it is is food for thought on how you might just assume that others know what you know and various permutations off that.

For Kroxquo, a Tweet from "Civil War Humor."

https://twitter.com/CivilWarHumor/statu ... 2184469505

Spock wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 18, 2020 7:04 pm

For Kroxquo, a Tweet from "Civil War Humor."

https://twitter.com/CivilWarHumor/statu ... 2184469505

Now that's funny.