Originally published on Forbes.com on September 10th, 2012
What could motivate as hard-core a tax geek as me to to take the day off on a major due date for the first time in thirty years ? Must be something historic ? It is. September 17th (extended due date for corporations, partnership and trusts, since the 15th falls on a Saturday) is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history. Here is my plan for that Monday afternoon:
As part of the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, a remembrance ceremony will take place at Antietam National Cemetery on September 17th. This ceremony will feature a reading of the names of those soldiers killed or mortally wounded in the battle. The ceremony will begin at 3 p.m., and names will be read alphabetically by state, continuing throughout the afternoon.
Why is this so important to remember ?
As Yogi Berra said “Prediction is hard, especially about the future.”, but here is another one to add to my prediction that Jill Stein will not be elected our first woman President on November 6th. Some time, hopefully not too long, after the polls close on November 6th either President Obama or Governor Romney will make a concession speech. It may not be as classy as John McCain’s, but he had some really good material to work with.
A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt’s invitation of Booker T. Washington to visit — to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African American to the presidency of the United States.
I really appreciate that we live in a country where we can expect that type of concession speech as a matter of course. I think it is something that we should all appreciate. As the rhetoric heats up, we should not forget that a gracious concession speech will be part of the outcome of the election. Perhaps more importantly if something really, really bad happens in your community roughly half of the outpouring of support that you experience from around the country will be coming from people who, if they voted, voted for the other guy or if, like me you plan to vote for Jill Stein, it will be 99% from people who, if they voted, voted for the other guys.
The 1860 election did not work out that way, which led to many deadly days in the next five years. September 17, 1862 was just the worst. Sacrifices like those made on that day are not in vain. A brigade of immigrants, many of them famine refugees, went into battle chanting “Faugh a Ballagh” – “Clear the Way”. They left 540 men on the field and the beginning of the end of pervasive prejudice against Irish Catholics. The battle was, at least arguably, the Union victory that Lincoln had been waiting for before issuing a proclamation that he had been withholding, it said in part:
That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
There are about a million reason why it is something of a ridiculous ahistorical thought experiment, but it is still worth noting that in 1860 you could have bought all the slaves and freed them for about what the war cost the federal government in money alone.
It would be nice if the campaigns could take a break from trashing one another for just one day. If they could September 17th should be the day.
You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa.
Afterthought
Harry Turtledove is a great master of the form of fiction known as alternative history. There is an eleven volume collection called by his fans the Southern Victory Series. It traces an alternate history of North America from 1876 to the 1944. It is an alternate history in which North America is as war ravaged as Europe. The one little change that cascades into this rather dark dystopia is Corporal Barton Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers not finding three cigars wrapped in a piece of paper dated September 9, 1862 that detailed the planned movements of the Army of Northern Virginia. In our timeline, General McClellan exploited that intelligence windfall to be in the right place at the right time.
The Great War: Walk in Hell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Update
I’m writing this from a motel in Hagerstown, MD on the 17th a little after 5:00 AM. There were quite a few people at the park yesterday. The Park Service had around 600 BoyScouts helping to direct traffic and the like. The highlight was a lecture by James McPherson. I overheard two fellows chatting. They recognized one another from Bull Run. They are not reenactors. They have just resolved to be at as many commemorations as possible during the sesquicentennial. The first scheduled event this morning is sunrise in the cornfield, but this fellow said the place to be is Mummas cemetery at 6:10 AM, where the first shots of the day were fired. He calls himself a “real timer”. The group of people who are showing up for all the major events is not all that large. He estimates around 30. They have no organized structure. They just recognize one another.
Originally published on Forbes.com on September 10th, 2012