If I had a time machine...

[Pvt.Tyler]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I would want to stay. Life would be so much simpiler but when the war rolls around I would enlist with old Bobby Lee. I would tell the picketts not to shoot at Jackson and I would tell Lee not to make Picketts charg. After the war I would invent the light bulb and microwave popcorn.HAHA

[Court Micker]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I choose to not revisit the past. I enjoy learning about it, but I'm perfectly happy to live in relative peace on the home front. It would interest me to see these events which we study, but to witness such things as major battles and whatnot seems like more than I would want to do when I think about the true nature of the Civil War.

Comparing impressions would kick *** though...

[EVOC]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I would travel to the fall of 1863, kidnap John Bell Hood and bring him back to live in my spare bedroom. Might bring his sweetheart also to keep him company. If if wants, I will let him go to his home after the War is over.

No, on second thought, I would kidnap Lincoln in October 1860 and drop him off in downtown Atlanta. :D

[BenjaminLDavis]

Re: If I had a time machine...

An extremely interesting daydream ~ if I could go back, and had but one moment in time, I
might choose to stand near Grant and his family and his staff the night they watched as
the Federal boats ran past the gauntlet of fire raining down from the heights of Vicksburg.


The downside ~ everyday life was tenuous at best, and cleanliness . . . There is NOTHING
so enjoyable after a hot, dirty weekend in the 1860s as a long, hot shower!!
Jack Larkin, in an article for "American Heritage" entitled "Everyday Life Before The Civil
War," writes in part:
"Americans were not 'clean and decent' by today's standards, and it was virtually
impossible that they should be. The furnishings and use of rooms in most American houses
made more the the most elementary washing difficult. In a New England farmer's household,
wrote Underwood, each household member would 'go down to the 'sink' in the lean-to, next
to the kitchen, fortunate if he had not to break the ice in order to wash his face and hands,
or more fortunate if a little warm water was poured into his basin from the kettle swung over
the kitchen fire.' Even in the comfortable household of prominent minister Lyman Beecher
in Litchfield, Commecticut, around 1815, all family members washed in the kitchen, using
a stone sink and 'a couple of basins.'
Southerners washed in their detached kitchens or, like Westerners in warm weather,
washed outside, 'at the door . . . or at the wells' of their houses. Using basins and sinks
outdoors or in full view of others, most Americans found anything more than 'washing the
face and hands once a-day,' usually in cold water, difficult, even unthinkable. Most men
and women also washed without soap, reserving it for laundering clothes; instead they
used a brisk rubbing with a course towel to scrub the dirt off their skins."

[cap tassel]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I envision being hung as a spy the first time somebody asks where I'm from.

In fact, you're all going to be hung.

[BrisbaneReb]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Favourite fictional book of mine based on the war is still 'Guns of the South' - something about arming the ANV with AK-47's always tickled my fancy lol :D

I'd love to go back and take back as much stuff as I could, document events, take pics, shoot videos, etc. Be hard to do without looking suspicous and my 21st mannerisms and speech (with an Australian accent for one) would make it difficult but hey who says people in the future don't have time machines AND THEY"RE AMONGST US NOW?! I'm pretty sure people in 2208 will be taking tours to the blissful years of 2008 with they're funny customs and quirks like reenacting despite risking catching the deadly common flu.
Besides who says people in the future have already gone back to the past and made sure things happen as they're supposed to? (like making sure this company invents this revolutionary thing, that this regiment fails to reach the battlefield, that this country does not launch its nuclear arsenal, etc.) Just kidding around but make you think hey?

Paul Norris

[Mudslinger]

Re: If I had a time machine...

If I had a time machine......I would go back in time and set a record-low cap on the price of oil.....50 cents/gallon sounds good.


Nick Miller
Mudslinger Mess
Acorn Boys

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
-Thomas Jefferson

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I started a monster with this thread, huh? :D:p

-Johnny Lloyd

[Old Reb]

Re: If I had a time machine...

OK, I'll bite on this one. I certainly don't want to go back to fight in the Civil War or any war! But I would like to go back and visist my great great grandmother. She lived in northern Mississippi on forty acres of hardscrabble. She had nine children. Two of them were in the army. One did not come back. Her husband was in the army. That left her with seven kids to tend for and keep a hardscrabble farm going. The family didn't own slaves. Never had, so her work force were her kids and herself. I would like to visit with her and see how she coped with things and maybe help around the place, but no war for me.

[Dutchman Dick]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I'd try to stop Lincoln's assassination. I suspect that the 1950's and 60's might not have been so turbulent, if the Reconstruction period had been a bit more peaceful, as Lincoln had wished: "With malice toward none..."

Can you imagine the fortune you could make, though, if you could temporarily go back in time, get all those "antique" guns and pieces of equipment, and bring them back in "like new, as issued" condition???:D

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Here's a thought for discussion. Anybody want to go to Fords theater and keep JW Booth out ?

I was the one that went back in time and let him into the president's seating area... evil laughter... MMMoooaahhhh! LOL

;)

-Johnny

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Hallo!

"Maybe we could convince the CS government to stick to one uniform style so as to make it easier on future reenactors...? "

Maybe we could convince the US government to stick to one uniform style so as to make it easier on future reenactors...?

;) :)

Curt

[Secesh]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Maybe we could convince the CS government to stick to one uniform style so as to make it easier on future reenactors...?

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Hallo!

Just a passing aside...

A time machine... Everyone is using it to go backwards into the Past, and not forward into the Future.
Hmmmmmmmmm. ;) :) :)

Curt

Curt-

Sir... Seeing how the future is going now, at this rate I'd rather be in the past... ;)

-Johnny Lloyd

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Hallo!

Just a passing aside...

A time machine... Everyone is using it to go backwards into the Past, and not forward into the Future.
Hmmmmmmmmm. ;) :) :)

Curt