h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello FS, I'm sub-editing the Naming Conventions in the American Civil War entry and I need to ask you some questions about it. Some of them might seem like dumb questions but I have to approach entries as someone with minimal knowledge of the subject (which is actually the case here) so I'm always looking for anything in an entry which the writer has taken for granted as common knowledge when it isn't necessarily the case, or not mentioned something earlier and then referenced it assuming the reader knows what it means.

In The Blue and the Grey section it says "Many Confederate veterans simply wore their old uniforms". Were these former US army uniforms? In which case they wouldn't be Confederate veterans would they, because the Confederacy didn't previously exist?

"As the blockade was established many imported supplies became unavailable"
What blockade?

What's a Zouave?

In The Confederacy section - "Most Southerners would say they were fighting tor their state's right to free trade" and "It involved such other issues as forcing the South to trade with Northern US mills rather than shipping their cotton overseas to English mills"
Aren't those the same thing?

"would require ignoring all of the efforts to keep the number of free and slave states in the Union equal"
Was that a federal requirement? Where did that come from?

In The Union - I presume Emaciation Proclamation means Emancipation.

In the part of the final section about sharecroppers it might be worth adding a footnote liting a few well know names whose parents were sharecroppers such as James Earl Jones and Johnny Cash, which I think came up in the PR thread.

Nice entry

Thanks Gosho please feel free to ask as many questions as you like

>Some of them might seem like dumb questions but I have to approach entries as someone with minimal knowledge of the subject (which is actually the case here) so I'm always looking for anything in an entry which the writer has taken for granted as common knowledge when it isn't necessarily the case, or not mentioned something earlier and then referenced it assuming the reader knows what it means.

I am certainly guilty of that on this subject

>In The Blue and the Grey section it says "Many Confederate veterans simply wore their old uniforms". Were these former US army uniforms? In which case they wouldn't be Confederate veterans would they, because the Confederacy didn't previously exist?

Yes they were US veterans who had decided to fight for the Confederacy. Most had combat experience in the war with Mexico.

>>"As the blockade was established many imported supplies became unavailable"
>What blockade?

Perhaps we should add another bullet point after 12 April...;

One of first strategies announced by the US government was the 'Anaconda Plan' that called for a blockade of all southern ports.

>What's a Zouave?

The 'Zouaves' were an elite French fighting force noted for their colourful uniforms. This was still close enough to Napoleon's conquest of Europe that the French troops were considered, by many, to have been the best army in the world.

>In The Confederacy section - "Most Southerners would say they were fighting tor their state's right to free trade" and "It involved such other issues as forcing the South to trade with Northern US mills rather than shipping their cotton overseas to English mills"
Aren't those the same thing?

Yes they are the same, what I meant write was;

Most Southerners would say they were fighting for their state's right to free trade and home rule. It included issues such as forcing the South to trade with Northern US mills rather than shipping their cotton overseas to English mills, and the treatment of free African Americans in the South.



>>"would require ignoring all of the efforts to keep the number of free and slave states in the Union equal"
>Was that a federal requirement? Where did that come from?

It was a political compromise. If you vote for my state I will vote for yours - quid pro quo. It was not a law, or even a written agreement, just an understanding between political parties.

>In The Union - I presume Emaciation Proclamation means Emancipation.

you are correct, for some reason my UK spellchecker refuses to except the 'n', even though many of the slaves may had been underfed, that was not my intention

>In the part of the final section about sharecroppers it might be worth adding a footnote liting a few well know names whose parents were sharecroppers such as James Earl Jones and Johnny Cash, which I think came up in the PR thread.

That will be an excellent addition, please feel free to add the footnotes, If I have any other suggestions I will post them here.

F S

Thanks, I'll go through those in detail tomorrow. Right now it's Austin Beer Week and I'm off to get me some rare Oh, and watch some baseball.

One extra thing though - what do the Zouaves have to do with the Confederate Army, and why?

As I said the Zouaves were considered to be the most elite troops at the time http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~scprnyz/ZouaveArchive/ZouaveArchive.
If you were looking to recruit new men, or inspire an esprit de corps for your troops There is no better way than to adopt the name of the most famous company possible. Think of the Green Berets in Viet Nam, or the Seal Teams in recent actions.

There were no international copyright laws at the time. I have read about Zouave units from both New York (US) and Louisianan (CS). The hope was to both recruit and establish fear in the enemy.

Took a quick look - you are about 16 1/2 hours west of me. maybe one day we can meet in the middle

F S

Sorry about the broken link, lets try this one http://philazou.home.mindspring.com/page7.html

Looks better

F S

The entry says that "South Carolina passed the 'Nullification Act' that stated no state could be forced to enforce a Federal law the state government disagreed with." If SC passed it, wouldn't that only apply to SC's own laws and constitution? Only a federal law (or a CSA law) could apply to more than one state, as far as I know, so other states would have to enact similar laws for themselves.

Okay, after a bit of reading I've learned that the Nullification Ordinance was passed (and then repealed) several years before the Civil War and only affected SC, so that should be mentioned in the entry because at the moment it looks like they passed it during the conflict.

Is there a particular reason why you used "1st & 2nd Battles of Bull Run – in the South they are known as 1st & 2nd Manassas" rather than 'First and Second Battles of Bull Run – in the South they are known as First and Second Manassas'? The latter is closer to h2g2 house style, but if there's a reason why it's written that way it should stay like that.

Oh, I remember what else I wanted to ask. Who was Joe Johnston? He gets a mention in the list at the beginning of the entry but his is not a name I recognise, like Sherman, Grant or Lee.

By the way, one thing that's stuck in my mind from many, many years ago is a snippet from... it might have been a book, but I saw it in The Times. It was a list of Southern terms and words. These two have stayed with me these past almost 40 years.

Etlenna: A city in Georgia burned to ground by General Sherman
Hale: Where General Sherman is going for what he did to Etlenna

>Okay, after a bit of reading I've learned that the Nullification Ordinance was passed (and then repealed) several years before the Civil War and only affected SC, so that should be mentioned in the entry because at the moment it looks like they passed it during the conflict.

Yes the Ordinace was passed before the war began, I ment it as one of the causes.

>Is there a particular reason why you used "1st & 2nd Battles of Bull Run – in the South they are known as 1st & 2nd Manassas" rather than 'First and Second Battles of Bull Run – in the South they are known as First and Second Manassas'? The latter is closer to h2g2 house style, but if there's a reason why it's written that way it should stay like that.

I have seen them listed both ways, the cardinal numbers are a bit more prevent, but I agree wou should use Guide Standards wherever possible.

>Oh, I remember what else I wanted to ask. Who was Joe Johnston? He gets a mention in the list at the beginning of the entry but his is not a name I recognise, like Sherman, Grant or Lee.

Lee and later Grant fought in the eastern area of the war, near Washington DC. Sherman and Joe Johnston (more properly 'General Joseph Eggleston Johnston') are most remember for the western theatre along the Tennessee River. This Entry sprang from my Entry on Sherman A87799801 Had I wished to include any other Generals in that section Sherman and Johnston would have been the best candidates.

>By the way, one thing that's stuck in my mind from many, many years ago is a snippet from... it might have been a book, but I saw it in The Times. It was a list of Southern terms and words. These two have stayed with me these past almost 40 years.

>Etlenna: A city in Georgia burned to ground by General Sherman
>Hale: Where General Sherman is going for what he did to Etlenna

Thank You! You have made my day

This is a parody of southern US dialect, where many vowels have their own unique pronunciation.

Etlanta is more properly known as 'Atlanta, Georgia'

Hale is a very warm place that most English speakers begin with 'He' and follow by double tall straight letters.

In the south if you want a you ask for an 'ink pen' as a 'safety pin' sound almost the exact the same



F S