Wal-Mart and the Wilderness

[HangarFlying]

Hello all,

Haven't been on in a while and don't know if this has been discussed yet. Not sure if this is the proper thread, but I ran across this article today:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001/civil-war-walmart/?pid=ynews

[Jubilo]

Re: Wal-Mart and the Wilderness

Dear Sir,
I read the article and viewed the video. It is of some interest but they both misspeak when they state slaves cannot be soldiers. A study of world history reveals the Hoplites and others of antiquity and the Mameluks.
all for the old flag,
David Corbett

[hiplainsyank]

Re: Wal-Mart and the Wilderness

I thought the hoplites were citizens only, the same as the early Roman legionaires....?

[Abrams]

Re: Wal-Mart and the Wilderness

I was aware of this because I am a member of the CWPT

I regularly donate to the CWPT and they have been very active in trying to help Wal Mart choose a new site than right at this historic site. The additional growth the presence of a Wal Mart will promote is an additional concern.

The CWPT tries to buy up the ground around this battlefield (and many others) to forever preserve the battlefields. Thats is far better than getting the government to preserve the ground, because if you actually own the ground, it cannot easily be used for another purpose. The CWPT normally gets matching funds, so your donation gets a force multiplier. The matching funds can be anywhere from 3 to 1 to as high as 114 to 1. (Yes, a $1 donation turned into $114 donation for one site) Normally, they can get 15-30 matching dollars. They are also good at alerting me to developments such as this one.

Wanna really help preserve Civil War sites for future generations? Join the CWPT.

http://www.civilwar.org/

[Bob 125th NYSVI]

Re: Wal-Mart and the Wilderness

Dear Sir,
I read the article and viewed the video. It is of some interest but they both misspeak when they state slaves cannot be soldiers. A study of world history reveals the Hoplites and others of antiquity and the Mameluks.
all for the old flag,
David Corbett

Hoplites were strictly citizen soldiers with full citizenship rights.

Now there were "slave" soldiers in ancient Greece. Each Spartan Hoplite took one or two helots to war with him. These helots functioned as personal servants and sometimes as poorly armed light infantry. Approximately 500-700 went down to death with the Spartan Hoplites at Thermopylae but like the other greeks who died there they get a short shift in popular history.

In the city state of Sparta only "Spartans" were full citizens and the helots were something a little less than the old peasants of Russia about a half-step above actual slaves.

To the best of my knowledge they are the only examples of "slave" soldiers in western culture although there many examples in Middle Eastern and Asian cultures.