If I had a time machine...

[BarryDusel]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I think I'd go back to the eve of 1st Brandy Station to the Federal Cavalry camps and find Rush's Lancers Bivouac. To find my G G Grandfather, Wm. Stanley . Mostly to meet the man , to hear what he thought, to listen to him bitch about the life of a Horse Soldier. To experience the eve of the greatest Cavalry Battle on this continent.
or to go back to June 1st 1864 and find the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry as they made ready for their assault at Cold Harbor. To find my Grandmothers Uncle John Brown and Cousin Edwin Brown . Not to save them , because this would be the last battle for both, but to .. listen to them talk, their thoughts, etc.
Anyway, ...

[ke4bss]

Re: If I had a time machine...

If I had any time to place myself in would not be in the Civil War. I would dearly love to be in an SBD-3 Dive Bomber pilot at the Battle of Midway on June 4th 1942....tomorrow is the anniversary as I recollect. Can you imagine diving from the sky at a 70 degree angle from 15 to 20,000 feet on the very Japanese carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor, knowing that your 1,000 pound bomb will kill the very Japanese pilots that attacked Pearl Harbor barely 6 months before. That is the Time Machine I would like to visit!

Wade Griffin
27th VA Co. G
FC3 USN

[tomarch]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I would take out a small business loan, go buy up 10,000 sets of Federal uniforms from a "sutler row" type manufacturer, then go back to 1862, become a contractor and sell them to the U.S.Army. Get paid in gold and then come back to this time fabulously wealthy. (As an added bonus, I could claim to be a direct decendent of the guy who sold the "Smith type I sack coat" to the Army:D). Oh the evilness of it all ! BwwwHaHaHa!!

[Salt Pork]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I would want to go back for a couple weeks just to see what it was like; it is kind of similar to going to a different country and exasperating the culture. I would certainly want to go back and talk to my 3 grandfathers who served and for them to know who I was but that would be difficult because you would certainly want to tell them what would happen to them. Also I get a bunch of their equipment and uniforms for myself. I would also buy alot of land in New Jersey, which is know looks like the world's biggest parking lot.
But how would you be able to claim your right to the land, :confused you bought after 145 years? :confused_

William Summe

[damnyankee14th]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I would like to go back for a while. I would want to watch pickets charge with my video camera as a ghost.

I would need a month in late 1865 where I would buy a ton of surplus equiptment. I would bury it deep on a Farm in CT I know still exist. Oh Im getting paid....Troiani will have nothing on my collection :)

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: If I had a time machine...

You know, the more I think about it, the more I'd possibly go back in time and try my darndest to stop the war before it started.

As much fun as we have trying to partially re-live the experiences of that war, it was a sad and deep American tragedy that destroyed lives and killed thousands.

I love America and am sorry to see that 140+ years ago, we couldn't work our differences out in a peaceful manner.

We must remember this every time as we indulge into our hobby.

-Johnny Lloyd

[tomarch]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Trying to stop the war before it started I think would prove impossible. A person might delay it, or cause it to come earlier, but I belive the war was the result of a very long train of baggage that came before.

I think if I could change just one thing in history,(altho' it has nothing to do w/ the war) I would go to early 1900's Vienna and BEG the Academy of Art to admit the young,scruffy, bohemian-looking son of Alois Hitler. (Maybe it would take his mind off other things!!)

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Trying to stop the war before it started I think would prove impossible. A person might delay it, or cause it to come earlier, but I belive the war was the result of a very long train of baggage that came before.

True, but if you could use what you know about the period now and show the people of the period the horrible consequences of their actions, then they might listen... or still might not...

What's the hurt in trying? ;)

-Johnny

[tomarch]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Hi Johnny: I guess there'd be no harm at all..unless it delayed the outset of the war untill both sides get repeaters and machine guns, and Birmingham Ala. becoms the center of the Souths steel industry....yikes!!

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Hallo!

What would/could ONE person do to prevent the Civil War??

There were 44 assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler.
Sometimes travelers from the Future cannot change things...

Curt

[lambrew]

Re: If I had a time machine...

I agree the war would still happen, maybe just a little later on. Trying to get people to listen would be even harder. I think you could convince a few, but not near enough to make a difference. The issues of the day were too hotly contested for cooler heads to prevail. The war happening at all is proof of that. Sill, it is fun to play the "What if....?" game. For the record I voted to stay in the 1860's full time. This modern age does not suit me.:D

Respectfully....
Sean Collicott

[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

2nd option, to prevent the War, that's what I'm talking about.....leave Lincoln in Atlanta, 2008. Then, I would travel to Arlington, VA in April 1863 and visit R.E. Lee. I would have a mint julep and he would drink lemonade and we'd talk about Congress's decision to purchase all of the slaves.

[Micah Trent]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Ever since I was little I always said I wanted to go back in time, especially the Civil War and see what it would be like to meet Linlclon, or Grant, Lee, or whoever. Even witness a battle here and there. Compare and contrast ways of life. Anything just to get a better understanding. But the one thing I would like to see most would be my two great-great grandfathers. To see them when they were young and fighting. To hear their stories and see their scars. Just to see how they talked, interacetd, etc.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Micah, you hit it on the head for me... I would take great delight in just hearing famous people's voices and seeing them in real life instead of seeing pictures of them or reading their words in documents. What did Abraham Lincoln sound like? How about Bobby Lee? How did they speak and carry themselves? etc, etc...

Minutae like this fascinates me when it comes to history. I'm still fully-convinced George Washington had a British-sounding accent.

-Johnny Lloyd

[Parault]

Re: If I had a time machine...

Minutae like this fascinates me when it comes to history. I'm still fully-convinced George Washington had a British-sounding accent.

-Johnny Lloyd

Johnny I have always felt that way. The fledging United States was not far removed from the British Empire.