The Devil in Texas

I was on the Texas Civil War Heritage Trail Facebook page when I found the envelope pictured here. The envelope was labelled as having come from New York during the war, an example of patriotic stationery that was fairly common on both sides during the Civil War as a way for civilians to show their support to the war effort.

I laughed when I looked at the cartoon devil, thinking the winged and forked-tail rascal was great imagery. I also reflected on why the New York artist chose Texas for the Rebel state "honored" in his wartime logo.

In researching my books, I’ve been reading quite a bit of the history of the three Texas infantry regiments of Hood’s Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia. In battle, they were aggressive and fought fiercely, no doubt. In fact, General Lee himself referred to the Texans as his “Grenadier Guards,” quite a compliment coming from the commanding general.

The Texans also certainly had a reputation for a lack of discipline when not actually fighting a battle, and that was most of the time. The mystique of the Texas Rebs was surely enhanced by the fact that Texas was a true frontier that shared a bloody border with Mexico and rubbed up against vast lands controlled by the Comanche Indians.

So, I’m not too surprised, and admit to a bit of pride, that this Civil War envelope devil chose Texas for his banner.

Jumping to the present day, this past week I also surfed onto the Facebook page of a relative who is deep into far-right national politics, and is an outspoken critic of our sitting national president. That Facebook page is filled with venomous graphic images about the president, painting him as evil and anti-American in every possible way. There seems to be an endless number of these hateful images that are posted every week, as my relative exercises our First Amendment right of free speech.

It’s a Facebook page that troubles me greatly, as it reflects a person who seems so angry about national events that the normal Facebook subjects of family and vacations are mostly by-passed, in favor of turning the page into a place for ongoing and very negative political salvos.

The Civil War envelope of the devil would fit nicely on that Facebook page, unchanged except to replace the word “Texas” with the name of our president. Without doubt, the devil is an image easily and often used by political cartoonists to paint one side or the other as evil. The ploy was popular 150 years ago during our Civil War and is still so today.

I am disturbed by the vitriolic nature of many of the voices I hear ranting about political matters. I just wish they wouldn’t do that. I wish that politicians, TV, radio and internet pundits would stick to rational discussions and debates of the issues. I wish Congress would allow the art of compromise to reclaim its position of honor in Washington and our state capitals. I wish a lot of things, but these are truly important wishes, which I believe are shared by the majority of America's good people.

Meanwhile, I’ve dumped the title “McBee’s Bloody Boots” for the first book, now completed but not yet published, of the three that I’m writing about Captain McBee of the Fifth Texas Infantry during the Civil War. It’s now, and finally, (yes, finally, again) titled, “Tangled Honor.”