Hey there everyone, and welcome back to the good ol’ blog! Today’s tidbit about me is: when I visited Germany once with my friends, we took a fun road trip that culminated in visiting the famous Castle Neuschwanstein. In pictures, Neuschwanstein looks like it’s out in the middle of nowhere. Surprisingly, Neuschwanstein was actually built right next to another castle that already had its own village: Castle Hohenschwangau.

That’s Neuschwanstein up on the right, with Hohenschwangau castle on the left, and the village in the middle.

150 years ago this coming Sunday, Abraham Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation. He didn’t announce it publicly, though – he just brought up the issue with his cabinet. The Emancipation Proclamation would free all the slaves in the rebel states (not in the free or loyal border ones) and would understandably be controversial all over the nation. All agreed that a significant Union victory was needed before issuing the Proclamation publicly. The reason for this is that issuing such a far-reaching and potentially controversial document like the Emancipation Proclamation WITHOUT a big Union victory would make the Union look weak. It would be as if the Union was a scrawny kid in elementary school who got beat up by a bigger kid, then yelled “give me your lunch money” while the big kid stood over him and laughed in his face.

Wow, laughing Jesus. Way to be a jerk AND super creepy at the same time.

On the other hand, issuing the Proclamation AFTER a Union victory would be like flipping that example around. The Union would be the big kid, saying “give me your lunch money” to the scrawny kid. By issuing the Proclamation from a position of strength, the Union would lend it validity and impetus. All President Lincoln had to do was wait until the Union scored a big victory!

Aaaaaany time now…

Well, that’s it for today, folks – this was a short one! Hope you have a great weekend, and come on back for more Civil War-related topics next week!