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It Ain’t That Long Ago
By Al Benson, Jr.
1 August 2008
Several
years ago, I heard a man give a speech about the issues which caused the War of
Northern Aggression. In that speech he said that we "should not bury the
old issues until they are dead." What he was saying, in essence, was that
most of the issues and problems which caused that war are still with us today.
They have not been resolved and, if anything, have gotten even worse, what with
the Northern victory and the advent of Lincolnian big government in succeeding
administrations. "Reconstruction" is still alive and well; they just
don't call it that anymore. And with some of the people involved, it isn't all
that long ago either. I read recently about two men who claimed to have
fought in the War of Northern Aggression. Both of them, if I recall, passed
away sometime in the 1950s, during my lifetime. As it turned out, they never
found any records of either one having fought, one of them having been born in
1852 and the other in 1858, both a little young for combat service in that war.
Yet for all of that, they were both alive during that conflict and both
remained alive down into my early teen years. I saw one of them once on
television.
Before I became truly knowledgeable about the horrendous consequences
of the War of Northern Aggression, I had an abiding interest in the "Old
West," which I have continued to pursue to some degree or another over the
years. The outcome of the War had its adverse effects on the development of the
West, and it's interesting that, regarding the "Old West," it all
isn't so long ago either.
In looking at some rather well-known characters from that
time, I came across a few who were still alive after I had been born, or pretty
close to it. For instance, Emmett Dalton, one of the infamous Dalton Gang of
bank and train robbers in the 1890s, did not finally die until July of 1937¾only
about 15 months before I was born.
The first time I ever went to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in the
summer of 1963, I saw an old man, with snow-white hair and an old-fashioned
handlebar moustache, standing outside a bar in Bartlesville. Upon asking about
him, we were told that this was Henry Wells, an old outlaw from the early 1900s
in Oklahoma. It seems that Henry Wells had worked with the Al Spencer outlaw
gang and had helped to plan one of the last train holdups ever pulled, but
Henry didn't get to take part in it because his horse threw a shoe.
Oklahoma, where we lived briefly in the late 1960s, had its
share of "Old Time" outlaws. Another one of some note was Al
Jennings. Mr. Jennings lived until December of 1961, when he died at the age of
98, if I recall correctly.
And we have all heard of the famous Gunfight at the OK
Corral, which took place in Tombstone, Arizona, on 26 October 1881. Hollywood
has had a field day with this event and seldom come anywhere near getting it
right. One is hard put to pick a squeaky-clean champion out of this mess.
Neither the Earp faction nor the Clanton faction can truthfully claim to be
exemplars of truth, virtue, or uprightness. Western writer, Loren D. Estleman,
has stated that the Gunfight at the OK Corral was "merely one skirmish in
what some experts have termed the first true gang war in American
history." Although I had never thought of it in quite those terms, Mr.
Estleman may well have a point.
Although the shootists in that situation are all long gone,
it is interesting to note, at least for me, that three of their
"wives" did not pass from the scene until the 1940s, when I was still
a child. Big Nose Kate Fisher (or Elder, depending upon whose version you
accept), Doc Holliday's live-in girlfriend, did not leave this life until 2
November 1940. She outlived Doc by 53 years! Josephine Marcus, Wyatt Earp's
common-law wife, did not pass away until 20 December 1944, when I was six years
old. And Alvira Sullivan Earp, common-law wife of Virgil Earp, Wyatt's brother,
outlived them all, not dying until 11 September 1947, when I was almost nine
years old.
You might be tempted to say to all this "Well, so
what?" That's fine, except that to someone who has a historical interest
in this sort of thing, it occurs to me that some of what happened in the
"Old West" wasn't really all that long ago. The Old West, as an era,
did not automatically disappear on 1 January 1900, thereafter to be followed by
pristine civilization. Like all other eras in history, it gradually petered out
and passed, its passage taking several more years. And some of the people
involved were still around when I was a youngster. My generation was born
before theirs had quite ended. You might say my generation was a link between
the last of them and what was to come afterward. Although sad in a way, I think
my generation will be the last to have any interest in that time period.
When I was a youngster, and a Western movie played at the
local theatre, the theatre was full. Now, if a Western shows up anywhere (and
they do rarely), then most of the dwindling audience is made up of folks in my
age bracket¾no
more youngsters¾they've
gotten much too sophisticated for cowboys. Not that Hollyweird portrayed the
Old West with any degree of accuracy, although at times they did catch some of
the atmosphere; but then you took that into account and just watched the movies
for entertainment. Nowadays hardly anyone is even interested. Cowboys are
passé. In a sense, that is sad. When my generation has passed from the scene
and is gone, there will be no one left with any links to that period. Sadly,
then, it really will become "a long time ago."
About the Author
 Al Benson Jr.'s, columns are found on many online journals such as The Sierra Times and The Patriotist, and The Fire Eater. Additionally, Mr. Benson is editor of the Copperhead Chronicle and author of The Homeschool History Project, a study of the War of Southern Independence.The Copperhead Chronicle is a quarterly newsletter written with a Christian, pro-Southern perspective.
Email Al to sign up, or write:
The Copperhead Chronicle
P O Box 55 Sterlington, Louisiana 71280
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