General Robert E. Lee did not like the elephants as cavalry.
He loved them.
The beasts did not share the full measure of horse agility, nor were they especially simple to mount and dismount.
It was impossible to not be awed by their incredible presence and available shocking turns of fierce speed, or by their formidable robustness in the field of battle.
With regards to the latter, Lee had insisted that the beast's natural lack of vulnerability be augmented with armor over key parts of their heads and bodies to further discourage any attempts to wound the splendid animals.
The elephant's prominent role in the American military had its roots in the 1812 rematch with the British Empire. An eccentric British general with interests in India had thought himself insightful to send a convoy of half a dozen ships of elephants and marabouts to "make the rebels flat" on their arrival at the United States.
Luckily for the Americans, the still spry retired president and general George Washington continued to maintain a formidable network of spies and informants that stretched now around the world. This would-be Cincinnatus carefully reviewed his crops and his spy reports on the same desk, and it was from that desk that his mind-boggling but sternly voiced warning was delivered to American naval officials.
Washington made it clear that he would personally commission a fleet of ships to intercept the elephant armada if the US government did not.
Within several weeks, the elephant fleet had arrived on American shores, captained by American officers whose forces had found and then boarded the half-dozen elephant-toting shps at sea.
To this day, every year, elementary schools across the state of Quebec exhort their students to write poems commemorating the "liberation" of their province from British oppression, with wildly colorful posters competing to best depict Le General George Washington on his lead elephant, leading his majestic Hannibal Corps down the avenues of Montreal, reviewing the troops in Quebec City, appearing over the horizon into a gloriously open field, and so on.
As soon as the war had concluded, the old legend had retired again back to his fields. Washington had politely refused the offer of several elephants for farm work, emphasizing the importance of these creatures for the future of American military ability to discourage invaders and keep the peace.
Washington still liked to regularly visit Carthago, Carthago who had stolidly bourne the general up from the capital and across the stretches of Canada. Carthago was said to well recognize his master and fondly at that also.
American scientists did their best to encourage breeding of their elephants at their rather spacious facility in Virginia. Additional imports of elephants from Africa livened up the stock and added more than a dash of size and spirit.
Additional thoughts:
Rough And Ready/personally leading elephant cavalry into southern areas of seccessionism to put an end to such things. Then, without the benefit of congressional consultation, the mercurial "Muskrat" arbitrarily declared --from atop his mount, Scipio-- that slavery had come to an end, and that he would "personally arm the n___ers and lead them in massacring the women and children" if slave-owners resisted his order.
Zachary Taylor, or, "Zack The Mad" as he was known in parts of the south, was said by some to have personally averted a later and more damaging civil war between the anti- and pro-slavery sides of the United States of America. Others bitterly dismissed "barbarian praise" of what had been seen by some as violent and brutal overrreaction.
To the horror of those that loathed war, Taylor was not done yet.
Expressions of concern from freshly truncated Mexico were accepted as Causus Belli by the commander in chief, who turned Scipio south to take the rest of that beleaguered Spanish-speaking country.
The implacable Taylor, a man notorious for spurning compromise --"Not even in the face of armaggedon"-- had not only ended slavery, but subsequently provided a means for plantation owners to obtain low-cost labor of what the former slave-masters hoped would be of a less trouble-causing sort.
Many of the freed slaves happily joined Taylor's expanded army, some becoming elephant-cavalry riders and serving to keep Native Americans and ambitious white settlers apart as America adjusted to its new breadth. (See http://www.american-presidents.com/zachary-taylor/ for verifying Taylor's inclinations against secessionists and those that would invade into Native American lands.)
He loved them.
The beasts did not share the full measure of horse agility, nor were they especially simple to mount and dismount.
It was impossible to not be awed by their incredible presence and available shocking turns of fierce speed, or by their formidable robustness in the field of battle.
With regards to the latter, Lee had insisted that the beast's natural lack of vulnerability be augmented with armor over key parts of their heads and bodies to further discourage any attempts to wound the splendid animals.
The elephant's prominent role in the American military had its roots in the 1812 rematch with the British Empire. An eccentric British general with interests in India had thought himself insightful to send a convoy of half a dozen ships of elephants and marabouts to "make the rebels flat" on their arrival at the United States.
Luckily for the Americans, the still spry retired president and general George Washington continued to maintain a formidable network of spies and informants that stretched now around the world. This would-be Cincinnatus carefully reviewed his crops and his spy reports on the same desk, and it was from that desk that his mind-boggling but sternly voiced warning was delivered to American naval officials.
Washington made it clear that he would personally commission a fleet of ships to intercept the elephant armada if the US government did not.
Within several weeks, the elephant fleet had arrived on American shores, captained by American officers whose forces had found and then boarded the half-dozen elephant-toting shps at sea.
To this day, every year, elementary schools across the state of Quebec exhort their students to write poems commemorating the "liberation" of their province from British oppression, with wildly colorful posters competing to best depict Le General George Washington on his lead elephant, leading his majestic Hannibal Corps down the avenues of Montreal, reviewing the troops in Quebec City, appearing over the horizon into a gloriously open field, and so on.
As soon as the war had concluded, the old legend had retired again back to his fields. Washington had politely refused the offer of several elephants for farm work, emphasizing the importance of these creatures for the future of American military ability to discourage invaders and keep the peace.
Washington still liked to regularly visit Carthago, Carthago who had stolidly bourne the general up from the capital and across the stretches of Canada. Carthago was said to well recognize his master and fondly at that also.
American scientists did their best to encourage breeding of their elephants at their rather spacious facility in Virginia. Additional imports of elephants from Africa livened up the stock and added more than a dash of size and spirit.
Additional thoughts:
Rough And Ready/personally leading elephant cavalry into southern areas of seccessionism to put an end to such things. Then, without the benefit of congressional consultation, the mercurial "Muskrat" arbitrarily declared --from atop his mount, Scipio-- that slavery had come to an end, and that he would "personally arm the n___ers and lead them in massacring the women and children" if slave-owners resisted his order.
Zachary Taylor, or, "Zack The Mad" as he was known in parts of the south, was said by some to have personally averted a later and more damaging civil war between the anti- and pro-slavery sides of the United States of America. Others bitterly dismissed "barbarian praise" of what had been seen by some as violent and brutal overrreaction.
To the horror of those that loathed war, Taylor was not done yet.
Expressions of concern from freshly truncated Mexico were accepted as Causus Belli by the commander in chief, who turned Scipio south to take the rest of that beleaguered Spanish-speaking country.
The implacable Taylor, a man notorious for spurning compromise --"Not even in the face of armaggedon"-- had not only ended slavery, but subsequently provided a means for plantation owners to obtain low-cost labor of what the former slave-masters hoped would be of a less trouble-causing sort.
Many of the freed slaves happily joined Taylor's expanded army, some becoming elephant-cavalry riders and serving to keep Native Americans and ambitious white settlers apart as America adjusted to its new breadth. (See http://www.american-presidents.com/zachary-taylor/ for verifying Taylor's inclinations against secessionists and those that would invade into Native American lands.)
