abe lincoln and war elephants

I believe so. It was a gesture of goodwill from Siam, with which the US had just opened up a diplomatic mission/embassy, iirc.
 
ASB but the image of Sherman riding an massive war elephant into Richmond at the head of a column of elephant towed artillery and proud Federal troops is just to awesome for me to not think about. :p
 
Unfortuneately they where offered as pack animals, which is so non-creative that it requires real imagination to come up with. I mean come on, the confederates would have surrendereed to an oncoming charge of elephants in no time!
 
The possibilites for parody from future comedians are endless. Maybe it could be the reason the Republicans adopt the elephant as their party animal ;)
 
War elephants in an age of artillery aren't really that useful--they panic and trash their own side, among other things.

However, for small-unit type stuff in which there wouldn't be much artillery, they might come in handy. Plus I get the impression elephants scare horses--one reason the Mongols ran into trouble in SE Asia.

Hmm...send them to places vulnerable to raiders like Quantrill?
 
Abe Lincoln could use the elephants to peddle massive war bicycles to capture Richmond!

BAM. CIVIL WAR ENDED BY BICYCLE-USING ELEPHANTS.
 
The war elephants would probably be used for a war bond campaign. A young Thomas Nast will undoubtedly find the whole affair inspiring.
 
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