Grand Watermelon coin note

The Grand Watermelon. No relation to The Great Pumpkin.
(via Wikipedia)

In the 1890s, the United States Treasury Department issued treasury notes under the auspices of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to individuals selling silver to the Treasury. Back in those days, one of the hot button issues was the use of gold and/or silver to back American currency. Some people favored gold, others silver. Some people even favored both, called bimetalism. The coin notes, as they were called featured the portraits of Union generals and an admiral from the American Civil War, such as George Henry Thomas, James McPherson, George Meade, Philip Sheridan, William Sherman, and U.S. Navy admiral David Farragut. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Secretary of State William Seward, and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.

The notes were issued from 1890 until 1893 when the Silver Purchase Act was repealed during the Grover Cleveland administration as a result of an economic panic that year that threatened to drain the government's gold reserves.

The thousand dollar note was called the "Grand Watermelon" because the zeroes on the reverse look like watermelons.

Elmer E. Ellsworth and John J. Williams, the first and last to die in the American Civil War

Wikipedia.

Ellsworth was one of Lincoln’s broheims back in Illinois and at the start of the Civil War (May 24, 1861), offered to capture an oversized Confederate flag from atop a hotel in nearby Alexandria, Virginia. Abe agreed and Ellsworth lead his men, the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment into the town. It was going well until the hotel owner shot him in the chest with a shotgun (the owner was then promptly shot by one of Ellsworth’s men).

Wikipedia.

Williams was killed at a battle at a place called Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, Texas on May 13, 1865. Technically, this battle happened right after the Civil War ended, but its close enough that Williams is generally considered the last soldier to die in the War.

I actually have no idea why I think this is interesting, but knowing who the first and last people to die in a war just is. Another point of interest is the fact that they eleven days apart. How freaky would it have been if Ellsworth and Williams had died on the same day, but four years apart?

Awesome video: USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia

So apparently back in like 1991, a TV movie came out that focused on the first battle between ironclad warships called Ironclads. The battle scene itself is quite good.



This is my favorite era of naval warfare, the transition from wind-powered, wooden hulled warships to steam-powered, metal hulled warships. I should do some posts about that.

Damn, Lincoln looks like a good movie

Tommy Lee Jones looks weird with that hair, but any movie with him in it tends to be good. Daniel Day-Lewis might be the greatest living actor today and certainly one of the greatest ever. The movie won't focus on Lincoln's entire life or presidency, but the last months of his life. Who knows, if the movie is a big enough success, maybe Spielberg will make prequels covering the rest of Lincoln's life.