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I'll start this off. There are several, but I will start with Stonewall Jackson at First Manassas. I would like to have had the opportunity to encourage him to exploit the advantage when the Yankees were in a full retreat and the bridge going back to Washington was crowded with fleeing troops, politicians, men, women and children. They had come out to watch it like it was a carnival and when the Confederate troops sent them in a head long retreat it would have been relatively easy to have pursued the Yankee army into Washington and captured Lincoln, his entire cabinet and Congress in one fell swoop. At that point they could have dictated terms of their making and the war would have ended.

Another would have been in western Tennessee in April, 1862....but I'll save that for later.

I assume I could carry something with me.If so a couple sniper rifles & ammo. A schedule of Lincoln's daily activities,as well as other key players from the north.Also a book showing all attrocities committed during Reconstruction. Finally a camcorder & fresh batteries with a newsreel showing what's happened here since 1865.I'd show it to both Southern and Northern generals.Tell them I was sent by an Angel back in time so they could stop the Apocalypse they see on the tape.

This was an open-ended "What if" sort of question so I suppose nothing is out of bounds. When I thought of this question it was the idea of just having the opportunity of sitting down with someone and telling them what was coming so they could prepare and prevail. Spies could have been exposed, weaknesses exposed and exploited and so on and so forth. Just something to generate some thought and discussion.

Bill,I was thinking along the lines of Back To The Future.I read a book somewhere awhile back,I think it was called "The Guns Of The South".It was something about a time tunnel where some soldiers from South Africa broght guns and supplies to Lee.Purely Science Fiction.But if I could go back ( and I would ) I'd like to bring a little help to prove I was actually from the future.

Several years ago I read a short story in a magazine, I don't remember which one, about some soldiers who somehow was at ground-zero during an atomic blast. They reappeared back in time during the battle of Shiloh within the sunken road (the Hornet's Nest) with General Prentiss. When they reappeared they were fully equipped with modern weapons, M-1 rifles, machine guns, grenades, etc. The story line was that this is what made the difference and Prentiss was able to withstand the pressure of the Confederate charges. Of course anyone who is knowledgeable about that event knows that the reason is that Bragg wasted all day throwing 700-800 men away at a time trying to dislodge 2200 Yankees from a dug-in position. If he had either (1) Sent his entire force in a frontal assault and overwhelmed the enemy, (2) Positioned artillery at either end of the sunken road and fired cannister down the length of the road, or (3) Positioned enough troops to pin down Prentiss and just bypassed him and pushed the Yankees into the Tennessee River before Grant could reinforce.

If I could go back to that date and time, THAT is what I would tell Bragg and Beauregard. Of course, if I was able I would try to get help to General Johnson to keep him from sending his physician to help the Yankee wounded so he would be there when he was wounded and bled to death!

Another thought, if I could take either "history books" or newspapers from today back and inform the people, the politicians and the military just what they were doing....I think the vast majority of the citizens of that era would have stopped Lincoln and his regime in it's tracks.

Imagine also if you could go back to the late 1850's when Lincoln was just another dishonest Illinois politician. At that time, if he just "disappeared", never to be heard of again....just think how history would have been changed! Back then it would have been relatively easy to take him out and just vanish across state lines and disappear. Too bad that didn't happen, isn't it?!