We'll See If Islet Your Peninsula Near Me, Oh Cay?

In definitive proof that the Civil War was anything but (as if the war part didn't give you a hint), this Friday is the 245th anniversary of General JEB Stuart reconnoitering Gen. George B. McClellan's rear positions on the Virginia Peninsula. As you probably know, reconnoitering rear positions on a peninsula remained against the law in many states until 2003 (when "reconnoiterers" the country round cheered on Lawrence v. Texas), let alone in the 19th century when they couldn't even bother to have television, microwaves, or Paris Hilton. It was a simpler time, when people enjoyed the theater (ok, bad taste--so shoot me). Of course, JEB Stuart would later on intercept a Hooker in the Virginia Wilderness, so he was always up for the racy stuff even when his main objective should have been killing people he was formerly countrymen with. Some people are so easily distracted. Of course the best part about Stuart's "ride around McClellan" was the enduring joke, "When he rides around the McClellan he rides around the McClellan," which Lincoln turned into the "Where's the beef?" of the 1864 presidential election.