Montgomery
Dent Corse was a Mexican War veteran, banker, and lawyer from
Alexandria, Virginia, who commanded Pickett's old brigade
after General Pickett was elevated to Division-level responsibility.
Corse was among those captured at Saylor's Creek and avoided
being assassinated on the day following Lincoln's assassination
by an angry Yankee mob in Pennsylvania while Corse was on
his way to Fort Delaware; only a cordon of Federal troops
saved his life. After the war he used his Federal Mexican
War pension to pay for the Confederate memorial statue in
Alexandria, which has its back side pointed at Washington,
DC.
As a sophomore, during the centennial anniversary of the Civil War, a teacher who flatly stated that the United States never had a civil war challenged him. A “civil war,” the teacher said, is an attempt to overthrow the existing government. The South never sought that goal; rather, the Confederacy only desired to separate from the union.
This challenge led Jack to a 40-year journey of gaining a better understanding of the Southern War for Independence. His early studies focused on Gettysburg, including playing the Avalon Hill game and reading biographies of the generals leading forces on both sides of the battle.
With a passion for history and fiction, Jack continued reading and expanded the range of his interests to the full range of military engagements as well as antebellum culture, politics, economics, and the Reconstruction era. Leisure reading of the science fiction classics by Heinlein, Anderson, Pohl, Asimov, and Bradbury shaped his thinking about historical alternatives.
You can visit Jack Maples website at: www.jackmaples.com