History questions not worth their own thread II

[LiquidCommander]

Is it true that when the Romans destroyed Carthage in the Third Punic War, they spread salt on the ground to sterilize it?

 

[spryllino]

It is. It was partly, if not mostly, symbolic, though.

 

[Karalysia]

They only sowed a single furrow symbolically. Salt was expensive and you weren't going to waste it on salting a field.

 

[say1988]

And, perhaps more importantly, you aren't going to waste prime grain growing land. I believe that Carthage became a major suppler of grain to the empire not long after the end of the Punic Wars.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Were there any serious foreign volunteer efforts for either side of the American Civil war?

 

[say1988]

I think the estimate given is about 30,000-50,000 from modern Canada served in the Union Army, with several hundred to a few thousand in the Confederate Army.

But it is a hard thing to judge, since at the time there was a lot of crossborder traffic and few controls making it impossible to determine how many considered themselves American or not.

 

[Karalysia]

Lots of immigrants joined the Union army. There are accounts of Irish immigrants fresh off the boat who signed up.

 

[privatehudson]

I guess it depends on what you mean by the question. There was a lot of foreign born soldiers serving in the Union Army (the 11th Corps for example was generally known as the German corps), and even a some in the Confederate Army. There was also a number of colourful foreign born generals like Meagher, Clebourne and Sigel. I'm not sure however that any particular country had organised drives to get people to go to either side and enlist.

European built Confederate commerce raiders on the other hand like Alabama or Shenandoah often had their crews filled out with whoever they could get to sign on for the duration.

 

[ParkCungHee]

I guess it depends on what you mean by the question. There was a lot of foreign born soldiers serving in the Union Army (the 11th Corps for example was generally known as the German corps), and even a some in the Confederate Army. There was also a number of colourful foreign born generals like Meagher, Clebourne and Sigel. I'm not sure however that any particular country had organised drives to get people to go to either side and enlist.

From what I understand, these were immigrants however. I'm wondering if there was anyone crossing national borders just to enlist.

 

[Dachs]

XI Corps was also not solely comprised of 'Dutch'; it was more like half by the time of Gettysburg, before Meade's big reorg. Didn't stop Francis "Stop Me Before I Commit Insubordination Again" Barlow from blaming his own mistakes on the Germans in his ranks, of course.

 

[Traitorfish]

Lots of immigrants joined the Union army. There are accounts of Irish immigrants fresh off the boat who signed up.

That wasn't really "foreign volunteers" in that sense, though, more like young lads looking for steady work. There usually wasn't very much in the way of ideological support.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Unless you count Finneanism.

 

[Traitorfish]

Unless you count Finneanism.

Did that play a major role in enlistment? I was under the impression that the Fenian Brotherhood didn't become a major movement in the US until after the Civil War.

 

[LightSpectra]

What role did Ludendorff play on the German General Staff prior to World War I? How much did he contribute to planning the German invasion of Luxembourg and Belgium?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Didn't stop Francis "Stop Me Before I Commit Insubordination Again" Barlow from blaming his own mistakes on the Germans in his ranks, of course.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Did that play a major role in enlistment? I was under the impression that the Fenian Brotherhood didn't become a major movement in the US until after the Civil War.

Fenianism really got it's start in the American Civil War. On both sides of the Atlantic it encouraged Irishmen to take part in the American Civil War...they really weren't particular on which side. The idea was to simply learn military skills.

 

[privatehudson]

XI Corps was also not solely comprised of 'Dutch'; it was more like half by the time of Gettysburg, before Meade's big reorg

Yeah I appreciate that, hence why I said it was known as rather than saying it comprised solely of. In all honesty that's usually true of many foreign volunteer formations as a war goes on since a lack of available manpower often leads to other nationalities joining up.

 

[Dachs]

What role did Ludendorff play on the German General Staff prior to World War I? How much did he contribute to planning the German invasion of Luxembourg and Belgium?

Scouted out Liège, was almost certainly part of the railway staff at one point, and seems to have been something of a PR hatchet man before his return to regimental duty. He was familiar with the overall railway deployment as it was maybe seven years before the war broke out, and like many officers on the General Staff had an idea of Moltke's thoughts on the shape of the theoretical overall campaign through staff rides and such.

 

[madviking]

What has been the largest majority by one party in US Congress history?

 

[LightSpectra]

What has been the largest majority by one party in US Congress history?

The "Era of Good Feelings" (1816-1824) had most of the former Federalist Party merge into the Democratic-Republicans, thus ensuring a one-party majority during that time period. (They held 90% of the seats in the 17th and 18th United States Congresses.)

If you consider that a technicality because it was really two parties under the same banner as opposed to an actual supermajority, then I'm going to guess probably the Democrats in 1936, who IIRC held something like 75 seats in the Senate.