What if you had a time machine to go back to some Civil War Event, then what?

jgoodguy

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Musing on the infernal complexities of What Ifs.

What would such a person need to know, wear, how to talk, idioms, manners and so on to be able to observe without interfering or being suspicious.

Any ideas.
 

rittmeister

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Musing on the infernal complexities of What Ifs.

What would such a person need to know, wear, how to talk, idioms, manners and so on to be able to observe without interfering or being suspicious.

Any ideas.
first thing would be to mess up their teeth quite a lot - then they need to be trained to not shower every day and wear 'panties' for a fortnight.

... after that it probably gets ugly
 

jgoodguy

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first thing would be to mess up their teeth quite a lot - then they need to be trained to not shower every day and wear 'panties' for a fortnight.

... after that it probably gets ugly
Like I said, infernal complexities.
 

rittmeister

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Like I said, infernal complexities.
there's a time travel story in which the bad guys force everybody to put their right arm into a 'claytube' when entering their medieval castle to check for temporal agents. that claytube contains a simple geiger counter.

if, but only if, i remember which story i shall post it here.
 

5fish

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The nuances of the trip would be daunting... maybe not, maybe they were more like us than we think... or maybe we come off as eccentric to the people...
 

5fish

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Our speech patterns and word usages and slang words would be different as well...
 

Wehrkraftzersetzer

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Musing on the infernal complexities of What Ifs.

What would such a person need to know, wear, how to talk, idioms, manners and so on to be able to observe without interfering or being suspicious.

Any ideas.
nothing, just have enough fuel for the flamethrower
 

Wehrkraftzersetzer

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it does, afterv having burned the nobility of two kingdoms THEY want to know it all
 

jgoodguy

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The nuances of the trip would be daunting... maybe not, maybe they were more like us than we think... or maybe we come off as eccentric to the people...
Or spies, insane, or otherwise dangerous.
 

rittmeister

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Our size most of us would be Giants in height and weight. Even , an average size man 5' 10" in height would be on the tall side and being 150lbs would make you larger than most men back then...
lincoln was taller than me
 

rittmeister

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Back than General Grant was the average size man of his day... Lincoln was exceptionally tall for his era...
you don't say - what i mean is if it's only me it isn't that big a problem. if i bring a bunch of similarily sized friends it is.
 

diane

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I'm soooo toast back there!

However, they loved orators and speechifying then - amazingly colorful language use. You'd have to know your Bible backward and forward. If you said your troops were marching through 'Egyptian darkness' to someone today, I doubt they'd know what you were talking about. One soldier described the rifle fire at Chickamauga as a 'cane brake burning' - we'd have to hone up our farm lingo. I'm not sure many people understand what backsliding is, for example - watch Three Godfathers (John Ford) where they're loading the horses! Ain't goin' ain't goin' and I got half a ton to back me up...!

The folk then did like pugilistic displays and a good wrassling match. To resolve the war, just send in Lincoln and Davis - not an unequal match except Lincoln would have to wear an eye patch. The South could match up their fire-eaters with the North's abolitionists, Forrest and Grant could have a horse race. (Think of the betting on that one!), give Cump and Joe a chess board. Wars are never fought by the people who start them but they should be.
 

General Lee

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Just scrolling along and saw this thread. So if I went purely to observe, definitely need to keep a low profile and bring period correct clothes, not my reenactor unfirom because that may draw attention, a lone soldier wandering around, but actions are important. Technically I don't belong there so say I had to kill a man or had a duel. They're dead BUT the changes could be huge because his descendents wouldn't exist causing who knows what.
 

O' Be Joyful

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Just scrolling along and saw this thread. So if I went purely to observe, definitely need to keep a low profile and bring period correct clothes, not my reenactor unfirom because that may draw attention, a lone soldier wandering around, but actions are important. Technically I don't belong there so say I had to kill a man or had a duel. They're dead BUT the changes could be huge because his descendents wouldn't exist causing who knows what.

Slightly similar to the Butterfly Effect. Also known as "The Edith Keeler-- thankfully-- Denied Effect."


I shall now be chastised by the total Trek nerds.
 
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