Paw Prints TidBits
July 
2007
Paw Prints TidBits for July
We celebrate the birthday of the United States this month and in this issue of Paw Prints TidBits we're highlighting a difficult—and fascinating —year in our country's past: 1865. The Civil War was raging, yet President Lincoln spoke of friendship and forgiveness. Read his words in the Anecdote of the Month. This month's sidebar features a variety of 1865 trivia, from jellyfish to Mt. Everest. Happy Birthday, America!
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Anecdote of the Month
Abraham Lincoln (1809–65)
A n e c d o t e . . .
During the Civil War Lincoln had occasion at an official reception to refer to the Southerners as erring human beings rather than as enemies to be exterminated. An elderly lady, a fiery patriot, rebuked him for speaking kindly of his enemies when he ought to be thinking of destroying them. "Why, madam," said Lincoln, "do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"
View some photographs of Lincoln from the Library of Congress Civil War Collection.
B i o g r a p h i c a l . N o t e . . .
Lincoln was a U.S. Statesman and the 16th President of the United States [1861-65]. Born in a log cabin, Lincoln was a self-educated man. An opponent of slavery, he was elected president on an antislavery ticket, an election that precipitated the secession of the Southern states and the Civil War.
M o r e . I n f o r m a t i o n . . .
READ a brief biography of Abraham Lincoln, illustrated with charming drawings by the first grade students at Berwick Academy. Look through the Abraham Lincoln Civil War Photograph Archives.
Archives
This and That
1865...
What a year
February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
The longest critter on land or sea was a jellyfish that washed ashore in 1865 at New England's Cape Ann. It measured 245 feet from fringe to fringe.
In 1865, Everest was named after Sir George Everest, the British surveyor-general of India. It was once known simply as Peak 15.
In 1865, George Clark (an English schoolmaster who lived near Grand Port) discovered some dodo skeletons in the Sea of Dreams. His discovery aroused a great deal of interest and has helped us determine what the dodo probably looked like.
Quotably Wrong...
"Forget it. No Civil War picture ever made a nickel." —MGM executive, advising against investing in Gone With The Wind