The Return Of My Sexy Anime Cosplayer Girl -- A Tale Of My Existence

Greetings and Salutations, Y'all.

Several years ago I wrote an article on this blog titled How I Got An Anime-Con Quickie (Or, How Kilts Can Apparently Be Chick Magnets): A Tale Of My Existence (03-10-2018) where I told the true story of a rather interesting and unique moment for your favorite blogger.

As the title suggested it was about how I was approached by a younger woman at an anime con (a Sailor Moon cosplayer no less!) curious about my Ulster Red Tartan kilt and how it ended with that same young woman inviting me up to her hotel room for an all-too brief sexual encounter that I later on had mixed feelings about.

Almost two months after the encounter I wrote about the experience here on this blog; not to brag, but to try and explain and put into perspective my own personal feelings about the whole, somewhat surreal experience.

I didn't give out names (and wouldn't have even though I didn't actually find out at the time what her real name actually was) and I didn't go into graphic detail about what we did together (nor would I have ever done so!); but I wrote how the experience was memorable and, I confess, a bit of a let down. Not because she was terrible in bed (she wasn't) but because it was just began and ended so suddenly.

Oh I've had a few one-night-stands over the years, as well as brief sexual encounters with people I've known for a while, and a few with strangers -- yeah I know, not a good idea -- but in just about all of those occasions they didn't immediately end after the sheets got all sweaty. Also, I've always been the sort of guy who likes to cuddle, talk between sessions, and usually go more than just once. Almost all of my one-night-stands usually stayed the night, shared a shower the next morning, and stayed for breakfast at least.

Also, I'm not being critical and saying that it was the worst sexual experience I'd ever had, or anything. My mysterious cosplayer partner went out of her way to make me feel comfortable the whole time. She was a very sweet person in every possible way; and yes, she was a great sexual partner. My feeling of not entirely being fulfilled by the experience wasn't really her fault. It was just the situation itself and the manner of how quick and fleeting it was that left me feeling like a used piece of tissue.

When I posted the story, I didn't expect it to be one of the top ten all-time highest rated stories on this blog site. In all honesty, I didn't think anyone would actually care about my feelings on the whole experience, particularly when I largely left out the specific and more graphic details of the encounter.

Needless to say, I was very surprised when I got a reply to the article here on this blog almost eight months later from none other than my sexy Sailor Moon cosplayer girl herself.

Identifying herself only by the screen name Princess Serenity (Sailor Moon's adult character in the popular series) she was able to prove her identity by giving a few small details that only the two of us would have known. She then went on to thank me for being discrete when talking about our shared experience while confessing some mixed feelings about our all-too-brief encounter at the con.

She then surprised me more by sending me a personal e-mail link to get in contact with her.

Well my friends, needless to say I was pleasantly surprised and pleased to hear from her; and later I took her up on her offer to get in touch with her.

Since that time, through somewhat infrequent e-mail and online chats over the last couple years, I've gotten to know my mysterious anime hero cosplayer girl far better personally than I did in that one short but very sweet hour we shared in that hotel room. I've learned both what an amazing and talented woman she is, and what a beautiful soul she has in way of her personality.

I can't reveal too much about Princess Serenity, because I swore to keep her actual identity a secret. All I'm at liberty to say is that, in real life, she's a professional cosplayer in her early 30s. Given that there's literally tens of thousands of those in the United States and Canada alone, I don't believe that's giving away too much there.

Also y'all might not remember this, but Princess Serenity does have the distinction of being the first special guest blogger here at Southern Fried Common Sense & Stuff when I posted her One Night Stand 35 Question Quiz (05-10-2020), with her permission, of course.

This leads me to the real topic of this particular blog post.

I have a request by Princess Serenity to post her own personal account of the events in the original story of our shared encounter. She wanted to share her own account of the story of why she was so attracted to yours truly and my kilt, as well as what led to her taking me up to her hotel room.

Now, because I've gotten to know the amazing woman behind the blonde, meatball-head wig and Sailor Moon costume, I already know her thoughts on the subject and concur that it would make a good sequel to the original story.

So, I'll leave it to my readers; would y'all like to hear this follow up of one of your favorite stories on this blog from another point of view? I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

If y'all agree, I'll let Princess Serenity know and hopefully get her to write her account and have it published here sometime in the next month or so. Please let me know in the comments section below.

I hope y'all enjoyed my post and as always have a wonderful Dixie day, and y'all come back now, ya hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 02-27-2023 -- 1st Quarter Moon & Mars With Constellations Taurus and Orion

Good evening fellow stargazers!

After a couple of days with cloudy, dreary skies, this evening a surprisingly warm breeze for late February arrived and cleared the evening sky dome enough for your favorite blogger to capture a couple of beautiful images of the First Quarter Moon with the planet Mars a few hours after sunset.

Though the small red planet is dimming in brightness as it moves farther away in its orbit around the Sun with our Earth, Mars is still easily visible at night inside the Constellation Taurus The Bull.

Oh and speaking of Taurus and its famous hunter, the Constellation Orion The Hunter, thanks to the evening breeze and clear skies, I captured a couple of outstanding shots of all the major stars of both constellations. I labeled all of them and highlighted the constellations themselves in the next shots.

Once again my thanks to God for the beautiful clear skies and the heavenly display of the closest bright stars in our galaxy. I pray for clear skies again this Wednesday, March 1st when Jupiter and Venus will merge in conjunction in the western skies.

I hope to be able to post some beautiful shots of that meeting, but if I can't y'all can check it out for yourselves that evening just after sunset. Spotting the two "wandering stars" should not be hard.

Night Sky Photography -- 02-22-2023 -- Five Moons In One Photo!

Greetings and Salutations, fellow night sky enthusiasts!

I've been monitoring the progress of the planets Jupiter and Venus as they slowly begin moving ever closer to the Wednesday, March 1, 2023 conjunction in the evening sky.

This evening I set up my tripod and camera near SC Hwy 321 to get a good background and foreground shot of how the two planets and the Young Crescent Moon appear to travelers.

I was about to get a really outstanding shot of the road and traveling cars with the heavenly display in the background. Then another close-up shot of Luna's lovely crescent form next to Jupiter and Venus just above the tree-line. Then two more close-ups of the Moon and Jupiter....and when I reviewed my pictures to edit and label, I found I'd captured not just one, but five moons in my close-up.

Jupiter's four largest moons: Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa all appear in the close-ups with our own moon looming large in the foreground.

 

Although the four Galilean Satellites (or Jovian Moons) appear very small compared to our own Luna because of the distances -- Jupiter currently sits at approximately 536 million miles, (or 862.6 kilometers) from our Earth -- in actuality three of the moons that orbit the largest gas giant planet are actually larger than our own Moon, which is actually the 5th largest of the estimated 200+ moons and satellites that orbit the other planets in our Solar System.

Luna, our own lovely lady, has an equatorial diameter of 2,159.2 miles (3,475 km).

Jupiter's closest and smallest of the four Galilean Moons is Io, which has a equatorial diameter of 2,260 miles (3,640 km) -- about less than a few percent larger.

The next moon, Europa, has an equatorial diameter of 1,940 miles (3,100 km) -- or only about 90% of the Moon's diameter.

Ganymede is actually the largest moon in our Solar System with an equatorial diameter of 3,275 miles (5,270 km), which makes it slightly larger than the planets Mercury which has a diameter of 3,030 miles (4,878 km) and Pluto (which is STILL a planet!) at 1,473 miles (2,370 km).

And finally we have Callisto, which has an equatorial diameter or 2,995 miles (or 4,821 km).

Another fun fact is that all of those four Jovian Moons actually orbit Jupiter farther than our own Moon actually does, though the tidal forces of the largest planet of the Solar System causes them to orbit much faster.

Our own Lunar satellite orbits the Earth at an average of about 238,855 miles (384,399 km) -- about the space that could be occupied by 30 Earths. The Moon travels around our planet once every 27.3 days in an elliptical orbit that varies at certain times of the year.

Io travels around Jupiter at an average distance of 262,000 miles (422,000 kilometers) from the gas giant, and orbits the planet once every 42 hours, or 1.8 Earth days.

Europa is next out at about 417,000 miles (671,000 kilometers) and orbits Jupiter once every 85 Earth hours, or about three-and-a-half Earth days.

Ganymede is about 665,000 miles (1,070,000 kilometers) from Jupiter completes one orbit at about 172 hours, or just over one Earth week.

And finally, Callisto sits at about 1,170,000 miles (1,883,000 kilometers) and takes about 17 Earth days to complete one orbit of the planet.

Well my friends, I hope y'all learned something new and interesting about one of our more interesting planetary neighbors today. Also keep watching the skies (on hopefully blessedly storm-free evenings) for Jupiter and Venus to meet in conjunction soon.

Till then have a blessed evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all.

Sergeant Gilbert H. Bates U.S.A. (1836 - 1917) -- The Union Veteran Who Carried Old Glory Through Unreconstructed Dixie & England

Sergeant Gilbert H. Bates
(February 13, 1836 - February 17, 1917).

 

Perhaps there is no better story of national reconciliation and personal patriotism in the years immediately following the aftermath of the War Between The States than the story of Sergeant Gilbert Bates, a former Union veteran who carried the flag of the United States unafraid through the then unreconstructed Deep South and then across England several years later.

Gilbert Henderson Bates was born on Saturday, February 13, 1836 in the town of Springwater, Livingston County, New York. Sometime in his late teens, Bates moved to the small town of Albion, near Edgerton, Wisconsin and became a farmer.

Bates was 25 years old when the American Civil War (1861-1865) broke out on the morning of Friday, April 12, 1861. He answered the State of Wisconsin and his nation's call for volunteers and served in the Union Army as a sergeant in Company H of the 1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery Regiment.

For most of the war, Company H was assigned to Fort Lyon outside Alexandra, Virginia as part of the defenses of Washington City (D.C.) guarding against possible Confederate attack against the capitol. He returned home following the end of the war and resumed his civilian occupation.

Bates married his wife, Ann E. Noe, on Wednesday, December 23, 1863 and the couple would raise four children: Hattie, Nellie, Frank, and Addie.


The First Bet

In November of 1867, a Radical Republican neighbor of Bates was telling stories about rumors that the South would be rising once more in rebellion and that any Northerner was not safe down there. This neighbor told Bates that anti-Union feeling was so strong in the South that no representative of the United States was safe in the former Confederate States, and declared that disloyalty to the Union was still rampant in the deep South and that a man could not take the Stars and Stripes onto Southern soil without being murdered.

Sergeant Bates, who was a staunch Democrat, completely disagreed and made a wager with his Republican neighbor that he could walk the entire length of the Southern States completely unscathed while carrying the flag of the United States. He wagered a dollar a day from his neighbor for his family that he would start in Vicksburg, Mississippi and march without money and unarmed, and arrive safely in Washington City with himself unscathed and his flag unmolested on, or before the 4th of July, Independence Day. The neighbor took up his wager, thinking Bates was a complete fool.

Bates' Wisconsin neighbor was far from alone in his belief that it was not safe for anyone who supported the occupied former Confederate States. His wife was concerned for the safety of her husband as he prepared to leave home for his journey, though she offered him her full support.

Sergeant Bates feat of courage was soon the talk of the country. He took photographs of himself in his old uniform with a U.S. flag, which he autographed and offered to sell for a quarter a piece with the proceeds to be donated to charity.


Sergeant Bates' March Begins

Bates arrived in Vicksburg, Mississippi on the evening of Friday, January 24, 1868, wearing coarse, heavy garments, cowhide boots, and a slouch hat. The city along the Mississippi River had been the scene on a great siege by Union forces in 1863, and it was thought that anti-Union sentiment would be very strong here despite several years of Union occupation.

Sergeant Bates in uniform with the
U.S. Flag he carried from Vicksburg,
Mississippi, to Washington D.C. in 1868.
Photo courtesy National Archives.

On his way South he met one Mr. Frank Howard. Upon learning of Bates' daring bet, Mr. Howard secured for him quarters at the Prentiss House (the famous home of former Mississippi U.S. Representative Sergeant Smith Prentiss) and arranged to take care of his bills.

News of his plans spread quickly throughout the city. Next morning there was a stream of visitors and well-wishers, among them the town’s most prominent citizens and a number of Union soldiers stationed in the city. The representatives of a women’s organization called on him to announce that a U.S. flag was being made for him.

On Bates’ fourth and last day, in a ceremony at the Prentiss House, a "neat silk flag," five feet long and three wide, attached to a regulation staff was presented to him. Bates was also presented with a velvet uniform bearing his regimental insignia. The clothes and uniform, Bates would later note, had been sewn by the same hands that only years before sewn Rebel uniforms and flags.

Thus began Bates' march on Tuesday, January 28th, which would be widely reported at the time in numerous local and national newspapers. Sergeant Bates' march through Dixie received so much notoriety at the time that it became a national news story, some of which was scornful and predicted that the brave Union veteran was setting himself up for a very rough time, or worse.

On Thursday, February 27, 1868, author and humorist Samuel Clemens (writing under his famous pen name, Mark Twain) published the following about Bates in his Territorial Enterprise:

Sergeant Gilbert H. Bates of Wisconsin is the last candidate for pedestrian notoriety. He has made a bet that he will walk, alone, unarmed, and without a cent in his pocket, and bearing aloft the American flag, through the late Southern Confederacy, from Vicksburg to Washington. He is already on his way, and the telegraph is noting his progress. The Mayor and a large portion of the population of Vicksburg ushered him out of that city with a grand demonstration. He proposes to sell photographs of himself at 25 cent apiece, all along his route, and convert the proceeds into a fund to be devoted to the aid and comfort of widows and orphans of soldiers who fought in the late war, irrespective of flag or politics.

And then, I suppose, when he gets a good round sum together for the widows and orphans, he will hang up his flag and go and have a champagne blow-out. I don't believe in people who collect money for benevolent purposes and don't charge for it. I don't have full confidence in people who walk a thousand miles for the benefit of widows and orphans and don't get a cent for it. I question the uprightness of people who peddle their own photographs, anyhow, whether they carry flags or not. In my opinion a man might as well start his name with an initial and spell his middle name out and hope to be virtuous. But this fellow will get more black eyes, down there among those unreconstructed rebels than he can ever carry along with him without breaking his back. I expect to see him coming into Washington some day on one leg and with one eye out and an arm gone. He won't amount to more than an interesting relic by the time he gets here and then he will have to hire out for a sign for the Anatomical Museum. Those fellows down there have no sentiment in them. They won't buy his picture. They will be more likely to take his scalp.

Clemens and everyone who predicted his inevitable demise turned out to be very wrong in their assessment. Although to be fair to Mr. Clemens and those who lamented the brave Union veteran could be putting himself in serious danger, those fears -- if slightly exaggerated -- were not entirely without merit.

The path that Sergeant Bates in his blue uniform and carrying his U.S. Flag was taking in his solo march would take him through places that had seen the most brutal and destructive effects of the Union invasion of the Deep South in the final years of the war.

Bates would literally be walking through a land physically devastated by the hardships of war. Through towns full of defeated surviving Confederate veterans, many of them still bearing the scars and missing limbs of their experience. Past graveyards full of the sons, fathers, and husbands of many men who'd stood opposite Bates in the war and didn't survive. Not to mention the surviving families of those same men and boys who would no doubt be less than pleased at the sight of him and his flag waving in the breeze.

During the three-month march Sergeant Bates would walk 1,400 miles across the Southern States of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, carrying his Stars and Stripes. He was granted a great deal of hospitality and goodwill all along the way. People offered him food, places to stay for the night, church bells rang at his arrival and departure for towns, and several major cities even allowed the brave Union sergeant to actually hoist his flag over important official buildings where the Confederate Stars and Bars and the Stainless Banner once flew earlier that same decade!

Sergeant Bates recorded his journey in a 35 page pamphlet which he had published in June 1868 titled: The Triumphal March of Sergeant Bates from Vicksburg to Washington. Many of the stories in his telling of his experiences are very moving.

In Tuskegee, Alabama, an eight-year-old girl named Hattie, upon hearing that Sergeant Bates also had a little daughter called Hattie, gave him her newest doll and asked him to send it home to her. At the State capital of Montgomery he was presented with a pink silk sash for his uniform which he described as: "heavily fringed with gold bullion and beautifully inscribed in gilt letters, 'Presented by the Ladies of Montgomery, Ala., Mrs. Vernon Vaughn, president, Mrs. A. L. O’Brien, secretary.'"

One story in particular stands out, an encounter while walking through the State of Georgia that touched Bates most profoundly.

While walking on a lonely stretch of dirt road between Sparta and Augusta, he came upon a young farmer who was chopping wood. The farmer said he’d been watching for Bates and wished to extend the hospitality of his home, two miles away. On their way to the house, the men stopped at a roadside mound where the farmer’s brother, a Confederate soldier killed during the war, lay buried under a plain wooden head board marked with his name since granite headstones were hard to come by for poor people during the Reconstruction Era. The farmer stood upon one side of the grave and Bates on the other. Unconsciously both men removed their hats and bowed their heads in respect for the dead, then the farmer reached his hand over the grave of his brother and clasped Bates' hand.

Sergeant Bates and his flag were both well received throughout the so-called "unreconstructed South" where towns and communities treated him with more than generous hospitality. School children were recessed to meet him as he walked by. Women prepared him meals and people offered him the hospitality of their spare rooms, or barns to sleep for the night. Confederate veterans would travel as far as forth miles just to meet with him and shake his hand as he went by. Government officials including: judges, mayors, and even governors, greeted him and even held short speeches commending the sergeant for his efforts at fostering national goodwill.

His only real difficulties on his journey would be rainy weather and muddy roads. Throughout his journey, Sergeant Bates would encounter several more profound moments of humanity and mutual respect from his former Southern enemies and fellow Americans.


Sergeant Bates in South Carolina and Charlotte

When he crossed the Savannah River into South Carolina on Monday, March 16th, Sergeant Bates was met with good wishes from the people of the town of Hamburg (near modern-day North Augusta). He briefly stopped to shake hands with people before continuing east.

Two days later on Wednesday, March 18th, Sergeant Bates crossed the Congraee River by ferry boat and was again welcomed warmly by the mayor and people of the State capital of Columbia -- which at the time was still largely burned out (allegedly) by General William T. Sherman's invading Union soldiers only three years before. He remained there for four days before resuming his march north towards Washington City. The South Carolina State House building in Columbia still bears the marks where Sherman's cannons struck it.

In the town of Winnsboro, he was greeted by the whole town, including about 75 former Confederate soldiers who took him to the bedside of a former Confederate officer that was dying and wanted to meet and talk with Bates before he passed on. Bates would learn that the officer passed away a short time after speaking to him. 

When he reached the town of Fort Mill on the border between the two Carolinas (and where Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet held one of the last full meetings as they fled south in 1865) on Wednesday, March 25th, he was greeted by 25 Confederate veterans who had assembled in their ragged gray uniforms to give Sergeant Bates and his flag an "escort of honor" as he passed from South Carolina into North Carolina. The Confederate honor guard cheered him the way fellow soldiers cheer as the Union veteran waved them goodbye at the border.

He arrived in Charlotte later that same day where he was greeted by the city's major and town council who offered Bates their city's hospitality. Sergeant Bates remained in Charlotte for a couple of days while he was getting new shoes made as his old ones were worn out. While there he was also called on by more Confederate veterans, including some former Southern officers.

Another rather interesting event occurred during Sergeant Bates' stay in Charlotte.

On Friday, March 27th, he was visited by a young man named James Orr, another Confederate veterans who'd served in General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Mr. Orr presented Sergeant Bates a bundle which held a Union army flag that had previously been captured during the war and which the young man had obtained from the Confederate archives during the fall of Richmond in April, 1865. Mr. Orr told Bates that its capture by the Confederates had cost a good many lives; but that Bates had "recaptured it without firing a gun" and presented it to the sergeant in peaceful triumph.


Richmond and Washington City

Less than two weeks later, at 4 P.M. EST on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 8th, Sergeant Bates and his flag crossed the Richmond and Danville Railroad bridge into the former capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia. An increasingly large crowd gathered to meet him and cheer him on as he made his way to the Exchange Hotel where he rested briefly and had dinner.

Afterwards he made his way to the Virginia State Capitol building and ascended to the rotunda where he waved his flag over the capital of what had been an enemy nation only a few years before and almost three years to the day of General Robert E. Lee's surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House while people cheered him and city church bells rang.

He remained in Richmond for two days before making the final length of his trek north.

A sketch of Sergeant Bates arrival at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond.

At 9 A.M. on the morning of Tuesday, April 14th -- seven years to the day that Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina surrendered and the War Between The States began -- Sergeant Bates descended Arlington Heights to the Long Bridge and crossed the Potomac River and entered Washington City.

After a walk of 1,400 miles and crossing through six Southern States, Bates won his bet with his Radical Republican neighbor, arriving at the nation's capital completely unscathed from his journey through the still unreconstructed Southland. He accomplished his walk three months ahead of schedule in and had been met throughout by former Confederates who saluted his flag, provided hospitality, and more than demonstrated a desire for national reconciliation.

Again Bates was met by cheering crowds, as well as the Washington City Brass Band in full uniform played patriotic music. He proceeded through the city making his way though the crowds down Pennsylvania Avenue and Fourteenth Street, flanked by two military officers detailed to escort him to the White House where Sergeant Bates was greeted by U.S. President Andrew Johnson.

President Johnson is reported to have said to Sergeant Bates and the gathered throngs: "I merely desire to sincerely and cordially welcome you and your flag, with which you have traveled so many miles. I have no address or speech to make, but wish to testify my gratification at seeing you in Washington."

The president then invited him into the Executive Mansion and conducted him to the East Room where they conversed for a few moments. Johnson's daughter presented Bates with a magnificent bouquet of flowers. Three years before (again almost to the day) U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated and had lain in state in the same room. Bates now stood in that same room after his incredible journey as a testament to the spirit of union and reconciliation.

Upon leaving the White House, Sergeant Bates made his way though the procession to the nearby Metropolitan Hotel where he would stay during his six-day visit to the capitol. There was a brief ceremony, where Bates stood on the front balcony and U.S. Representative Charles A. Eldredge of Bates' home State of Wisconsin delivering the main speech in his honor.

The following was the conclusion to that speech:

"My friends, I cannot forget the fact that it is just seven years this day since the flag of the Republic was lowered in humility and sorrow from the battlements of Sumter. The flag that Major Anderson was then forced to take down now floats proudly over every foot of our land, respected and honored by all. And this young man, who, without money and alone, and on foot, has carried it for more than fourteen hundred miles will now plant it in glory and triumph upon the dome of the National Capitol."

Great applause followed from the crowd, after which Sergeant Bates and the members of the procession trudged eastward in the now pouring rain. The Superintendent of Public Buildings had granted permission for Bates to unfurl his flag from the dome of the Capitol, but on the east steps of that Capitol Building, he was not allowed to enter or fly his flag from the rotunda by the capitol police under orders from the Radical Republican members of Congress who disapproved of his message of reconciliation with the South.

Remember that, in April of 1868, the radical wing of the Republican Party which controlled congress and wished to impose harsh Reconstruction Era policies on the defeated Southern "rebels" was in the process of their three-month-long impeachment of President Johnson. An effort which would ultimately fall short of his removal from office. Sergeant Bates journey and message of reconciliation, which received widespread publicity and praise from much of the country, was looked upon by these men in high office with unveiled disgust.

Although Sergeant Bates was allowed to raise his flag over numerous official buildings in the South at the welcoming hospitality of former Confederates -- including the former capital of the Confederacy -- he was not granted permission to fly his flag, which had been cheered on and saluted by millions on his journey, at the Capitol of his own country.

An American flag which had not been insulted once during a walk through unreconstructed Dixie, and carried by a man who served the cause of the Union during the war; had at last been insulted in the final moments of the journey by those who held political power. If that wasn't a sign of the times, nothing else could have said it better.

Someone in the crowd suggested that Sergeant Bates should wave his flag over the nearby Washington Monument, which was still being constructed. Bates would do to more approval of the crowd and a band playing more patriotic music. It was there at the memorial to America's greatest Founding Father that Sergeant Bates first journey truly came to an end.

He returned home to his relieved wife and family, as well as to his disgruntled and completely chagrined Radical Republican neighbor, from whom he'd won a grand total of $80 dollars. 

Photo of Sergeant Gilbert Bates with his flag taken
in his full Union army uniform and war medals in
1868 just after he completed his march across the
Reconstruction Era South.
Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

An American Sergeant In England

Four years later, in 1872, Sergeant Bates would again engage in a wager involving the flag of the United States. This time his walk would take him across the Atlantic Ocean to Great Britain.

During the War Between The States, many Englishmen supported Southern independence because almost all raw cotton, so vital to the enormous British mill industry, came from the American Southern states. When the North blockaded the Confederacy cutting off the trade routes, the resulting "cotton famine" put thousands of lower class English textile workers out of work and economic hardships for the British mill industry.

Also in August of 1872, an international arbitration tribunal ordered England to pay the United States a restitution of $15 million dollars for damages does to American merchant shipping by Confederate cruisers like the CSS Alabama and CSS Shenandoah, which had both been built, registered, and equipped in British ports. 

As a result of these developments there was a widely-held general belief in the United States that dangerous anti-American feeling was rife in England.

By 1872, Sergeant Bates and his family had relocated to the town of Saybrook, Illinois. Bates made a friendly wager with a friend who was a wealthy Saybrook merchant that he could carry the Stars and Stripes through England as he had through the Southern States and that he and his flag would not be molested in any way. Bates bet the merchant $100 against his friend's $1,000 to demonstrate that Great Britain and the United States were friendly despite Britain's former support of the Confederacy and that the British people would hail him as the Southerners had in 1868 when he arrived in London.

Thus Sergeant Gilbert Bates arrived in Great Britain in November of 1872 to prove that he could walk the length of England with his flag and not even be insulted by the British people.

On Tuesday, November 5, 1872, Sergeant Bates, in his full Union Army uniform and carrying a full-sized, 6 1/2 x 6 foot United States flag on a 9 foot staff, began a 332 mile march from the Scottish border town of Gretna Green; crossing the River Sark into England to his ultimate destination: the Guildhall in London, the capital of United Kingdom.

Sergeant Bates' prediction that the English people would treat him well was again spot on. In fact it was better than even the Union war veteran could have realized as people along his march took the brave American into their hearts, and like the Southerners four years before, were welcoming in all respects. Everywhere he traveled in England he was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and kindness of the villagers. Hoteliers refused to let him pay and people offered him meals. Newspapers across Great Britain were all unified in their praise of Sergeant Bates and his convictions.

Sergeant Bates obituary in the
Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph
published on
Monday, February 19, 1917.

His only serious difficulties along his journey south to London were provided by the weather. For instance when he passed the granite quarries near the village of Shap, in Cumbra County, Sergeant Bates had to travel for some miles on his knees to keep his large banner aloft in nearly gale-force wind.

When Sergeant Bates reached on Saturday, November 30th -- less than a month after he started out -- the City of London gave him a roaring reception. In fact the crowds were so great he had to be driven in an open carriage to the Guildhall, where he ceremoniously hung the unsullied Stars and Stripes next to the British Union Jack. 

While in London he was approached by a group of British showmen who offered Sergeant Bates £60 (then the equivalent of about $300) a night for five weeks of vaudeville appearances. These and other offers to exploit his national flag were politely turned down by Bates.

Even before starting the march, he had rescinded the wager; telegramming his rich Saybook friend and refusing to take the thousand dollars he had won on the grounds that the good will he had helped engender between England and America was reward enough. Bates even donated the proceeds from his book describing his English march to the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead.  

Afterwards

Gilbert Bates wrote well-received books about his walks and became a famed public speaker. He appeared in William "Buffalo Bill" Cody's famous Wild West Show. In his later years, he authored letters to the editor critical of what he deemed threats to America, including immigration and labor unions.

Sergeant Bates' lone marches across the South and England were widely reported in national newspaper articles at the time, but are today largely forgotten outside of serious historical roundtables and war enthusiast circles. His efforts to foster goodwill and reconciliation are a testament to the national spirit of the American people.

Sergeant Gilbert H. Bates died on Saturday, February 17, 1917 (just four days after his 71st birthday) and is buried in Cheney's Grove Township Cemetery in Saybrook, McLean County, Illinois. 

The Union Veterans headstone of Sergeant Bates
at Cheney's Grove Township Cemetery,
Saybrook, Illinois, USA.

Night Sky Photography -- 02-05-2023 -- The Full Snow Micromoon & Lunar "Seas"

Good evening fellow stargazers!

On Sunday, February 5th, we were treated to the smallest full moon of the year. The February Full Moon -- also known as the Full Cold Moon here in North America -- was also (like January's full moon) a Micromoon.

As I mentioned before here on this site, a Micromoon is when a Full Moon, or a New Moon, coincides with apogee -- the point in the Moon's orbit in which its farthest away from the Earth.

Our beautiful Luna reached its farthest distance from the Earth for the year and the second, and final Micromoon of the year was at a distance of approximately 252,171 miles (or 405,830 kilometers) away.

Even though Luna was slightly more distant than her average distance from us here on Earth -- nominally about 237,700 miles (or 382,500 kilometers) away -- visibly most people can't tell the difference in size. Between a Supermoon and a Micromoon, the size difference ranges between around 10 to 15 percent.

As you can see from the title picture, taken with my lovely U.S. Flag in the foreground, the rising Full Snow Micromoon really doesn't look much different than any other full moon. In the more close-up and light-filtered photo I took, one can clearly see the lunar features, including all the main "seas" and larger craters on the surface -- which I highlighted in my third and final photo of the evening.

The Lunar "seas" (or maria) are the dark topographical features that we see on the Moon's surface which cover about a little under half of the visible side of the Moon that faces the Earth. Overall these dark places cover about 15% of the Moon's crust.

They were named by early human astronomers who mistook them for actual oceans on the Moon and named the maria accordingly. Today we are aware that there is no water on the surface of the Moon (though its speculated there could be under the surface, possibly in underground deposits).

The gray and black lunar maria we observe here on Earth are actually impact basins created by collision with cosmic debris such as asteroid and meteor impacts that filled with lava when the Moon was still forming over 2 to 4 billion years ago.

These maria also form the famous "Man In The Moon" topographical illusion best seen when the Moon is full.

Well my friends I hope that you found my photos and information about this month's Full Micromoon to be enlightening. Hopefully I'll have some new night sky wonders to show y'all later this week when a comet and Mars come into close proximity on Friday, February 10th -- South Carolina winter weather permitting, of course.