The Symbiotic Travelers Ch. 05

The symbiotic Travelers

The American

Civil War

BADSAM

It is Wednesday afternoon May 4, 1859. When the sun broke the horizon to a cloudless sky earlier that morning, it found the two syngeneic beings happily packing their few belongings away, including SAM, the Simplified Automatic Mainframe computer that they keep locked in a chest.

Just yesterday James signed the papers to sell the general store he and Julia have managed since 1836. Included in the sale is a small cottage behind the store, consisting of a kitchen with a cast iron stove, a combination living area and dining area with a fireplace and a large bedroom. As part of the sale, they are also selling all the furniture in the adobe house. They figure that with the money they have saved and what they got from the sale, that will give them enough cash to buy any new furniture they will need in their next living quarters.

It is easier to travel if they don't have to lug around a lot of stuff, especially bulky furniture. They have learned to keep their possessions to a minimum. Whatever they can fit into their two trunks, one for SAM and some blankets and clothes and another for the rest of their clothes and some pots, pans and other cooking and eating utensils along with their personal devices and shaving and grooming items.

Zlatex still keeps his face clean shaven; Yaphet likes to shave her legs regularly. But she does not shave the fiery red curls of her vagina. Mainly because her symbiotic lover believes that her pubic mound looks sexier if she isn't shaved; her hair is thin enough that he can perceive her lips. Also, her love locks capture the aroma secreted by her womanhood and turns him on sexually, especially when he performs cunnilingus on her. Another reason she doesn't shave her love nest is because both she and her consort think that a woman's shaved labia resemble a young female child's vagina. While acknowledging that some women must trim their hair for reasons of health, both she and Zlatex believe that to have sex with a woman who completely shaves her knoll would be tantamount indulging into pedophilia.

The two aliens sold the establishment to a retired army colonel who had been stationed in Fort Worth. Zlatex and Yaphet figured it was time to move on. Both of them still looked like a young married couple in their early twenties, not anyone who had been managing a general store for over twenty years and therefore ought to look like a middle aged couple.

Using their solar powered personal mobile communicators, they recorded details of the sale into SAM; how much money they got, the date, who they sold it to, who witnessed the sale, along with his fees and what they did with their money. Although it's been almost a hundred years since the two extraterrestrials came to Earth in 1766, they still keep a chronicle of everything they encounter, everything they learn. Whenever they verbally record anything, they make sure no one can hear or interfere in any way with what they are doing. When they are home, they just lock the door to wherever they are staying, but when they are traveling, they put blankets up around their cart and silently text the info into SAM.

They have maintained their anonymity that they are from the distant planet Herth. They do this because they are still wary of what Earthlings would do to them should they discover that they are aliens. Most of them believe that all the stars are just that, stars without planets or life. Of the rare few that believe that there may be other planets with life on them, none of them believe that these beings have ever been here. None of them believe that space flight or even flying is possible. Yaphet and Zlatex know that someday someone will learn how to fly and then Earthlings will probably travel in space, maybe land on the moon. Some of them might even change their attitude toward alien life. But until they can be assured that no one will attack or harm them in any way because they are aliens, they are both adamant in keeping inconspicuous.

They used some of the money to purchase a horse and a new four wheeled farmer's wagon; their mule died several years ago, and they sold their original cart soon after taking over control of the trading post. The rest of their money they deposited in a bank. Then after loading all their possessions onto their small wooden cart, they set out for southern California, their original destination before the siege of the Alamo and then getting sidetracked into staying in Fort Worth. Using a map that she obtained from the U. S. Army, Yaphet has already charted the route they hope to take. They plan to stop and pick up supplies in Fort Stockton, Texas and then Tucson and Fort Yuma, Arizona.

The presidio San Augustin del Tucson was founded in 1775 by the Spaniards as a military garrison to help protect settlers and travelers from Apache attacks. The Spanish stayed in the area, fighting off numerous assaults on the fort by the Native American Indian warriors. In 1821, Tucson became part of the new government of Sonora in Mexico, that had recently won independence from Spain.

In 1854, the United States secured much of the region of southwestern New Mexico and southern Arizona from Mexican government in the Gadsden Purchase; it was then made part of the expansive New Mexico Territory. The Gadsen Purchase was between the United States and Mexico in the Treaty of Mesilla on June 8, 1854, the date the treaty took effect. The Arizona cities of Yuma, Tucson, Tombstone and a few other small towns and villages were acquired by the United States in the acquisition.

Yuma was looked upon as the gateway to the state of California, because it was one of the few natural spots where settlers could cross the expansive Colorado River. It was established in 1848 and served as a stagecoach stopover from 1858 until 1861 on the Butterfield Overland Mail route. Then in 1857, Tucson was established as a stage station of the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line.

Two years after setting up the San Antonio, San Diego Mail Line, the U. S. Army built Fort Stockton in 1859, as a semiweekly stagecoach rest stop on the Comanche Trail to the San Antonio & El Paso Road and the Butterfield Overland Mail route.

The two symbiotic equivalents arrived in Fort Stockton late in the afternoon on June 7, 1859. They had originally intended to just purchase some supplies and then continue on to Tucson the next morning. But upon receiving a warning from the soldiers stationed there that hostile Native American Indians were in the area, Julia and James decided to wait until they could go with a company of troopers, who were scheduled to leave the following Monday June 13, 1859, for Fort Davis, Texas.

They ended up staying in Fort Davis for nine years. They traveled there with an assemblage of families in fourteen prairie schooner wagons and a company of 200 Union Calvery soldiers to protect them; James and Julia had the only farmer's wagon. The army had two Conestoga wagons that held some food and supplies for everyone. The expedition took them three days to make the trip, arriving on a cloudy afternoon June 16th. They made the trip without any Native American Indian warriors attacking them. The biggest scare came when one of the soldiers shot a rattlesnake.

While they were encamped on the evening of the 14th, James learned from the captain of the company that there was talk of war between the Northern states and the Southern states. James wanted to know if they went to war, would Texas be drawn into the conflict.

James told the officer that he had no desire to get involved in the hostilities. But the captain informed him that he needn't worry. He did not expect any battles to take place in Texas. He believed that if there was a war, the fighting would mostly be among the Atlantic coastal states and the Mississippi River states, including New Orleans, a strategic port. If there were any skirmishes in Texas, he thought they would be along the port cities on the Gulf Coast.

While they lived at Fort Davis, James got a job working in the fort's livery stable; their own horse needed a new shoe. While watching the owner reshoe his horse - it didn't look too complicated - James asked the man if he needed any help; he had several Calvary horses in the stable that needed shoeing. He showed James how to do it, and after watching him shoe a horse, he hired him.

Julia stayed home in a house they rented. She tended a garden of potatoes, carrots, green beans, tomatoes and corn. She also helped the only schoolteacher teach the children who were living in and around the fort; she found this to be easier and more enjoyable than weaving baskets. There were twenty-eight students. Julia took the younger nineteen of them and taught them their basic arithmetic, English spelling and reading. The other teacher taught the older children higher mathematics, history, geography and science.

Both syngeneic equivalents avidly read the newspaper in order to keep abreast of how the war between the states got started and was progressing. They also recorded any information they thought important into SAM. They decided not to input figures about advertisements that were offering the sale of women's dresses, shoes, farm equipment and other household items. They reasoned that this type of data would not be able to help them get established or teach them about the Earth. They did, however, record news about Presidential elections, who was campaigning for the office, who won and by how many votes, and any new laws the U. S. government passed and any event that they thought was relevant.

They read an article about Eli Whitney who invented the cotton gin in 1793. It was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South.

Whitney is most famous for two innovations which came to have significant impacts on the United States in the mid nineteenth century: his invention of the cotton gin and his advocacy for interchangeable parts in the manufacturing of guns. In the South, the cotton gin revolutionized the way cotton was made into a product suitable for use, and it bolstered slavery. In the North the adoption of interchangeable parts revolutionized the manufacturing industry, which in turn contributed significantly to the U. S. victory in the American Civil War.

By 1861, when the American Civil War began, the Northern states had developed a more diversified, industrialized economy, which relied more on manufacturing, commerce and the wage labor of indentured servants and less on agriculture slave labor. However, slavery did exist in the Northern states during the colonial period and for several years after the American Revolution. Many important statesmen and Presidents, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, owned slaves. Benjamin Franklin also owned slaves before coming to the realization that slavery was immoral.

Slaves continued to perform labor in some Northern industries, such as shipbuilding, skilled activities and domestic service. But the North gradually shifted towards a wage labor system that afforded industrialists and factory owners the ability to hire workers when they were needed or dismiss them whenever they were no longer of any use, leaving them without any source of income.

Even when slavery was abolished, with the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, racism and discriminatory actions persisted in many areas of the North and in the South after the American Civil War. The South maintained de jure segregation, i. e., discrimination by law, while de facto segregation, discrimination by actual practice, was in the South and in some places in the North. Former slaves often faced significant barriers to employment, were frequently relegated to low paying labor intensive jobs, were denied access to many activities, educational opportunities and even medical care and voting rights.

The cotton gin, short for cotton engine, is a mechanical device that removes the seeds from cotton balls, a process that had previously been done by hand. It quickly and efficiently separates cotton fibers from their seeds; labor that was done by slaves at the rate of about a half a kilogram of cotton a day. But a single cotton gin could generate up to 25 kilograms of cleaned cotton in one day. After ginning, a compressed bale of cotton weighs about 225 kilograms, a considerable weight that would take two slaves to lift.

This substantively contributed to the economic development of the South, a prime cotton growing area. Many historians believe that the cotton gin allowed for the system of slavery to become more sustainable. It transformed southern agriculture as well as the national economy. Further, southern cotton growers found markets in Europe more profitable than selling cotton to northern states.

Europe, especially Great Britain, had a massive textile industry that was highly dependent on cotton for production. The industrial revolution in Europe, particularly in England, led to a huge demand for cotton. The American South, due to its climate and the conditions of its soil made it profitable for growing tobacco, rice, indigo, sugar cane and cotton farming. Plantation owners were able to meet this demand at a low cost.

European manufacturers were willing to pay higher prices for southern cotton than northern industrialists. Hence, selling cotton to Great Britain and Europe was generally more profitable for the South than selling it to the North. Also, there were fewer logistical and market barriers when selling it across the ocean. The European market provided a critical economic outlet for southern cotton, and its profitability played a central role in the South's economy and the further entrenchment of slavery.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

From the newspaper articles they have read, Zlatex and Yaphet discovered, that Industrial Revolution began in England, around 1760, but the United States quickly picked it up and ran with it.

Beginning in Great Britain, the Industrial Revolution spread to continental Europe and then the United States. This transition included going from hand production methods to machine production systems; the increased use of waterpower and steam power; the development of machine tools; and the rise of a mechanical factory system.

The textile industry was the first to use modern production methods. Textiles soon became the dominant industry in terms of employment, value of output, and the capital invested in production. Together, it all greatly increased output of goods and the result was an unprecedented rise in population as well as the rate of population growth.

In the United States it also augmented the differences between the northern states and the southern states.

This contributed to a society in the North whereby individuals of different cultures, races and classes worked side by side and frequently lived in the same areas. While the South remained mostly agricultural and held onto a social hierarchy of upper, middle and lower classes who did not intermingle with each other. The North had indentured servants who worked in the factories, and the South had slaves who worked on the plantations.

By the 1850s, these differences in the North and the South resulted in two views by many individuals on the powers of the federal government to control the economies and the cultures of the states. Some people wanted to grant more power to the states. They wanted autonomy from the federal government in order to make all their own laws, including laws governing taxes as well as laws governing the buying and selling of slaves. While others believed that the federal government ought to retain more power.

This was the same argument that the Founding Fathers faced. Many of the early Americans believed that the new government ought to retain power. They wanted a strong central government. But some others wanted the states to have more control. They wanted a weaker central government.

In the 1850s, these differences also led to the ideal of nullification - the belief that the states could rule that federal acts and laws that they did not like or believe in were unconstitutional. When nullification did not work, this led to thoughts of secession from the Union.

In order to preserve a peaceful coexistence between the North and the South, as the United States expanded west, the federal government tried to ensure that equal numbers of free states (states without slavery) and slave states (states that allowed slavery) would be admitted into the Union. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery in the North. It balanced the wishes of northern states to prevent the expansion of slavery with the desires of southern states to expand it. It admitted Maine into the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. It also prohibited slavery in the remaining territories of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36.30 parallel.

The problem seemed to be solved, and everyone appeared to be satisfied. Those who disagreed with slavery believed the institution would eventually die, while those who owned slaves thought that they were safe from further opposition.

But the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 essentially repealed the Missouri Compromise. It created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska which allowed the settlers to decide on the legality of slavery through popular sovereignty. The act effectively invalidated the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in those two territories.

By creating Kansas and Nebraska as two new territories it allowed the states to use the consent of the people to decide whether or not they would be free states - whereby a person had to pay their servants a wage - or they would be slave states - whereby a person did not have to pay their slaves for their labor.

The bill was introduced by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas in 1854. He had hoped to use it as a starting point in his attempt to be elected to the presidency in 1860. He campaigned against the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln who opposed the expansion of slavery into the new territories. The presidential election was decisive in the history of America, mainly because many southerners had a misunderstanding of Lincoln's views on slavery.

Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong; his goal was to contain and limit slavery. He wanted to prevent the spread of slavery into new territories and states, rather than immediately abolishing it. He believed that it was possible to have a United States free of slavery. He hoped that by restricting its expansion, this would put slavery on the road to gradual extinction.

Many in the South believed he was going to use his presidency to abolish slavery throughout the United States. However, Lincoln did not advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery. His method of addressing the question of slavery was pragmatic, influenced by his desire to preserve the Union and the political realities of the differences between the North and the South, particularly in their views on slavery.

It is the evening of November 5, 1860; Zlatex has just come home from work where he is a typesetter in the local Fort Davis newspaper. He has been working there for six years. He has a copy of the edition that will be distributed tomorrow morning. He and his alien consort then read an article about the upcoming Presidential election. There are two major candidates, Lincoln and Douglas, and two minor candidates, John C. Breckinridge and John Bell. The author of the column says that it is going to be a close race; he believes Lincoln will win. The two extraterrestrial beings hope he is right; both of them believe slavery is wrong.

After reading about the forthcoming election, Zlatex and Yaphet then read another piece in the newspaper about the hostilities that have erupted in Kansas. He tells her that actions like this are sure to have an influence on the presidential election tomorrow. They are hopeful that their disregard for the law doesn't lead to war.

Yaphet is aghast at what they are reading about the conflicts that have broken out in Kansas. She believes that all the "Border Ruffians" should be arrested for treason or at least for inciting riots. They illegally entered Kansas and resorted to voter fraud, intimidation and outright violence against those who have a different opinion than they do.

"I agree with you, Yaphet. But there is nothing we can do. We're just two aliens trying to make it in a world where many individuals are filled with misconception, injustice, arrogance, bigotry and hate."

"We can educate ourselves and learn the truth about something before we act on it or even comment about it. That's one thing we can do."

"You're right, Yaphet. It is ludicrous to believe in chauvinism, lies and prejudice. We should treat all our neighbors with the same dignity and respect that we ourselves want them to treat us. But let's get back to reading about the Border Ruffians. I want to learn more about what they did."

Border Ruffians from Missouri entered Kansas and tried to make it a slave state. This led to many skirmishes between those who were against slavery and favored national rights and those who were in favor of slavery and favored states' rights. Many innocent people on both sides who did not own slaves were killed. It should be noted that Border Ruffians did not own slaves themselves; they didn't have the finances to afford to buy slaves, let alone feed, clothe and house them, however meagerly. These individuals were driven by the cheap rhetoric of the pro-slavery advocates such as Senator David Rice Atchinson, a Democrat from Missouri.

The Abolitionist Movement had three anti-slavery factions. Some individuals wanted the immediate freedom of all slaves regardless of the outcome. They seemed to only care about their own beliefs, irrespective of the cost to those who were hurt. Others called for a gradual emancipation of the slaves; a few even advocated that slave owners should be compensated in some way for releasing their slaves. Still others, such as Abraham Lincoln, simply wanted to prevent slavery from expanding with the hope that it would eventually die.

The political campaigns were intense, dividing the people and restructuring the established two party system that had developed. The Democrats were divided between factions in both the North and the South. While the Whig Party evolved into the Republican Party that favored anti-slavery and the further development of the economy. These individuals included those who supported factory workers (indentured servants) and homesteading.

Neither the conservatives nor the liberals can see that they need each other in order to prevent extremism from controlling the government. Both conservatives and liberals need each other in order to prevent extremist radicals within their colleagues from dominating, overpowering and then destroying the government. In that way, conservatives place checks on liberals and liberals put checks on conservatives; they balance each other.

The election of the Republican Abraham Lincoln on November 6, 1860, was the deciding factor for many southerners. They mistakenly believed that the new president was totally against slavery and favored northern interests. It should be noted that, although he was anti-slavery, he did not know what could be done with the unorthodox tradition of slavery if the slaves were freed. He knew that the southern economy depended upon slavery; it would collapse without it. So, he focused on preventing the expansion of slavery into the territories.

Soon after Lincoln won election, South Carolina issued a "Declaration of the Causes of Secession." Six other southern states - Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas - soon followed suit and seceded from the Union. Then the other southern states that made up the Confederate States of America - Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia - seceded a few days later.

It should also be noted that slavery was not abolished in the District of Columbia until January 1, 1863, two years after the election of Lincoln, and Maryland did not free its slaves until near the close of the Civil War.

Many citizens of Maryland agreed in principle that slavery should be abolished, but they were slow to act upon it. Although the need for slaves had declined with the shift away from tobacco plantations, slavery was still too deeply embedded into Maryland society for the wealthiest white "aristocrats," who had considerable economic and political power, to give it up voluntarily.

On November 1, 1864, the citizens of Maryland voted to abolish slavery, but only by a small vote margin; the southern part of the state was heavily dependent on the slave economy. Had Mayland instead voted to leave he Union with the other southern states in 1860, then Washington, D. C., the capital of the United States, would have been inside and surrounded by the Confederate States of America.

The eleven southern states took control of the federal installations in their regions, including the military forts, setting the stage for the bloodiest war in American history.

The United States government did not recognize the southern states belief in the right to secede from the Union peacefully. When the South Carolina government called for the military to surrender the installations at Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor and for the troops stationed there to leave, they refused. Southern government forces fired upon Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, igniting the American Civil War, and forcing Abraham Lincoln to put down the rebellion.

By the time of the American Civil War, slavery was an institution that was on the threshold of collapse due to the expanding Industrial Revolution. Many people, both in the South and in the North, were against slavery. It was mainly southern plantation owners who wanted to maintain the institution. If the American Civil War had not ended slavery in the South, then the Industrial Revolution would have eventually done so.

Thus, the causes of the American Civil War were economic interests, (free labor of slaves over paid wages of indentured servants) cultural values, (a classless society over a three tiered society) and the power of the federal government over that of the states (the rights of the states over federal rights). Slavery was the match that lit the fuse.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

After firing upon Fort Sumter, the first major action of the war was the First Battle of Bull Run, which was also called the Battle of First Manassas by the Confederacy. The skirmish was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, about forty-eight kilometers from Washington, D. C. The confrontation was a Confederate victory which was followed by a disorganized post-battle retreat by the Union forces.

The Battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861, and the Battle of Ball's Bluff, on October 21, 1861, both Confederate victories, came after that. These skirmishes were followed by the battles of Fort Henry, on February 6, 1862, Fort Donelson on February 11-16, 1862, Pea Ridge on March 7-8, 1862, and the Battle of Shiloh on April 6-7, 1862, all Union victories.

Then came the capture of the port of New Orleans on May 1, 1862, a major victory for the Union, in that it led to the ultimate control of the Mississippi River. After battling past forts Jackson and Philip, the Union was unopposed in its seizure of the city itself. The capture of the largest Confederate city was a major turning point in the war. It also caught many Confederate generals by surprise. They believed that an attack on the city would come from the north, not from the Gulf of Mexico.

The Battle of Antietam, called the Battle of Sharpsburg by the Confederate forces, took place on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union Major General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac near Antietam Creek and Sharpsburg, Maryland. The Union Army suffered heavier casualties than the Confederates, but the battle was another major turning point in the war, making the skirmish a strategic Union victory.

The Battle of Chancellorsville between April 30 and May 6, 1863, resulted in a victory for the Confederate forces.

General Lee's decision to divide his troops in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory. Lee's audacity coupled with Union General Joseph Hooker's timidness in formulating decisions, made it a "perfect battle plan." However, the success was tempered by heavy casualties, including Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who was accidently shot in his left arm by a Confederate sentry man. His arm had to be amputated. He died of pneumonia eight days later, a loss that General Lee likened to losing his right arm.

The Battle of Gettysburg lasted three days, between July 1 and July 3, 1863. It was the war's bloodiest battle, claiming over 50,000 casualties on both sides. In the encounter, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, halting his invasion of the North and forcing his retreat.

The battle, which was won by the Union forces, is widely considered by many historians to be the Civil War's turning point, ending the Confederacy's hopes to establish an independent nation. While others consider the fall of New Orleans the turning point of the American Civil War, for without the strategic port, the Confederacy had no hope of winning the war.

The siege of Vicksburg was between May 18 to July 4, 1863. Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River; capturing it was of utmost importance for northern strategy.

In a series of battle tactics, Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant's forces drove Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's army into the defensive lines surrounding the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which led to its successful siege and Confederate surrender.

The Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863, literally divided the Confederacy into two for the remainder of the war. President Lincoln called the Vicksburg victory the "key to the war."

The siege of Atlanta, an important rail and supply hub for the Confederacy, began on July 22, 1864. Union forces were commanded by Major General William T. Sherman, who overwhelmed and defeated Confederate forces defending the city under General John B. Hood. It needs to be noted that prior to the American Civil War, Atlanta was just a railroad terminal, a place for trains to temporarily stop and get water and firewood. The population of the city did not exceed ten thousand until after 1860. It was the Civil War that made it a crucial railroad crossroads for Confederate troops going East and West or North and South.

The battle for the city of Atlanta occurred midway through Sherman's campaign through Georgia; the metropolis did not fall until September 2, 1864, after a Union siege and several attempts to destroy railroads and supply lines leading into the city. After taking the town, Sherman's troops headed southeast toward the state capital, Milledgeville and then on to Savannah, Georgia.

Contrary to what many people believe, General Sherman did not burn all of Atlanta. He ordered his troops to destroy only its war related infrastructure, the railroads, supply depots, armories, factories, mills, warehouses, and facilities used for Confederate military operations. His goal was to cripple the Confederate war effort.

The Appomattox campaign was a series of battles fought in Virginia between March 29 and April 9, 1865, that concluded with Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendering to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. It was the last major battle of the hostilities and effectively ended the American Civil War.

Less than a week later, on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln, while the President was sitting in a box seat at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D. C. watching a play, "Our American Cousin." The bullet entered the back of his head and lodged behind his right eye, causing severe brain damage. He was carried unconscious to a boarding house across the street and died the next morning at 7:22 AM, April 15, 1865.

After shooting the President, Booth jumped onto the stage, breaking his leg. He then met with David Herold, one of his co-conspirators, who assisted him in escaping to the countryside. They stopped at Doctor Samuel Mudd's house in Maryland, who treated Booth. Herold and Booth continued south, evading the Union soldiers who were pursuing them, and relying on Confederate sympathizers to shelter and guide them.

On April 26, 1865, the two men were tracked to a barn on Richard Garrett's farm near Port Royal, Virginia. The soldiers surrounded the barn. Herold surrendered, but Booth was determined to either fight or escape. The soldiers set fire to the barn in order to force him out. He was shot and paralyzed and died a few minutes later. His co-conspirators were captured, tried by a military tribunal and executed or imprisoned.

Mary Surratt was hanged as a co-conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln. She was a widow who ran a boarding house in Washington, D. C., which was the meeting place for Booth and his co-conspirators. Although there was no direct evidence that linked her to the assassination, she was also convicted and hung on July 7, 1865, along with David Herold, Lewis Powell, AKA Lewis Paine and George Atzerodt.

Yaphet cries when she reads about the assassination. Both her and Zlatex believed that President Lincoln was an honest man, a good man who would work to heal the wounds caused by the war. But now that he was dead, they dreaded over what would become of the South. They hoped that there would be an easy, forgiving transition back to normality, not brutal, unforgiving retaliation by intruders whose only goal was to enrich themselves at the expense of those who were left desolate by the American Civil War.

The two extraterrestrials are glad that they are living in Texas, and nowhere near where any of the fighting took place. The only skirmishes that occurred in Texas were along the Gulf Coast, far from Fort Davis, where the two syngeneic beings are residing. After living there for nine years, one of the older girls attending the school at which Julia taught, asked her how she managed to stay young looking. She answered the girl that she washed her face daily using just plain water. She told her that soap has chemicals in it that damage the skin.

Later that night, Yaphet told Zlatex about the girl's inquisitiveness. The school year was almost over; there were only a few weeks before vacation started. The two syngeneic travelers decided to move before anyone else noticed that they did not age. When school let out, they loaded up their farmer's cart and headed out of town.

They moved to El Paso, Texas, staying there only a couple of weeks, just long enough to rest a little and purchase a few supplies. Their next stop was Tucson, Arizona, arriving about two o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday May 30, 1868. They stayed in the city for eleven years. Julia again got a job teaching in a local elementary school the following September; James got a job working as a typesetter in the local newspaper. After the paper was printed, he then helped distribute it to customers.

After living in Tucson, they moved to Phoenix, Arzona and lived there for nine years, with Julia again teaching and James setting type in a local newspaper. When it came time to move on, the two alien consorts discussed with each other where they were going to go to next. Yaphet got out their map and together they studied it. They debated whether to go to Fort Yuma, their original next stopping place or to some other city. Zlatex answered her that he had some newspaper clippings that he had managed to keep at work. He told her he would bring them home tomorrow and after reading them, they could make the decision on where to move. A couple of them mentioned a little known frontier town called Tombstone.

Tombstone, Arizona was founded in 1879 by a prospector looking for silver. He was told that he would not find wealth there; he would only find his own tombstone. After he found silver, he named the spot Tombstone, and it soon became one of the last boomtowns of the American frontier, which was also known as the Old West, or the Wild West, because of the lawlessness that sometimes prevailed.

Starting about 1877, the area was a victim of a multitude of railroad and stagecoach robberies.

The Earp brothers, Virgil Walter, Wyatt Berry and Morgan Seth, arrived in Tombstone in December 1879. John Henry Holliday, known as Doc Holliday, a dentist, arrived a few months later.

On the evening of March 15, 1881, some men robbed a stagecoach that was carrying 26,000 dollars in silver bullion. It was enroute from Tombstone to the railroad freight terminal in Benson, Arizona. The stage was attacked near Drew's Station, just outside Contention City, a mining town near Tombstone.

Deputy U. S. Marshal Virgil Earp, with his brothers, Wyatt and Morgan and Doc Holliday, pursued the Cochise Cowboys suspected of the robbery. They believed that Ike Clanton was one of the thieves. He was a "ringleader" of the Cowboys and had been heard on several occasions threatening to kill Wyatt. Virgil made the decision to enforce a city ordinance prohibiting the carrying weapons in town and to take the guns away from the Cowboys.

The Cowboys were a loosely associated group of outlaws, train robbers and stagecoach robbers. The members of the group included Joseph Isaac "Ike" Clanton, William Harrison "Billy" Clanton, Phineas Fay Clanton, Robert Findley "Frank" McLaury, Tom McLaury, William "Curly Bill" Brocius, Billy Claiborne, John Peters "Johnny" Ringo, Frank C. Stilwell, Charles "Pony Diehl" Ray, Pete Spence and Harry Head.

The term cowboy at that time was synonymous with cattle rustler, whereas the men who drove cattle for a living were usually called cowhands, drovers, or wranglers. Legal cowmen were usually landowners and were also called herders or ranchers.

Virgil had been Tombstone's U. S. Marshal since June 1881, Wyatt and Morgan were his deputy sheriffs. In October 1881, the three lawmen and Doc Holliday attempted to disarm five members of the Cochise Cowboys near the O. K. Corral on the west side of town, which resulted in the famous shootout.

Despite its name, the famous gunfight did not take place in the O. K. Corral. The shootout actually took place on October 26, 1881, six doors west of the corral's rear entrance in a narrow vacant lot owned by photographer C. S. Fly, near, but not in, the O. K. Corral.

Early in the afternoon, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday headed towards Fremont Street, where the Cowboys had been gathering. They found the five Cowboys they were seeking in a vacant lot adjacent to the O. K. Corral's rear entrance on Fremont Street. The lot was narrow, situated between the Harwood House and Fly's Boarding House and Photography Studio.

In the infamous gunbattle, Morgan was hit by a bullet across his back that nicked his shoulder blades and one of his vertebrae. Virgil was shot through the calf, and Doc Holliday was grazed by a single shot. Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury were killed. Billy Claiborne and Ike Clanton ran from the shootout as soon as it started. Wyatt Earp was unharmed.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

The story of the shootout was picked up by the newspapers and spread across the country. Some papers got their information from prejudice sources, and favored the Cowboys version of what happened, while other newspapers revealed what actually happened, getting their information from unbiased witnesses.

Some have proposed the theory that the gunfight was really an extension of the American Civil War. This was mainly due to the fact that the town was bitterly divided, the Democrats against the Republicans, just as was the war between the northern states and the southern states.

The Earp brothers were northern Republicans who had never worked as ranchers, cowhands, drovers, or wranglers. They, along with Doc Holliday and just recently arrived in the frontier town. Wyatt wanted to be the Republican deputy sheriff of the county.

In the November 2, 1880, election for Pima County sheriff, Democrat Charles A. Shibell ran against Republican Bob Paul, who was expected to win. However, votes arrived belatedly, some as late as November 7, and Shibell was unexpectedly re-elected. He immediately appointed Johnny Behan, who was supported by the Cowboys, as the new deputy sheriff for the county.

A controversy ensued when Paul uncovered ballot stuffing by the Cowboys and he sued to overturn the election. The precinct on the east side of Tombstone only had ten registered voters, but Shibell won that precinct with 103 votes to one against him. Ike Clanton was the election inspector for the precinct, and Johnny Ringo was one of the election judges.

The controversy ended in the gunbattle that has come to be called the "Gunfight at the OK Corral."

After reading the newspaper clippings of the shootout, Yaphet comments to her symbiotic counterpart, "Anyone who chooses violence over quiet diplomacy as a means of settling disputes is a fool and has not earned the privilege of sitting in a position of leadership." Zlatex immediately agrees with her.

They then returned to reading more articles about the Earp brothers.

The gunfight was not the end of the conflict between the Earps and the Cochise Cowboys. On December 28, 1881, Virgil was ambushed and wounded in a murder attempt by one of the Cowboys. Then on March 18, 1882, Morgan Earp was killed by a Cowboy, who fired from a dark alley through the glass door of a saloon and billiard parlor. Morgan and Wyatt were playing pool at the time. Another shooter who attempted to kill Wyatt, missed him; the bullet passed over his head and became embedded in the wall near the ceiling. This became known as the Earp & Clanton Tragedy.

A coroner's inquest on Morgan's assassination implicated several Cowboys, Frank Stilwell, Pete Spence, Frederick Bode, and Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz as the prime suspects in that murder. However, the Cowboys supplied alibis for the suspects in both shootings.

Wyatt, in a personal grudge campaign, then took matters into his own hands. He formed a posse to track down those who had shot Virgil and killed his brother Morgan. He caught Frank Stilwell near the train station in Tucson and mercilessly shot him.

During early April 1882, Wyatt and his posse tracked down and killed Curly Bill Brocius, Indian Charlie Cruz and three of the men they believed were responsible for shooting the Earp brothers. The ride for vengeance came to be called the Earp Vendetta Ride. But soon after killing these men, Wyatt mysteriously gave up his quest for vengeance, without ever saying why.

After leaving Tombstone, Wyatt went to San Francisco where he reunited with Josephine Marcus his girlfriend while he was residing in the infamous city, and they lived as husband and wife. He died on January 13, 1929, of chronic cystitis in Los Angeles. His common law wife was at his side. He was 80 years old.

Having read about the gunbattle and the rumors of lawlessness in Tombstone, Arizona, the two aliens have no desire to visit the town. They have no wish to get involved in a gunfight. Besides, it is not on a direct route between Tucson and Fort Yuma.

After leaving Phoenix, Yaphet and Zlatex continued across Arizona. It took them twenty-seven days to get to Fort Yuma. The two syngeneic beings arrived there on a hot sunny Saturday afternoon on August 4, 1888. They rented a two room apartment in a local boarding house that had a bathhouse attached to it. They each paid the caretaker and enjoyed a hot bath. They bathed separately because the custodian would not let them bathe together and the tub wasn't large enough for both of them. Julia took her bath first; James paid extra and used fresh hot water.

The next morning Julia bought a copy of The Weekly Arizonan.

They had originally only intended to stay in Yuma for a few weeks. But after James discovered that the managing editor of a local newspaper was looking for someone who was fluent in English and Spanish, they decide to remain a little longer. He told the editor that he could read and write English, French, Spanish and some Latin and that he had experience with editing and publishing a newspaper and working a printing press; the manager offered him a job.

They ended up living in Fort Yuma until 1889. The main reason they stayed so long was because the newspaper had a telegraph connection to New Orleans, through the Washington and New Orleans Telegraph Company, and Yaphet wanted to learn more about it.

In 1873, the U. S. Army built a telegraph line between San Diego and Fort Yuma; it ran through Telegraph Canyon in Chula Vista. James was able to get information almost immediately about what was going on in the world.

After Zlatex explained it to her, Yaphet became very interested in the telegraph. She wanted to learn Morse Code; it took her about a week to master it. She knew from studying the history of Herth that its invention would eventually lead to the development of computers. Julia asked the editor if she could search through the archives of the newspaper to find out if it contained any stories about the invention of the telegraph. The editor not only gave her permission, but he also told her that if she found any stories that might be of interest to let him know about them.

Yaphet discovered that the telegraph was invented by Samuel B. Morse in 1837. He also invented Morse Code, the primary language of telegraphy in the world. It consists of a system of dots and dashes for each numeral, sign and letter of the alphabet.

She also learned numerous other facts about the Americas and the birth and growth of the nation, all of which they recorded into SAM using their personal mobile communicators.

She read an article about Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, discovery of electricity in 1752. He did it in an experiment using a key attached to a kite string in the middle of an electrical storm. Then Thomas Edison invented the first commercially viable light bulb in 1879. The discovery of electricity, along with the development of the light bulb revolutionized indoor lighting and paved the way for modern electrical systems in houses, businesses and street lighting.

Yaphet learned that the Continental Congress officially described the first U. S. flag on June 14, 1777, by passing the Flag Resolution, which stated: "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." Betsy Ross was an upholsterer living in Philadelphia and sewed together flags for the Navy. However, her designing the first American flag is largely a part of American folklore. There is no documentation that proves that she made the first flag.

The keel for the U. S. S Constitution was laid on November 1, 1794, and he ship was first launched on October 21, 1797. She is a three masted wooden hulled heavy frigate with 44 cannons onboard her. She is the oldest commissioned Naval warship still afloat. She earned the nickname "Old Ironsides" during her battle against the HMS Guerriere in the War of 1812. She was given this title because the live oak wood with which the ship was constructed was so strong that the 18 pound British cannonballs bounced right off her hull.

Although it's a battleship, the two symbiotic aliens consider it their favorite ship. Not because it is a vessel of war, but because of what she stands for, liberty and independence.

A thirty-one year old Canadian physical education instructor and graduate student, James Naismith, invented basketball in December 1891. He wanted to give his students who were attending the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts something to do to keep them active during the long winter months when they were snowed in. At first, players used two peach baskets as goals from which a "soccer ball" had to be physically retrieved using a ladder; the wicker basket was placed about three meters off the ground. That's how the popular sport got its name, basketball. Later, the bottom of the basket was cut out enabling the ball to fall through. The first basketball was invented by A. G. Spalding & Bros. in 1894.

The Erie Canal was first proposed in the 1780s, but a formal survey was not achieved until 1808. The New York State Legislature authorized construction in 1817. It was finally completed in 1825. The Erie Canal is an innovative waterway in upstate New York that runs east and west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. The channel saw quick success upon its opening on October 26, 1825. Toll revenue covered the state's construction cost within the first year of its operation.

It became the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes; it vastly reduced the costs of transporting both goods and people across the Appalachian Mountains. The Erie Canal accelerated the settlement of the region around the Great Lakes, the westward expansion of the United States and the economic ascendancy of the state of New York. It has often been called "The Nation's First Superhighway."

Robert Fulton ran the first steamboat on the Hudson River from New York to Albany in 1807. The steamboat New Orleans was the first Mississippi River steamboat. It was launched in 1811 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and ran from there to New Orleans on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The paddlewheel boat ushered in a new era of commercial steamboat navigation and aided in the opening of the West.

Also, during the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key, during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, while observing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in the night and the American flag still flying over the fort the following dawn, was inspired to write a poem, the Defence of Fort M'Henry. It was published within a few days. The musical tune "To Anacreon in Heaven" was suggested to accompany it. The song with Key's lyrics soon became known as The Star-Spangled Banner. It then slowly gained in popularity as an unofficial anthem of the United States, finally achieving official status as the national anthem later under President Herbert Hoover.

The first railroad ran from Baltimore to Ohio was in 1827 and the first transcontinental railroad linking the east coast to the west coast was completed in 1869. Now, instead of taking months to cross the nation in a wagon, a person could do it in a few days.

The development of railroads not only increased the speed of transportation, they also significantly lowered the cost of travel. For example, the first transcontinental railroad allowed passengers to be able to cross the country at one tenth the cost of a wagon or stagecoach. With economical transportation to the West available, often called the Great American Desert, now ranching, mining and even farming could be done at a higher profit. As a result, railroads helped transform the country, particularly the Open West.

Finally, the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire for a sum of 7.2 million dollars on March 30, 1867, again added to the overall growth of the U. S. government.

The two extraterrestrials stayed in Fort Yuma for thirteen months before moving on to San Diego, California.

To be continued...