Civil Wars: Gus Kotka, Johnny Reb and Robert E. Lee ~ New WCHU on the Bryan William Brickner Blog

Representing the Unrepresented

Honoring the 150^th anniversary of a US Civil War soldier’s death, the Ew Publishing summer series War Cry Heal Union (WCHU) addresses civil wars through a spirit story; Private Augustus Kotka (KIA 11 August 1864), 99^th Indiana Infantry Regiment, and a character named Johnny Reb discuss civil wars, America’s Constitution and Robert E. Lee’s opportunities for greatness.

Hosted on the Bryan William Brickner Blog, the seventh installment of the WCHU series, Civil Wars: Gus Kotka, Johnny Reb and Robert E. Lee, examines one of the promises of a Republic: domestic tranquility. In a short (friendly) dialogue between two Civil War soldiers, Robert E. Lee’s April 1861 meeting with Francis P. Blair, President Lincoln’s intermediary, is noted as a failed opportunity for greatness.

“Kotka was killed skirmishing during the siege of Atlanta, 11 August 1864,” opened Bryan W. Brickner, “it wasn’t a battle day like Cheatham Hill or Peachtree Creek ~ it was just Kotka’s day.”

“Yet this isn’t a sad tale,” explained Brickner, “as the two soldiers note Lee’s great abilities and wonder what might have been.”

“As the dialogue winds down,” Brickner closed, “Johnny Reb gives the Yank a Spirit speech; it’s about honoring our Republic by fulfilling the founders’ constitutional rebel vision: a US House of Representatives for We the People built on George Washington’s number, thirty Thousand.”

Brickner has a 1997 political science doctorate from Purdue University and is the author of several political theory books, to include The Promise Keepers: Politics and Promises (1999), Article the first of the Bill of Rights (2006), and The Book of the Is: A book on bridges (2013). The Bryan William Brickner Blog is an ongoing resource for the political science of constitutions and the biological science of receptors.

Next WCHU: Ew Publishing is adding one to the original ten in the War Cry Heal Union series (26 May 2014 press release). The addition looks at representing the unrepresented “Stock of Abraham” via George Washington and the Hebrew Congregation of Rhode Island; it’ll be 7.5 of 10, posting in one week, Monday 18 August 2014.