The Civil War

The bloodiest war in American history began 150 years ago today, on April 12, 1861. Hostilities began when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Eventually, 11 Southern slave states declared secession from the United States. The U.S. Civil War remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian casualties.

Though it's hard to imagine the lighter side of the Civil War, it was explored in the occasional cartoon.

In The U.S. Civil War, a two-part 1998 episode of Warner Bros.' Histeria!, Abe Lincoln provides a monologue, and gives a Histeria version of the Gettysburg Address. The Histeria gang also listens in to the Hits of the 1860s and The Emancipation Proclamation Hoedown. The gang dives back into the Civil War and sings about it, darns the torpedoes, and visit Abe's Tall and Geeky Shop.

The 1961 Looney Tune The Rebel Without Clawsdepicted Tweety as the very last courier carrying an important message for the Confederacy. Sylvester is the Union countermeasure. This was the last Tweety and Sylvester cartoon animated by Art Davis. It featured the controversial line, "Damn Yankees!" Tweety originally said, "I tawt I taw a damn Yankee tat!" This line was deleted by Warner Brothers; the Cartoon Network just cut the word "damn." Similar treatment was accorded to the line "Damn Yankees," uttered by the Confederate officer. In the Merrie Melodies version, shipboard scenes which included cannon blasts to Sylvester's face were deleted. Cannon gags from "Buccaneer Bunny" were reused. The final line (by Sylvester, after being shot accidentally by fellow Yankees): "It's a good thing I have nine lives. With this kind of army, I'll need all of 'em!"

I have one cartoon about a reenactment of The Civil War called "The Red Badge Of Gayness" from "South Park".

It even had Eric Cartman as General Lee.

I hope to get the DVD of The Civil War that played on PBS. I even know someone who narrates documentaries about my city and has them shown on my PBS Affiliate

In Southern Fried Rabbit Bugs heads down to the South in order to partake in the bumper carrot crop in Alabama. Alabamy-bound, Bugs encounters Yosemite Sam as a Confederate soldier, who hasn't yet received the memo the Civil War ended a long time ago.

Charlie Dog also encounters a little bit of still-fighting-the-war South in Dog Gone South, this time a retired Colonel tries to do away with the Yankee dog. Charlie tries to convince the Colonel he's from the lil' ol' South, too, but the Colonel already has Belvedere (or, as he pronounces it, "Belvahdeah") for his dog. Charlie won't have any of this, so he tries to get rid of Belvedere by dressing him up in Union uniforms, or other tricks.

The 1963 Deputy Dawg cartoon Museum Of th' South has a retired Confederate soldier pitted against Deputy.

This is somewhat of a stretch (OK, permitted for cartoons!), as the last real Civil War veteran, Albert Woolson, died on August 2, 1956 at 109... he was a bugle boy. The last authenticated Confederate veteran to see combat was Pleasant Crump, who was 104 when he died on December 31, 1951.

Andrew Cipes voices a Confederate soldier in the 2006 Cartoon Network series Minoriteam.

And in the 1940 Merrie Melody Confederate Honey, a Southern Elmer Fudd character named Nett Cutler woos his honey, Crimson O'Hairoil, as the Civil War breaks out. Nett goes to fight and leaves poor Crimson behind to pine away for him. A satire of both Gone With the Wind and Jezebel, this was the first Friz Freleng cartoon upon his return to Warner Bros. after nearly two years working at MGM.

-------------------------

"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman