History repeating... and repeating...

That is why I love history... sometimes it seems that there is nothing new under the sun.  I know this isn't true, but human nature being what it is, there are an awful lot of parallels that can be made to years past on almost any given issue one cares to look at.

For example...

Today (June 12, 2012) is the anniversary of the end of the Battle of Cold Harbor.  This was one of the most lop-sided engagements between the forces of Gen. Lee and the Union armies, with Lee out-numbered nearly two-to-one and the Union suffering more than five times the casualties as the Confederates.  It was also Lee's last "win" in a corpse-sized engagement (if you see Cold Harbor as anything other than a draw).

In looking at the history of the battle, one of my favorite Civil War figures plays an important role:  US Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock.  All his commanders, all his peers and all his troops that ever bothered to put pen to paper agree that he was impeccable in his position as commanding general of the II Corpse, Army of the Potomac.  If you read what people like Grant, Lincoln, Meade, Lee, and many, many others wrote about him, you'd think he was the best thing to hit the street since sliced bread.

What I find so fascinating, though, is his career outside of the Army (which is only a tiny fraction of his story, since he died while still serving in 1886).  He had political aspirations almost immediately after the War ended, and was a staunch Democrat (though a Unionist to his core).  Reading about his failed runs for the White House against Hayes and Garfield, and the positions he took on contemporary national issues, I swear he might have been the sort of Democrat that I could have voted for.

The issues facing the nation, while admittedly unique due to the nature of the era, are still very similar to much of what we see today, not the least of which is the manner in which the nation would carry the debt incurred during the Civil War and the costs associated with Reconstruction in the South.  It is amazing to me that, while more than 160 years have past since then... so much of what was front-page news then is still front-page news now.