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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Expanded November Book Issu What a treat to read so man 10 Civil War Book Lists by Civil War writers. When I started buying Civil War books in the mid90s, I relied on David Eicher’s book, The Civil War in Books, as my guidepost. It is, of course, a bit dated now so I was very happy to review your contributors’ lists and put some books on my acquisition list and then moved
others I already have further up on my reading list. Your regular book reviews were also quite informative. I also want to thank you for polybag to cut down on damage and lost copies (both of which I have experienced). I am more than happy to pay the additional cost. Excellent decision. John B. Sincla Towson, MD
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: much. The articles, columns, book reviews, and contributors are top notch, and the information always interesting. I especially enjoyed the tribute Ed
Bearss in your November issue. What an amazing historian. One thing I would love to see more of is your Co. A cartoons.
They seem to appear sporadically, but are always funny when they do. They lend a little milit humor to a serious subject. Keep up the great work on CWN. F. Marion Red Hillsborough, NC
vateers versus high seas robbers was surely very interesting to many readers. Not all may real-
the practice, including our own Constitution.
Pirates roving the seas in armed vessels “without any commission of passport from any government” and attacking all manner of vessels may prompt return to a granting to priv tities, granting Letters of Marque & Reprisal to private entities. Dating back to Revolutionary War days, the English addressed piracy in its admiralty courts and later the common law courts by Statute of 28, Henry III. The law of marque (pronounced “mark”) while often used with a sort of law of ‘repri-
sal’ entitling he who has received any wrong from another, and where justice fails to take the goods (or body) of the wrongdoer, allows the private entity or so-called ‘privateer’ to find them wherever found in satisfaction of the wrong. Certain situations and the extent of a privateer’s authority ca get complicated but generally any capture by one duly commissioned by a nation at war to capture boats of the enemy, a ‘privateer’ is justified under the government warrant or commission with regard to his acts and sufficient protection against imputing ‘piracy’ to him. Robbery on the High Seas However, robbery on the high
seas is ‘piracy’ and considered done animo furandi (Latin for (with the intention to steal) say numerous court decisions, and
held to be against the United States under the Act of April 30, 1790. The word “piractical” appears in the Act of 1819 referring to the class of offenses pirates perpetrated. In modern times, partly due to global treaties and practices, ‘re prisals’ are typically confined to seizures of commercial proper-
ty by government ships though presumably the seizures can
incidents assume “the character of a private unauthorized war,” the law of nations will likely in flict the punishment and penal-
ties the laws allow. U.S. Constitution, Article 1, 8, Clause 10,11 This gives Congress the pow-
er to hire pirates to attack the nation’s enemies, a letter giving official permission to do their thing in the name of the national interest. en- Joan Wenne
Since we decided to begin mailing copies of Civil War News inside a polybag with a cover sheet starting with the November 2020 issue, we are delighted to announce that we have not received one complaint
of a missing or damaged paper, a first since the beginning of 2020 The response from our readers to the addition of the polybags has been so positive. We have received donations in support of this additional cost, and based upon the numbers of renewals coming in, the additional charge
problem for most of our readers. graciously made generous donations to help support the paper. We appreciate any and all help in the preservation of our publication. It is no secret that thes are challenging times for publications such as ours, with loss of event advertising due to the Covid-19 social distancing re-
quirements and necessary cancellations to prevent the spread of the virus. We fully expect to gain advertising revenue as busi-
nesses open back up and events are rescheduled. Some of our long-time advertisers have found it too difficult to remain in bus ness this year, so we have permanently lost the revenue from their support. Sadly, we will mis their friendships and we wish them the best.
non-profit; however, we are start ing to feel like we should be. In spite of the lost advertising rev enue this year, the price for our printing has gone up while the price we pay for other services to provide you with a top-notch publication has remained the same. Peggy and I have person-
ally had to dig into our savings this year to keep the paper afloa
there are those among our readers who have professions that have protected them from the financial burdens put upon many of us this year. We are not too proud to ask that if you love wha January 2021