Hercules of the Union

Happy Friday!

Today’s Friday Funny is a celebration of Union General Winfield Scott—cast here as the mythical Hercules slaying a secessionist hydra. Aiding Scott in his epic battle is the great club of “Liberty and Union.” Each of the hydra’s seven heads represent a prominent Southern leader and their major vice or crime: Hatred & Blasphemy (Confederate Secretary of State Robert Toombs), Lying (Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens), Piracy (Confederate President Jefferson Davis), Perjury (P. G. T. Beauregard of the Confederate Army), Treason (US General David E. Twiggs who turned over 19 federal army posts to the South), Extortion (South Carolina Governor Francis W. Pickens), and Robbery (former Secretary of War John B. Floyd, accused of funneling federal supplies and armaments to the South).

Image Credit: Library of Congress.

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