| Regarding the one-page feature on Anna Carroll: Anna Ella Carroll was an influential Unionist voice and advisor who mattered in the Civil War - but not the secret mastermind or unrecognized cabinet insider that legend made her out to be. The truth is more modest, and more interesting, than the romanticized version. Historians regard Carroll as a talented propagandist and constitutional writer whose pamphlets genuinely aided the Union cause. Her strategic memo contributed to an important military shift. But no primary evidence shows Lincoln or any cabinet secretary ever appointed or referred to Carroll as a formal or informal cabinet member. She spent decades petitioning Congress for compensation, even pressing Lincoln directly for payment; he rebuffed her, writing that her demand was “the most outrageous one ever made to any government upon earth.” The “forgotten heroine” story, while inspiring, rests more on 19th- and 20th-century myth-making than on verifiable evidence. |
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| National League's greatest ball player (through 1948)? Best single answer: Stan Musial on his way to 128.6 WAR (baseball-reference.com is used here) || Best contender: Johnny Mize had JUST passed his prime, and had a lower Batting Average and On Base Average through 1948. He ended up with 70.6 WAR || Short list in 1949 (stats through 1948 - HR/RBI/BA/OBA/SLG/WAR): Musial (110 HR, 583 RBI, .348/.426/.570; 50.2 WAR) || Johnny Mize (297 HR, 1096 RBI, .324/.409/.588; 64.7 WAR) || Enos Slaughter (102 HR, 697 RBI, .307/.380/.476; 34.7 WAR) || Pee Wee Reese (36 HR, 335 RBI, .265/.363/.362; 27.8 WAR) || Ralph Kiner (114 HR, 331 RBI, .276/.386/.538; 16.7WAR) || Jackie Robinson (28 HR, 160 RBI, .304/.382/.455; 11.5 WAR) || Recently retired: Mel Ott retired in 1947 (511 HR, 1860 RBI, .304/.414/.533; 111 WAR) || Arky Vaughan retired in 1948 (96 HR, 937 RBI, .318/.406/.453; 78 WAR) || Too early: Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Robin Roberts, Don Newcombe, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks. Throughout that era, the only players to accumulate higher lifetime WAR than Musial were Mays and Aaron (Williams was close with 121.8, and that in the AL), and neither of them had much to statistically rank in 1948 as the NL's greatest. |
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