Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mustang
... a writer named Olver Wendell Holmes...
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He was so much more than "a writer". Oliver Wendell Holmes was an officer in the Union Army during the US Civil War; as a much older man he was Chief Justice of the US Supreme court.
In
Battles And Leaders Of The Civil War he tells one of my favorite stories: In 1864 Washington DC was protected by a series of forts connected by a single wooden wall, and the Confederates were close enough that snipers could fire at that wall. Holmes, at that point a Captain in the Army, saw a tall man in a suit standing on the parapet, looking out over the area. Holmes says he shouted at the man "Get down, you damned fool! Don't you know they can hit you from there?"
He ran over to the man, only to realize it was President Lincoln himself. Expecting to be in serious trouble, Holmes was surprised and relieved when the President looked him up and down and said "Well, Captain, I'm glad to see you know the proper way to address a civilian!".