I was thinking that the tin can in panel 4 might be an anachronism (because even though we play fast and loose with history, I like to know when we are doing so), but it is not. The first tin can was pressed out in England around 1810.
However, a true anachronism with respect to real history is the presence of the gray Confederate uniforms and the Confederate battle flag. These comics take place right after the Battle of Bull Run, and a noted problem during Bull Run was similar uniforms and flags for the two sides.
We wanted to go for the readily identifiable symbols.
–Geoff
http://www.ftg-comic.com/2008/03/20/index.php
You’re British, or perhaps Prussian, or perhaps the sixteenth president of the United States, and you have to convince General Stonewall Jackson that you are, in fact, a member of the Russian ruling class. Write an essay describing the narrative strategies you might employ. You have the rest of the period. You may use Episode 112: The Devil and the Drunken Goat, as a reference.
– Geoff and The Count
For some reason, I can remember effectively nothing about my life before I was thirteen. However, one memory that is seared into my brain is that of being sick in like seventh grade and of my mom taking me to the Encinitas library where I checked out a biography of Stonewall Jackson with a blue cover and then just devoured it in my room’s semi-light.
And what did I take away from this experience?
Stonewall Jackson enjoyed lemons. Further, he would, for medicinal purposes, rub them all over his body, especially under his arms, to treat the racking pain that made rigorous Protestantism a sensible option.
I hear nowadays that a fair proportion of that is pure, generally-agreed-upon, falsehood, that he enjoyed lemons as much as the next guy, sure, but that is as far as it went. I am choosing to ignore that.
– Count Dolby von Luckner
So yes, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” wasn’t written until the 1940s, but I would like to think there was a proto-version of this story kicking around that Abe would have known about.
The best court case that uses “The Devil and Daniel Webster” as an unofficial precedent is this one.
–Geoff