Friday, August 01, 2008

Jayhawked! Just to be Clear

Somebody out there is probably wondering why someone who claims to support States’ Rights and the C.S.A. would call himself a “Jayhawker”.

Well, I’ll tell you.

A Jayhawk is a mythical mix between a Jay and a Sparrow Hawk. It can be characterized as a bird that is very outspoken, but as quick and stealthy as the wind.

Now, when speaking of “the Jayhawkers” of the Civil War, one would almost always be referring to the Yankee guerilla raiders that would pillage and plunder the Missouri/Kansas border.
Remember: the victor writes the history, and the defeated write the songs.

The truth is, “Border Ruffians” on both sides called themselves “Jayhawkers”, because Jayhawker is just a term meaning “a guerilla raider from Kansas”!

The first utterance of the word “Jayhawk” was in the first couple of decades prior to the War Between the States. To use Jayhawk in a sentence, one might say: “I wouldn’t trust that Jayhawker to saddle my horse!” or, “You wouldn’t want to pick a fight with that Jayhawk!”.
Jayhawker just basically meant someone you didn’t mess with, or trust to watch your horse.

Some “Bleeding Kansas” Jayhawkers were for slavery; I am not.
Some Civil War Jayhawkers were for the Union; I’m for the Confederacy.

Regardless, the dictionary currently defines a Jayhawker as a resident of Kansas, and I certainly fit that definition.

BTW, non-Kansans might not know the Kansas University official chant: "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk".

6 comments:

Stephen said...

Very interesting! I had always thought that the Jayhawkers were all Southern sympathizers.

The rebels, copperheads, and (some) Jayhawkers are the good guys. It's the carpetbaggers and scalawags you really gotta watch out for.

Unknown said...

I always imagined all Jayhawkers to be pro-C.S.A. also.

I only found out differently when I read a Wikipedia article on the Jayhawkers, so I figured somebody might notice and wonder about it.

Keep your blog posts coming!
Dia duit!

Unknown said...

Oh, I wanted to ask you:

Did you notice/recognize the flag on the right of my header?

I'm trying to decide whether or not to modify it for better clarity.

Stephen said...

WOW!!!!!

Thank you so much! That looks great, I really like it the way it is.

What photo editor do you use?

Unknown said...

The pleasure was mine! I used Paint Shop Pro 7.

Now, the funny part is... I was asking about the flag at the top of the page where it says "Son3".

LOL!

But, I'm glad you like the link image to your blog.

I'd been thinking about linking to your blog for some time when you did the "Check This Guy Out" post.

It's the least I could do! :)

I've been getting upwards of thirty hits per day ever since, so you've got quite a following!

Maybe you should get a hit counter for your blog, if you don't already have one.

I got mine from www.statcounter.com

Stephen said...

Thanks!

I use the feedburner.com site to keep track of my stats, but I have been looking at getting a more simple "statcounter", so, I'll look into it!

I'm so glad I was able to help! Keep up the good work!

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