After Legend (Ernest Pratt) is accosted in Texas due to his character (Legend) having been written as a Union war hero during the Civil War, he hears from a former Confederate Colonel's daughter there may be a plot against the President, former commander of the Union forces during the war, U. S. Grant.
Pratt writes a letter to Grant noting the hint of a plot, which causes him to be interrupted from a romantic liaison to fill in government agents on the facts. I found this to be highly unlikely, for we all know, instead James West would have been immediately assigned to such a threat. ;-)
This episode makes a remarkable point which is often ignored or dismissed over the last forty-plus years ... the terrible treatment the former Confederate states were subjected to during "Reconstruction". Their economies were stripped by sanctions and their property by carpetbaggers. Southern economies still, in ways, suffer from that treatment to this day, almost 170 years after the Civil War, and suffered greatly for a century until Northern businesses began the "Sunbelt Migration".
In the story, Colonel Steele did not want to harm Grant, merely take him on a tour of the ravages caused by Reconstruction. It was also written that Grant and Steele had been close friends before the war, and that trope was true to history. Virtually every officer on either side of the Civil War had once served together in some manner in the army of the United States. Many were friends and colleagues. Robert E. Lee had been offered command of the Union Army. Most of the generals on both sides cut their military teeth during the Mexican War some years before. I was impressed the writers of this episode knew this and got so much right in spirit, if not historical events.
Pratt writes a letter to Grant noting the hint of a plot, which causes him to be interrupted from a romantic liaison to fill in government agents on the facts. I found this to be highly unlikely, for we all know, instead James West would have been immediately assigned to such a threat. ;-)
This episode makes a remarkable point which is often ignored or dismissed over the last forty-plus years ... the terrible treatment the former Confederate states were subjected to during "Reconstruction". Their economies were stripped by sanctions and their property by carpetbaggers. Southern economies still, in ways, suffer from that treatment to this day, almost 170 years after the Civil War, and suffered greatly for a century until Northern businesses began the "Sunbelt Migration".
In the story, Colonel Steele did not want to harm Grant, merely take him on a tour of the ravages caused by Reconstruction. It was also written that Grant and Steele had been close friends before the war, and that trope was true to history. Virtually every officer on either side of the Civil War had once served together in some manner in the army of the United States. Many were friends and colleagues. Robert E. Lee had been offered command of the Union Army. Most of the generals on both sides cut their military teeth during the Mexican War some years before. I was impressed the writers of this episode knew this and got so much right in spirit, if not historical events.