The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Here's to Youth

8.25.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 4 of 4)

HAIR SPLITS
Re: Michael Skaggs' letter (under "All the Colors") in Reader Mail's Memorable Reunions:

Mr. Skaggs: Look closely at my letter. I attended a reunion "of the Army's famous Rainbow Division, which served with distinction in both world wars, and was made famous by a fanciful Jimmy Cagney movie called The Fighting 69th."

In my haste, I neglected to explain that the 69th New York Infantry, which included many immigrant Irish, and served heroically during the Civil War, became the 165th New York Infantry during the First World War. At that time it became part of the Rainbow Division. The Cagney Movie, The Fighting 69th, was built around characters who arrived in camp as the 69th New York Irish, and then became part of the Rainbow. In its final form, the Rainbow Division included troops drawn from National Guard Units of 26 states and the District of Columbia.

On November 11, 1918, officers of the Rainbow Division formed the Rainbow Division Veterans Association (RDVA). In 2003, that organization was reformed as the Rainbow Division Veterans Memorial Foundation, Inc. (RDVMF). Veterans from all constituent units, and from all the wars in which they served, reunite as one group. A detailed account of the history and the organization formed to serve its members can be found at rainbowvets.org.

Because I assumed a certain literacy on the part of TAS readers, and because letters are written in haste, and because the substance of the message was the way in which the Ohio vet was treated after the war, I overlooked a spot of rhetorical ambiguity. I never dreamed someone could hear that soldier's story and have no response beyond an irresistible urge to split hairs.
-- Edmund Dantes
Coshocton, Ohio

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