When Yankee Doodle Came to Town

[Music] all righty so after the absolute misery that was the last video I decided to go on the prow for something a little sillier a little more comical and given that every single yank his dog his cat his pet fet or whatever has asked I'm going to do a civil war video but there is a nuance [Music] the American Civil War is many things for some it's their entire personality because my ancestors but there are some absolutely hilarious episodes involved in July 1863 one such of these episodes occurred on the paddle steam at Idaho under Captain John M Nukem as he sailed the Cumberland and Ohio rivers just north of Nashville in February 1862 the Confederate stronghold in Tennessee Nashville fell to the Union forces but unbeknownst to the Union Generals the Confederacy Unleashed a secret biological weapon in the form of one of the most roaring red light districts known to mankind see once the soldiers got into the town they went looking at the many opium dents and brothels for a bit of sporting Hanky Panky and some Southern Hospitality naturally these men looking upon walking in and hitting up the women with lons such as you are the only 10 I see [Music] they got down to business and so to speak within short order every kind of STD known demand and probably a couple of new ones began to speedrun their way through the Union Army for every Union soldier who fell in battle at least a dozen more would be laid up with some kind of infection all linked to the region known as Smoky row as July 1863 rolled around the commander of the Union forces in the region Brigadier General Robert es Granger had enough of the Bon adamic after pulling out his best anti hor device he gave the order that the city would have to be purged of all ladies of the Night Ranger gave this job to perversed Marshal Lieutenant Colonel George Spalding and he was given the task of seizing all the city's prostitutes and transporting them up River to Louisville in Kentucky Spalding went on the hunt for a boat and unfortunately for John yukim he found the Idaho bobbing around and thought all right this works and set to stocking the boat with as many Ladies as possible much to the protest of the relatively new steamer's captain who was conscripted into this role but how do you tell a sex worker from well not a sex worker yeah it's a bit more complicated than you might think there's no big sign that's on someone's head going I am indeed an sex worker Spalding also had to contend with his men sampling the wees before a seizure which made the STD problem even worse but all throughout Nashville women began to be seized some caught totally by surprise some hiking up their frocks and being chased and some actually climbing up drain pipes to get away and some being forced into the back of Patty Wagons at the tips of bayonets there were a few cases of women slapping the ever loving out of the soldiers as they were taken to the dock as well it kind of was just kidnapping there's no two ways about it they were just kidnapping women off the street ladies who weren't even remotely involved in sex work just walking past on the way to Y oldi Warman Sons or whatever were also rounded up because you know you you can't actually tell the difference here anyway all the ladies were thrown onto the Idaho which was probably their nickname The Floating hore House bite everyone around it without any medical supplies food or GS nukin was ordered to sell to Louisville however nobody actually told anybody in Louisville he was coming and when they did nobody bothered to tell newom that Louisville wasn't exactly prepared to accept his cargo [Music] the Idaho begin slapping its way up River it's a paddle steamer that's what they do that's how they move they slap around the river and it crossed the Kentucky border near Linton joining the Ohio river near Smithland this journey was about 100 or so Miles yukim likely thought that this would be the end of his issues given the voyage had quite literally been torture naturally when you kidnap between 110 to 150 or so women sour s off the street said women AR entirely pleased and well they truly made this displeasure known to their Captain some actually while taking a break from yelling at the captain decided to just tear apart the inside of the Idaho to really get the message across nuk tried his best and to his absolute credit he did what he could for more than half of his passengers who were laid up in bed sick spending his own funds to pay for medicine and food as the boat headed up River yukin repeatedly asked over and over for help from the town pass but he was met with guards telling him to bug her off in the nicest possible way Yuk's unwilling passengers came into their own here jauntily showing up some extra shoulder or perhaps an ankle or two in a scandalous fashion to distract the guards and passes by in Louisville the city officials flood out said no no we are not taking up to 150 additional sex workers who apparently were spreading veneral diseases take them to Cincinnati instead but on the plus side Louisville did provide yuken with some guards to restore order on board these guards promptly spent the entire Journey getting bonked six ways from Sunday in a death by shnu yukim would find himself like in the tale of the Flying Dutchman doomed to roam the Seas well Rivers forever with no hope at all of a safe haven as news of his voyage spread like wildfire down the river with the more Puritan of leaders in towns organizing armed guards to repel the dastardly Invasion from the south in defiance against their orders men began to row out heroically preparing to Bard The Invader to drive them away sacrificing their bodies and putting themsel on the line forcing Yuk's crew to repel all borders the city of Cincinnati by now quite literally had a blockade a blockade dedicated to stopping the boat full of sex workers from pulling into the port with the prevailing message being you are not making Nashville's problem our problem Nim had really no idea what to do so he decided to contact Washington for some advice after a little bit of back and forward yukim actually managed to get into contract with of all people the Secretary of War Stanton about the little predicament that he found himself in now it was 1863 things were as the kids say totally popping off in the Civil War with Gettysburg occurring earlier that month and naturally the Secretary of War was more than a little preoccupied upon getting a telegram from a captain saying one of his generals had cocked up by making a USS sex Bonk machine and he wasn't entirely pleased Stanton decided very quickly that the blame would then fall on Granger because well he had taken the whole idea of hey maybe stop having men get STDs to the next level and gone a bit too far by organizing a mass kidnapping campaign Stanton ordered the boat back down the river to Nashville sending the ladies home after their all expenses paid trip by Nukem not by the government totally unwilling river cruise and Stanton made it very very clear to Granger that if he closed the port to the Idaho then he would be looking for another job this whole event it took place over about 13 days and 13 days after he left Nukem found himself pulling into the dock where he left from with his cargo still aboard what was somewhat worse for the wear and in short order they disembarked and sorted their way back to Old Smoky row and continued their services but what about the disease so you'd think it would all come back you might find it hard to believe but there was actually a really good positive to come from this little event see the powers at be in Washington were now actually acutely aware of the dangers of disease from sexual bonking and what it can do to an army at War particularly an army engaged in occupation [Music] the solution in hindsight was simple and it was to legalize prostitution but only if the women submitted to Medical checks and got a license and they would be therefore known as public women to work in Nashville they would also have to undergo weekly physical examinations by an army approved medical practitioner for the fee of around 50 cents per visit with those sick sent to Military Hospital to recover if a soldier was then found soliciting the horizontal Tango from an unlicensed prostitute or if a woman was found working without a license they were slammed for 30 days in prison no questions ask sorry but all I can think of in my head is you got a license for that all the jokes that Americans like to make to Britain at the end of the day this program cost the federal government about $6,000 at the time and it made about $5,900 in return this is before you account for the bonuses and the fact that half the Army wasn't sick anymore so you know they don't have to pay for medical care for half the Army anymore because half the arm is not getting STDs from every six directions this is actually interestingly one of the first examples of Public Health Care in the US and clearly it's indicative that the evil North was nothing more than a communist Utopia and the South shall rise again as the true best un wait hang on no that's that's half of my detractors that that's what they think I'm just continue on anyway sanity returned and this little approach was revolutionary the Army loved it the wor loved it the clients loved it the commanders loved it because the disease numbers dropped it was a win-win win all around unless of course you were Captain yukim who really drew the short end of the stick here see our little AR while hero was told that the damages to his vessel and Sanity were not at all service related and he actually struggled for quite a while to get compensation for his own funds that were used to keep the women aboard alive you know to avoid a mass death at Sea well death on the river and and taken care of medically he also carried a severe stigma for the rest of his life being known as the captain of the hall house the poor Idaho kept the stigma too being nothing more than the butt of jokes as she plied her way up and down the rivers of the central United States into the postwar era so the thing is about the Idaho is once it uh made its way back into Port how should we say you wouldn't want to go near the mattresses that were on the boat you really wouldn't want to go near them um you also might not want to go into the bathrooms and you might want to keep any kind of UV light out of the boat we'll uh we'll leave it there but it was um it wasn't in the best of shape after the war or after this little 13-day pleasure cruise and personally I wouldn't want to go on it without washing my hands a lot and maybe wearing a full like one of those Co outfits that you saw on TV with like every one's completely covered in plastic just just don't go on the Idaho it's probably not worth it that thing should have been [Music] burnt Nukem and the Idaho paid a very high price for their service in this relatively unknown and funny bit of history that comically enough made some extreme strides in the rights of ladies of the night and the rights to public healthare within the United States thank you for your service and thank you for joining me on this fun little Adventure something a bit more fun after the absolute horror and misery of my last video which if you haven't seen it um it's pretty miserable so just giving you a heads up there it's all about the Hol deore so I I appreciate all those who have watched all the feedback I've received it's been phenomenal I I can't thank you all enough thank you to all the patrons particularly the new ones who joined just to make them go out of the way to watch the uncentered version I greatly appreciate your effort to educate yourself on a topic that's really forgotten also one more thing I've started a merchandise store and you can buy a sushima Cru lines bit of merchandise this lovely bit of art that has uh that has now gone public I have got one on my desk here I will include a photo of it it's on my stack of books but yes sushima Cruz lines now open for business I'll include a link to it in the description and I will start including it in all my descriptions going forward so thank you all again like comment subscribe I will catch you all next time and there are you happy you got your Civil War video stop asking now or I'll do it on something even stupider way down sou in the land of tra Ratt snakes and alligators away away away whereon King and un boys will win the away Allie away we all go down to away we all go down to [Music]