Alabama was plain and simple essentially a privateer, I believe, operating much like the privateers of all history. The French name is Guerre de Course, I think, and the US employed privateers to a great extent during the War of Independence but many other nations did also long before 1776. The Mexican War featured steam propelled ships, explosive shells, field artillery, war correspondents, use of anesthetics and some odius modern day(supposedly) antics by the media and politicians. After Taylor and Scott failed to conquer Mexico in 30 days or so and the butcher's bill grew, the anti war groups, principally in the Northeast began to natter. There were demonstrations and the news media sensationalised and exaggerated everything. The opposition party(the Whigs) decided to oppose the war for political purposes and tried to get President Polk to pull the troops out, no matter that every battle was a victory for the US. The war issue was a winner for the Whigs and they won a majority in Congress during the mid term elections. Of course, although the Whigs whined about getting the troops out, they voted for funds to continue the war,(to support the troops) Abraham Lincoln, a Whig congressman was one of the politicians who indulged in this chicanery. US Grant, although he did his duty, also opposed the war on the grounds that it was immoral. Shows how far seeing that Lincoln and Grant were. Incidently, Jame Polk was rated as one of the greatest presidents by Truman. I rate him high too, for what it's worth.
Too bad she is scrapped.
