Any PBS fans out there catch the Kolo Lucino on History Detectives this week?

A woman who is descended from none other than Copperhead activist Henry Clay Dean (1822-1887)-- who vehemently opposed the U.S. Civil War -- inherited a copperhead cane said to belong to him. History detective Wes Cowan set about proving the cane’s provenance, and entrusted invaluable photographs and documents that he uncovered to an archival Kolo Lucino presentation book in red/platinum.

In Life On the Mississippi, Mark Twain said of Dean:

He was an orator - by nature in the first place, and later by the training of experience and practice. When he was out on a canvass, his name was a lodestone which drew the farmers to his stump from fifty miles around. His theme was always politics. He used no notes, for a volcano does not need notes.

Interesting episode. Watch it here.

For some great Copperhead political cartoons from the 1850s and 1860s, go here.

- Ugo