Donald Trump has plaque at his golf course commemorating Civil War battle that never happened

[highplainsdem]

From Golf Digest, back on May 2 -- and they were reprinting an article from 2015:

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/details-details-donald-trump-has-plaque-at-his-golf-course-commemorating-civil-war-battle-that-never-happened

We all play golf courses that feature various memorials to people and events: benches, flagpoles, that sort of thing. At my home club, for instance, there's a stone marker honoring the memory of a longtime starter at the club from decades earlier.

Call me naive, but I've always operated under the assumption that this was at one point an actual person.

It's worth reconsidering only because of a New York Times report from Tuesday that says Donald Trump's Northern Virginia Trump National Golf Club features a plaque between the 14th and 15th holes honoring a Civil War battle at that precise spot. The inscription, signed by Trump, reads:

“Many great American soldiers, both of the North and South, died at this spot. The casualties were so great that the water would turn red and thus became known as ‘The River of Blood.’ It is my great honor to have preserved this important section of the Potomac River!”

Nice sentiment, small problem: there apparently was no such battle.

The Times checked with various historians in the area who had trouble tying the site of Trump's course to any such event.

-snip-

Trump, who is a leading Republican candidate for President, questioned how historians could dispute the battle. "How would they know," he told the Times. "Were they there?"

[underpants]

1. I remember that story

What walking dump that guy is.

[Kleveland]

2. With a trash compactor for a brain! n/t

[Blue_true]

14. Yeah, but Hillary's emails. Just ask the people on the left who virulently attacked her.

Now, we have this heaping pile of human garbage as President.

[underpants]

15. Uninformed idiot too

Check this out. NYT created a bot that shows what Trump sees on his Twitter feed

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9479223

[mnhtnbb]

3. Is this one of the golf courses where he hung phony Time Magazine covers of himself?

Certainly would make sense.

[thucythucy]

4. "The River of Blood" is generally a reference to Antietam,

which took place in Maryland, not Virginia.

What a malicious joke we have as president.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

8. No . . .

The "... of blood" reference with respect to the Antietam battle is "field of blood."

The closest Civil War engagement to the Trump golf course in Virginia was the Battle of Ball's Bluff, about 11 or so miles upriver. The Trump course, meanwhile, is located very near to Rowser's Ford, which was a (Potomac) river crossing used during the Civil War, most notably by Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart right before what became the Gettysburg campaign. But no battle was fought near there.

It is possible that, somewhere along the line, Trump was informed about the Ball's Bluff engagement -- fought early in the war, in what was something of a debacle for the Union army, in which Union troops attempting to retreat back across the river were shot down, and some bodies did, purportedly, float down river -- and in his warped mind, he conflated that event with the location of the course.

[thucythucy]

11. There are accounts of the Antietam

turning "blood red" as it ran under what came to be known as "Burnside's Bridge"--the site of multiple charges across a narrow stone bridge that were slaughtered by traitors perched on the opposite bank.

"River of Blood" gets used at a number of civil war battle sites, Chickamauga for instance, but I've seen it most often used in reference to Antietam.

[TheBlackAdder]

5. How could Trump support his claim? Was he there?

Trump, who is a leading Republican candidate for President, questioned how historians could dispute the battle. "How would they know," he told the Times. "Were they there?

[ProudLib72]

6. Maybe all those beautiful statues that are being taken down

would look good on tRump properties.

[leftstreet]

7. That's brilliant actually. Put all the statues on his golf courses

[ProudLib72]

9. I certainly would be a statement

What I want to know in all of this is how his wealthy patrons view his racism. Are they simply ignoring it? With hundreds of Confederate statues lying around, there would be no way to ignore it.

[uponit7771]

10. Was it called the Bowling Green Battle ? The right in America just makes up their own realities

[Blue Owl]

12. Donnie has brain plaque

Lots of it...

[Initech]

13. Sounds about right for Donnie - fake, wrong,and sad.