I finally got around to reading Richard Miller’s last book: Tanglefoot: An (Almost) True Story of Civil Wars and Cities. Normally I would have rushed into it with glee but because I only learned of his passing away this last spring, looking at the cover was still painful enough that I kept putting it off.
Tanglefoot tells the story of Captain George Wellington Streeter, a young Civil War vet, Mississippi River boat captain and circus owner who runs his steamboat, the 35-ton Reutan, onto a sandbar near East Superior Street in Chicago, Illinois. Unable to move the vessel, which slowly silts into place, Streeter pronounces it the “Independent District of Lake Michigan.” is how Ryan Masters introduces the book and his short interview of Richard Miller in mid December’s 2005 Monterey County Weekly.
It’s a great story, and one that has many reasons to be remembered especially in today’s political landscape. It is filled with lots of interesting historical information which would be entertaining enough alone but Richard, faithful to his principles, also tells the story to remind us that power can be corrupt, and it is up to us to be wary and to react and resist when necessary.