Kinda refreshing I knew something that VTH didn't. Like the whole Mercury thing. Great to see that he is equal parts student and teacher.

"Cavalry, not Calvary." Preacher status confirmed.

I think there’s more than just some redeeming qualities about the man, I genuinely believe that if he wasn’t just given a terrible hand with hat making and losing his wife, I think he would’ve been able to be a very well respected historical figure

I wonder what the doctor who examined him at enlistment thought when he asked Corbett why he had no testicles: 'I cut them off to avoid temptation'. Clearly Section 8 wasn't a thing then.

8:57 I like how Chris makes this face because he knows exactly what's coming next

Makes me wonder two things: 1) What was mercury used for in the hat making process? 2) Were the people who eventually wore the hats affected in any way?

Mercury poisoning wasn't just a problem for hatters even if they are the best-known example due to "mad as a hatter." Placer mining operations also made extensive use of mercury to separate gold from other minerals. It not only affected those doing the separation but could also get in the water where it could build up in the food chain, notably fish. The Sacramento/San Francisco area is still having problems because so much mercury was left behind during the gold rush that some still gets into the water due to erosion of old mines and tailing piles. There was also a major case of mass mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan where mercury from a factory got into the water and from there into the fish the villagers ate. People began to exhibit a variety of symptoms such as unsteady walking, slurred speech, and fits of uncontrolled trembling. Over a thousand ultimately died from the effects. I have to wonder how many of the old west miners were "mad as hatters" in a literal sense.

He really was a very simple man, you could pretty much predict his actions completely through his life after his conversion. We had people like him, in nearly every unit I was part of, while in the Army.

The guy in charge of the Northwest Conspiracy Captain Thomas H. Hines of Kentucky almost lost his life due to resembling John Wilkes Booth

I have to chuckle. I am surprised you never knew the phrase Mad as a Hatter came from mercury poisoning. It shows how simple things then are considered common knowledge to some isn't as wide as we think.

I have been loving your videos recently. You’re understanding of the Bible is also very enjoyable. That story of Edwin Booth is just absolutely shocking and to me can be only chalked up to a divine encounter. The mercury exposure to cause such damage and reek havoc on on Boston’s life and deep paranoia reminds me of the lead poisoning of Roman emperors and elite.

Some historical cases of mercury poisoning: Both Isaac Newton and Michal Faraday suffered from exposure to mercury used in their experiments. Faraday used mercury as a movable electrical contact in motors and generators and Newton was an avid alchemist. When Newton began to show clinical signs he left for the only other job suitable for the mentally deficient - he went into government service (he did become secretary of the treasury or its English equivalent, I just had to add the other for fun). Faraday continued to work in his lab and his condition worsened until his death.

Hi, Chris, that was very interesting and sad in many ways. I do find biographies a good way to learn. I was pleased to read you'll be doing the Extra History series on Frederick the Great. It's very good.

One thing I love is that most of the country's reaction to Lincoln's assassination was negative, including confederate generals and soldiers. I guess even the rebels felt "malice towards none... and a just and lasting peace" were preferable after four years of the country tearing itself apart. I believe JWB even wrote in his diary a few days before his death how upset he was that most people, including pro-confederates, condemned his actions

Boston Corbett

We shoulda gave this man the Medal of Honor.

I think the reason people kept trying to help him is because he changed the lives of lots of peoples, the video says that he preached for the alcoholics and also helped them get back up

Crossing that deadline took some balls!!!

Great video! Always enjoy learning about interesting historical figures like Boston Corbett.

Boston Corbett Also, got a suggestion. React to The Iroquois Confederacy by Historia Civilis. I think it'd be interesting to see what you have to say about it.

16th New York Cavalry trooper- circa 1864: "I tell you what, I hate those goddamn reb bastards" *takes a swig of whiskey*. Boston Corbett: *Faints*

Love that you’re shining light on these incredibly talented creators

This what I love about Chris(at least I think that’s his name)- I don’t know what his profession is or was prior to KZfaq. But he would be a fantastic teacher. He gives facts and let’s you form your own opinion. And except for RazorFist- I’ve never seen him really “dog” someone else’s opinion. We need more of that in the US. I have really grown to like this channel. He’s a couple years younger than me- but it reminds me of watching things with my uncle or grandad- A lot of fill in detail and backstory and they would word things in a way to make me think and form my own opinion. That is a lost art with the evolution of Social Media. And this guy nails it perfectly.

John Wilkes booth as actually the lesser actor the brother, mainly known for being handsome and having women fans that fauned over him, critics seemed to say he just belted his lines out with little understanding of Shakespeares meaning where as Edwin was seen as a genius and the true successor to their fathers genius. Edwin very well could have been the greatest american actor of the century while John coasted by on the prestige of the Boothe name.

Noticed your 3ID shirt... "Rock of the Marne" & "Send Me"

Hey Chris, when you get a chance react to the extra history series on Fredrick the Great the series last episode comes Saturday. It’s crazy and I would love to hear commentary on it

Hey VTH, would you ever consider doing some videos on a KZfaq channel called real time history?

bme pain Olympics is older than i thought lol

He looks like the curator of the Gettysburg Museum of History that is featured on The History Underground 😄

Funny that when they said he was a Hatter 🎩 as a profession I thought of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland 😂

I really appreciate your point on not forcing faith (or any views/opinions for that matter) onto others. I am very much of the "live and let live" opinion. If people want to learn they will seek it out themselves

The title is a common colloquial phrase, “mad as a hatter”, used to describe someone insane. The original phrase comes from hatters (i.e. people who made hats) who worked with mercury based substances for coating felt hats, and consequently were driven slowly insane by the constant exposure to the chemical.

One easy way to prove right off the bat whether it was Corbett or not... I mean... snip snip

Great video and story. Always love your vids man. Thank you

I think you should react to Internet historian, its not really historical but its hilarious and very funnily edited

I find it interesting that the two most infamous presidential assassins died before ever having a trial. The other interesting thing I find about this is how the assassin-killers were portrayed. Corbett was regarded as a hero whereas Jack Ruby is portrayed as a criminal and was ultimately given a life sentence for killing Oswald.

Nice. I was looking this guy up a few weeks ago. Keep up the great videos my man.

That man was crazy. Good story.

If you take suggestions, a 2 off series would be Hickok45 videos on the history of US Military rifles and US military pistols.

You should do internet historian he’s awesome

I remember learning about his castration, I was so interged by the Lincoln assassination when I in my preteens still am, and my dad got a 12 year old me on Booth Escape Tour. With Historian Ed Bearss, a historian my dad really liked and had done several tours with, Mr. Ed was getting older, and this was going to be and was his last tour. So my dad worked with them to let 12 yo me, 4 years to young go. I followed along pretty well, learned some things but nothing shocking until this. I had never heard the word so, i asked my dad what it meant. He went red and told me i tell you later. He finally did a few dats later, i has shocked and horrified. And of course told my friends the next couple of days. The man who shot Booth, lincolns assissnator, cut off his own **.

I was wondering if you would consider doing a reaction to the S4e2 Unsolved Mysteries segment about the supposed escape of John Wilkes Booth that night at the barn. It’s more conspiracy based, but I think it would be fun to hear you either agree/ disagree with the information in it. I also don’t know what the copyright rules are for something like that, but I figured I’d just throw it out there. They are free to watch on KZfaq.

The second the video mentioned that he made hats I knew this was going to take a turn for the weird. Much like the fates of the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus crews. Metal toxins are real bad.

A great new up and coming channel

I saw The Elephant Man at the Boothe Theatre on Broadway back in 1980.

You still get super religious soldiers today in my experience. You want to respect their dedication, but they sure get old real fast Edit: hey that’s a 3 ID shirt, I served with that division for a time

Edwin Booth also had a voice recording you can find on KZfaq.

Resyndicated is awesome I was probably recommended his channel off watching all of your ur videos and his sub count is growing rapidly

Chris your face got me laughing at 14:40 😂😂

Hey I love your videos! Could you make one dedicated to your favourite historical movies/ books? Maybe the civil war specifically?

Thank you for saying that you cannot force your beliefs on others, it must come from within. My late Aunt believed it was her mission to convert family and friends to her belief system and only her particular church was the right one to attend. Needless to say this caused great harm.

hehe I just learned about the mad hatter thing recently. Interesting how phrases come about.

I did not know about the connection of the mad hatter. Interesting

Yeah Chris if you ever go back and watch/read “Alice in Wonderland” watch or listen to the Mad Hatter. That character expresses all the symptoms named in this video especially Depp’s portrayal. The chemicals including mercury cause one to go “mad as a hatter”. Pretty interesting. Great vid🫡

9:53 Well, this puts my own mental health journey into some perspective 😧

May I suggest reacting to History matters videos? I love that channel.

"The glory to god man" Awesome nickname

5:54 You were about to say John Wilkes Booth weren't you lmao

I love your videos 💙

This was so interesting, I always figured the guy who killed booth just went on with life.But nope this guy was a complicated story.

deeply strange and yet a very interesting man.

Hey Chris great video as always I have two channels that might be interesting to react to canadiana which is about some interesting Canadian history and voices of the past which is more pov of people from the past.

The Dollop Podcast episode 117 you can hear lots more about Boston (just starting this video so I don’t know what is said in this, though)

Boston Corbett looks A LOT like Rasputin

Is it just me or does young Boston Corbett kind of look like current Ian McCollum? That aside this is actually my first time hearing the story of this guy, interesting to learn about.

I believe Abraham Lincoln used Mercury Piles to help 'Ease' his Melancholia as it was known at the time: ending his usage of them around the period of Stephen Douglas Debates. Someone feel free to qualify me on this.

VTH video of his 10 best and 10 worst presidents

9:58 the Early Church Father Origen also did that.

Chris, when you looked up Corbett's war record, what website did you use?

So, I probably misinterpret the passage, but I always thought the admonition to remove a body part 'if it offendeth thee', was meant to be taken in context with Jesus' message that you can't be good enough to deserve Heaven. In other words, 'there is no way to the Father but through the Son, otherwise you'd have to cut off every body part that makes you want to sin.' I mean obviously the various sects of Christianity aren't filled to the brim with half-blind, one-armed people so, I can't be alone in this interpretation right?

I didn’t know much about him other than his name, but did know about mercury poisoning causing mental illness among those who worked in the hat making trade and the origin of the Mad as a hatter phrase. As soon as you mentioned his mental illness at the beginning of the video and then saw he worked as a hatter I was not surprised. As far as extremes of ME church, the only thing I know is that they didn’t believe in drinking, card playing or dancing, which technically I guess was true after it became UMC, but I don’t know many Methodists who keep to that.

Pleaase do CGP Grey's Americapox. It's not just historical but also anthropological.

2:31 The 16th New Yout Calvary regiment - a bunch of "Holy Rollers" preachin' JEEEzus... you corrected it 2:35. 7:12 He did make it the 16th New York Calvary.

Hey Chris you might want to check out one of Simon Whistler's other channels, Warographics. He has some really detailed videon on the US Civil war, WW2 and the Invasion of Ukraine

I didn’t know VTH was a pastor as well. Does he have a church?

16:58. Did not expect to hear Culpeper, for all I knew various Civil War actions happened there. I grew up there and had no idea it had any particular connection to the Lincoln assassination. It's where George Washington had his first job as a surveyor. On an unrelated note, what's with the long-haired Jesus thing? Do people just conflate Nazarenes and Nazirites?

mercury poisoning+ptsd seems like a bad combo

Mercury is a helluva thing. Never knew Hatting made you mad because of it.

10:36 perhaps back then, ME congregants were more “over the top”. Maybe?

As a southerner i personally agree he hurt the south more than he helped. Dont get me wrong as a southerner i personally dont care for Abraham Lincoln he not to high on my best president list but i cant help but think maybe reconstruction wouldnt have been as bad... Guess thats something i an every Southerner will never know...

I disagree with your assessment that Lincoln assassination hurt the South more.

Could you please react to wondrium's video on, "how should the constitution be interpreted?"

Also in the IDF, every other agetive is a swear word.

You should react to Resyndicated's latest video, "Presidential Family Facts from Washington to Biden."

Chris where did you get your shirt from? I like it!

Interesting video

any chance you can do a reaction video to all those uncanny similarities / coincidences between Lincoln's assassination and JFK's some time ?

I don’t know why but he looks like Rasputin 😅

Love it

I'm half tempted to say that he's a hero for killing Boothe, but I know that he deserved to be put on trial for his high treason. Genuinely curious if anyone feels the same way as me.

Can you try to get your OverSimplified reactions back on KZfaq?

SSince you are a christian Pastor and an historian, I would be interested in on your take of The Chosen. I have a lot of issue with it historically.

I hope you watch Ted Ed's (history vs Nixon).

So I guess during the Civil War they were not picky about medical exams before letting people enlist? I wonder when the military started disqualifying people who performed self castration?

please react to Thoughty2's video on "How The Italian Mafia Conquered America"

In Catholicism, to make or to cause sterile oneself is a sin.

looks a little like Rasputin

You should react to Louis C.K and Shane Gillis “The Presidents” podcast series. A little inappropriate but unbelievably hilarious!

I think he should be remembered as Lincoln's Averager and a national hero rather than a crazed man.

Very bizarre guy, but based on this video, I kind of like him. He seems very honorable, at least until the end.