Caledonia

Caledonia is a friendly trade nation in the +,+ quadrant, founded in August of 2018 by Wingzero54 and meat312, both of whom are Yoahtl ex-pats.

It is connected by rail to Iria, Pripyat, Entrana, and the former Brotherhood of Steel. It is connected to the 0,0 - Mir rail through the Iria rail; to Vinland, New Yoahtl City, and Westminster through Entrana.

It is well known for being a welcoming nation full of nice people and for its Securemall, the whitelisted shopping building that requires pre-approval to access to purchase enchanted diamond tools, armor, and weapons.

Caledonia welcomes any new players looking to get started, the experienced playerbase is ideal for helping teach new players the server mechanics.

Although it is a fairly young nation compared to many of the other established civilizations, it has quickly grown prosperous and may be considered one of the wealthiest nations on the server.

Pre-History (Before Summer 2018)
For much of the history of the land that would later become known as Caledonia, it remained for the most part unsettled and unused, though a few odd people came and built a little something.

The Stone Age settlers were mysterious peoples who built primitive structures both above and underground. Among them was Kuhlcow, who built clay houses down in the seldom traveled depths of the central mesa. Those that built underground are unknown, with theories ranging from ambitious newfriends to mole people to ancient aliens. Kuhlcow would later join Caledonia and build a house there, though would become inactive soon after. His house still stands as it is deemed particularly aesthetically pleasing despite his long absence.

The notable Iron Age settler was a player by the name of Aamon. He built a small house and a wheatfarm, but went inactive for a very long time. He later returned to his house and farm torn down, superseded by the Caledonian XP Wheat farm. He would also join Caledonia and tell stories of the subterranean ruins he found in which the unknown Stone Age Settlers lived.

Birth of a Nation (Summer 2018-Summer 2019)
Caledonia had its' roots in Yoahtl, dreamt up by Yoatlan citizens who had grown disillusioned with the functions and operations of the Yoahtl government. Wingzero54 had served as Councillor for two terms and Deputy Alcuahtl throughout one of those terms. Meat312 served as Councillor for one term.

Both had different, but similar, reasons for wanting to leave Yoahtl. The endless government battles on policy and menial details alone was enough to drive anybody insane. Wingzero54 had spent his first council term attempting to push through governmental reforms, and after meeting an impenetrable wall in the form of Dr_Oracle, spent his second council term coming to grips with how he could function in the Yoahtl government. Eventually Wingzero54 found that he could not stand Yoahtl anymore, his own views on government and operations being so different from Yoahtl's. One aspect which drove a wedge was Yoahtl's deeply ingrained policy of isolation, and for a long time, unwillingness to actively bring in new players.

Wingzero54 and Meat312 had gotten to know each other first by working together in the Prot business. Meat312 has been a mainstay in the Prot trade since he started on the server, and Wingzero54 had the ambition of selling discounted prot 3 instead of prot 4. He worked with meat312 to learn the trade and while he ended up just selling Prot 4 (making Prot 3 is just untenable), he forged bonds of friendship with meat312.

Time spent together on the council brought Wingzero and Meat closer together, even though they clashed on many ideas. Meat312's dis-illusionment came from frustrations of being Yoahtl's general. There were constant squabbles about how much access Meat should have to government resources and funds, and a constant tug-of-war granting and taking away citadel group permissions. Yoahtl invading Laconia was the final straw for Meat312. He saw the conflict through to the end, but by then was fully resolved to abandon Yoahtl for a new nation with Wingzero54.



The two players wanted to leave for greener pastures, aka less active region. They naturally gravitated to the +,+ quadrant which was quiet and until the fall of 2018, pretty empty. Wingzero54 had a requirement in mind - a convenient spread of biomes which could sustain large scale XP farming within the boundaries of the nation. They found that in their eventual claims, a large island with several biomes, all large enough to hold XP farms.

Wingzero54 and Meat312 spent July preparing the nation, building basic infrastructure before publicly declaring their nation. The announcement came in August 2018 on the subreddit. As previously mentioned, the fall of 2018 was a burgeoning time for the +,+ quadrant with many new nations cropping up.

After a couple months in Caledonia, and the founding of the capital, Aberdeen, Meat312 began advertising his wares again for players all across the server to come buy prot and tools in Caledonia. A couple alt raiders hit Aberdeen, craft_2_kids (to this day an unknown alt that has never logged in again) got away with multiple sets of prot and weapons and assumedly dropchested them outside of Caledonia where another account picked them up, or they are waiting to be grabbed perhaps still to this day. After this raid we overhauled the prot and tool sales, but several restricted inventory and access which hurt sales. Erutara attempted to raid, but was caught in the act by Wingzero54 who, expecting a naked random, instead found a fully geared and potted account which proceeded to wipe the floor with Wingzero54. N3ptune would later admit to being Erutara some months later.



In response to the alt raids to Aberdeen, and with Mir expanding their own claims, Caledonia decided to expand its' claims to meet the borders of Mir and enable them to expand their snitch grids. It was announced November 2018 on the subreddit.

Throughout this entire time period Caledonia consisted mainly of just Wingzero54 and Meat312. Scouter9001 moved to Caledonia and played for some time before becoming inactive. Other assorted players joined and quit playing, all attempts at recruitment ending in failure.

Sometime during these events, Caledonia joined SATO as a member state.

An Era of Growth (Summer & Fall 2019)
A renaissance would come to Caledonia, however, with the concurrence of several events. A secure shopping mall was designed and constructed, the current home of the prot, tool and weapon sales of Meat312. It is whitelisted to control access to the shopchests. New players arrived in the form of HenryDraton, of MtA, who decided to leave MtA after the fall of Godomasta and failure of that administration. Fredhun14, longtime friend of Wingzero54 from a previous server, became active in minecraft again and joined CivClassic. After constructing many XP farms, Fred would go on to construct his castle, Castle Vroengard, one of the largest ongoing projects in Caledonia to this day. Fred was also made a government official this time, being given the title "Praetor", a title which had previously belonged to Scouter9001.

Caledonia annexed the Brotherhood of Steel, announced June 2019 on the subreddit. The two nations had been working together since the Brotherhood of Steel moved into old Freedonia, and the consolidation of small +,+ nations is seen as being good for the overall health and activity of the quadrant. Hockey328, one of these integrated citizens from the BoS, would go on to become a government official after a single month, being given the title "Legate".

The beginning of August 2019 would bring forth a small newfriend population boom, and with newfriends came new opportunities. Among them was SwordMaster7777, who might be referred to as a "veteran" newfriend due to his time hermitting on Caledonian land for some months, learning much about the server's mechanics (although it wasn't Caledonian when he originally settled there). SwordMaster7777 quickly found his niche as a builder, first decorating the Iria rail tunnel, and then making the Caledonian Library. Another player, 8jaaroud, built the town smithy before proceeding to kick-start his tree-chopping bot initiative.

Wingzero54 had had eyes on the western plains biome for some time as an ideal spot for a new settlement. As opposed to Aberdeen's medieval build aesthetic, this new town would have a Greco-Roman aesthetic along with a matching name: Corinth. By the beginning of September 2019, SwordMaster7777 had made the Corinthian Mall, complete with a space for a factory inside, an important infrastructural advancement for future construction in the budding city.

While more players were joining, the city of Aberdeen began to expand as well, bringing forth many new builds and the borders of the city expanding quite a bit, to the point where builds were starting to get closer to Securemall. The old train station began to become crowded as it didn't have enough room for all the current and future lines, and so SwordMaster was called on again to build a vital piece of infrastructure.

As the Autumn of 2019 progressed, Caledonia would continue to benefit from another influx of newfriends with a great deal of new projects happening around Aberdeen. The New Aberdeen Train Station was finally finished with room for 12 separate lines, a vast upgrade from the old station, and one of these newfriends, LordGonner, built a new hotel for newfriends to stay in as the old tavern could no longer hold all the incoming newfriends.

Around this time, due to the complete integration or inactivity of BoS citizens, it was decided that the territory of Freedonia, now unused, should be let go in order so that somebody else may one day have a better use for it, thereby rendering the Brotherhood of Steel defunct.

A small scandal would occur when three Caledonian citizens (Wateroo, Ibis, and Helpmeplease) raided the inactive nation of Pripyat. They would be demoted back to residents and pearld for two weeks for their crimes. As this seemed to be a small one time occurrence of uncondoned raiding, Caledonia would still continue to have a positive reputation, and for the most part free of the growing animosity against the nations of big international alliances that was occurring at this time. Helpmeplease would then leave Caledonia and drunkenly grief Icenia.

Growth in Caledonia has slowed down as the Winter of 2019 came into full-swing. Due to a drop-off in newfriend recruitment and the harsh demands of mid-semester schooling, as well as a little bit of Civ-burnout. Despite this Caledonia has seen good retention numbers of several promising citizens. SwordMaster, for all the work he put in, was granted a position in the Caledonian government, though he had had access to the government warehouse for a couple weeks beforehand while he was finishing the station. He was given the title "Questor". Despite the lull in activity, progress was still being made with various projects around the nation, even if at a glacial pace.

Winter Goes On: The Coalition War and the Holiday Season of 2019
See Also: Coalition War

Throughout the first half of December 2019 the world was engulfed in a burning conflict, a bright flame in an otherwise cold winter. The server was invaded by a group of violent Hard Core Factioners who desired one thing only: Destruction. To achieve this end, they hit several cities in a wave of obsidian bombings that terrorized much of the Western and Central parts of the world. This also caused great fear among the nations who had not yet been hit, including Caledonia. As a result, several players geared up in basic combat loadouts, on guard around Aberdeen should the bombers arrive. Caledonia was one of the nations who signed an international treatise banning trade with Obby Bombers and any who aided them. At this time, Caledonia had closed it's borders, strictly monitoring any foreigners who desired to enter the country.

These nations plus more, in an attempt to find the Obby Bombers Hideout and decommission it, formed a Discord group called the "Cleaning Crew", which was in reference to many of these nations also teaming up to help clean up the obsidian from the previous terror attacks. Here was the formation of the PACMAN Alliance, and many nations lent a great deal of materials and soldiers to this evolving conflict, including Caledonia (though some accounts remained in Aberdeen just in case of another possible attack). They had found the enemy Hideout; a vault erected on the edges of the Holy Jaded Empire and SPQR (referred to as "The Cumdragon") and staged the first assault against the Obby Bombers, beginning what would later be known as the Coalition War. The Obby Bombers, due to this assault, stopped obby bombing, and thus Caledonia was spared of this kind of atrocity for the time being. The Cleaning Crew Discord would later be replaced by a more official war Discord, "OK Bomber" (referring to the meme "OK Boomer" that was popular at this time"). The relevant members of Caledonia joined this Discord as well.

Among Caledonia's activities among the war, two stood out more than others: the courageous acts of Wateroo and the pearling of Hockey. Wateroo, in an attempt to gather intel and frustrate the enemy, had himself exile-pearled by Icenia, exploring the enemy ice roads using the account SpecialAgentH2O. He also spied on the enemy vault, watching them build up their fortifications. This greatly irritated the Obby Bombers. Due to his prominent activities, many other players at this time named their fresh alts some variant of "SpecialAgent(Chemical Formula)". He also received the Icenian medal of honor. Hockey, stationed near in Lusitania near the frontline, was caught off guard by a counter attack from the Obby Bombers, being AFK when they arrived and pearled despite his combat prowess. He tried to flee to Coventhia, but was caught and trapped while running through Corvus. He would later be broken out when the Bomber Vault was broken.

During this time, a citizen by the name of LordGonner built a small aesthetic town on the East Side of Aberdeen, referred to as "Ravinetown". Players that had been gone for some time popped up momentarily, only to return to the ether. Some new players had arrived, interested in starting their own town under the safety of Caledonia. The various infrastructural advancements of the nation continued, with new railways and roads being built across the country. Their was a minor celebration of Christmas Festivities in which a tree was erected and decorated in town square, and a couple players even gifted various gifts to the more active residents of the nation. Borders were reopened the day after Christmas due to the discontinuation of server-wide obby bombing. Caledonia in this time had avoided a calamity, but had not yet reached a golden era of growth.

A New Year and New Opportunities (2020)
As the Holidays ended, major conflict broke out in Laconia as a combination of Mir and Entente forces (at this point in time commonly referred to a "Mirtente" due to frequent war collaborations) began a final assault on Laconia's vault, Mt. Doom. The Consuls saw this as a fine opportunity to claim the lands of New Sovia up North in order to eliminate the security risk it posed, as well as give some room for expansion, as Fred had been wanting to expand his castle to the islands Northeast of the mainland due to their proximity to his megabuild. It seems like many of the Sovian-Laconians and their compatriots were unhappy with this event, but it was otherwise uncontested. This also eliminated Caledonia's only land border.

Though some of the newfriends that were recruited the previous month seemed to disappear, more showed up to help offset this loss, with this group of newfriends seemingly being more dedicated as well. This would prove very helpful to Caledonian activity, with many of the new recruits helping with the growing number of projects around the nation. Also recruited were two experienced players: the former Adinan Incentives, and the controversial alex_cristal. Incentives, due to his act of helping defend Mt. Doom during the Laconian's Last Stand, was exile pearled bu Mirtente forces. He was therefore excommunicated and expelled from Adina, as they did want anything to do with this particular conflict. Alex_cristal happened to come by after deciding to become active again, despite being exile pearled by Varkonia for many months due to his raiding of Kaltsburg. As Wing and Meat had treated him nicely on CivRealms before despite his reputation, he decided Caledonia would make a fine new home for himself. This also highlighted a particularly unique Caledonian policy on Immigration, as many nations wouldn't give past convicted players a chance.

Wingzero at this time had developed an itch to build, and decided that the best way to satisfy his desire would be to continue work in setting up Corinth. However, realizing the challenge of building in the Greco-Roman style, wanted to change the aesthetic of Corinth to something that would be easier to build to. SwordMaster suggested that the aesthetic be changed to be more modern, as opposed to the Medieval Aberdeen. Wingzero had wanted beach houses, however, which would be particularly difficult as the giant cliffs separated the ocean from much of Caledonia's land. SwordMaster suggested that instead of considering the ocean, that a lake be built on the sand-stripped desert to the south of the site of Corinth. Wingzero liked this idea very much, and so work began to make an artificial lake so that beach houses maybe built along it's shores. While this would be a massive terraforming effort, the stripped desert needed to be covered as the exposed sandstone was quite ugly. Trees would also be planted in the Corinth plains biome in order to make the future town feel more green and alive, forming a small forest. However, the desert was not fully cleared of sand, and that too had to be taken care of.

Other projects that were happening around this time were the continuation of railwork, with new lines being finished and connected to the New Station. There had also been many abandoned houses littered about Aberdeen for months. It was decided that the ugly and/or unfinished abandoned houses around town would be torn down to make room for fresh new buildings. Some of the newfriends at this time would build houses upon these freshly cleared spots. Fred had returned after a hiatus due to handling real life stuff and began making plans for the recently acquired territory near his castle. The server would soon be updated from 1.12 to 1.14, and while few rejoiced at the new blocks that would come, there was also a scramble to revamp the botting system of the various Caledonian farms, as the update would render Macromod, the premier botting mod at the time, obsolete, forcing players across the server to switch to a new mod: AdvancedMacros. While there was talk about making infrastructure for a possible future Olympics, this idea was scrapped.

Some cultural advancements were also made, with the Caledonian National Anthem and National Motto being decided at this time. The Discord server was also boosted by newfriend 500Miles, which allowed the server Icon to be changed from the image of the Caledonian flag into a GIF of the Caledonian flag being blown in the wind. Despite the increase in the max number of emojis that the boost presented, this perk was not capitalized on at this time. These boosts would later be transferred by Miles to EstraPVP, Mir's PVP practice server, however, reverting the Caledonia discord back to it's old boostless self. (Strangely enough, Estra would also be deboosted soon later, as well.)

Caledonia once again cemented themselves as a prominent player in the Coalition with the Pinkerton Offensive at the beginning of February, in which several of the most prominent Caledonians aided in constructing the attack bridge and breaking bastions. The Consuls were especially important in motivating and preparing Coalition forces for the attack. Caledonia would be largely absent from the later assault on Corvus due to the spontaneity of the attack.

Around this time, an important policy would be solidified after much discussion among the Caledonian govenment around the concept of "Proper Claims Usage", with SwordMaster publishing a rough essay detailing some of the concepts discussed. After this, it was decided that the Northern-most New Sovian islands would be released as it was determined they would not see much use, and it might be better to allow a new nation an opportunity to build there. However, Appomattox would later take control of these islands, citing the same security reasons as Caledonia had before. Anticipating Brennau being effectively declaimed in the January 2020 Claims Map, Caledonia would claim a single island that de jure belonged to Brennau, a snow biome that had been used as farm land by Caledonia for many months. Because of the land usage, this action was seen as justified. SwordMaster's post would later encourage the CCCP to take responsibility over the claims of Provincia and free a few of Provincia's islands, effectively freeing more land for future possible nations. Many old inactive nations within the Southeast were cleared at this time, allowing more possibility for advancement of the Quadrant. Due to this policy of Practical Claims, it was expected that Caledonia would not expand, at least not for a long time, with enough land to house all the farms it could need and plenty of space to start a few cities.

My Corona (Spring 2020)
The majority of February came and went very quietly otherwise, with more new players joining up and old ones fading into the dust. Fred had built more buildings on his new island and has contracted SwordMaster to build several bridges from his castle to the new islands with four planned in total. Even though all was quiet in Caledonia, they would play a part in the formation of an Eastern forum to discuss improving the East to make it more desirable to newfriends. This would be known as the Eastern Prosperity Association (or EPA for short), with many Eastern nations joining shortly after formation. Many people agreed that new infrastructure would be extremely helpful, although immediately a split arose: whether to build a new international city or not. It was suggested that a way to attract more newfriends would be to build a large sprawling city, similar to MTA or Icenia, as the luster of such a grand city was determined as one of the main reasons newfriends liked to flock to those nations. However, some were opposed to it, and the discord discussion heavily devolved into chaos and extreme polarization very quickly. Those who wanted the city therefore pulled the project back from the EPA and made it it's own thing, still promising the centralized international station that everyone, including the opposition, wanted. Notably, several Caledonians liked the idea of this project and few pledged resources or labor towards the project.

There have been a couple new houses popping up with some other miscellaneous builds, but nothing extreme like what happened at the beginning of the year. In real life, a worldwide pandemic broke out, the Novel Coronavirus (AKA COVID-19), a once in a century illness that caused heavy quarantine measures across the whole world. What this means for the activity of Caledonia during this time is uncertain.

Geography
Caledonia has a nice variety of biomes, consisting of Savanna, red desert, sunflower plains, roofed forest and mesa. The amount of plains and forest area are small compared to the much more drier biomes, making Caledonia an arid and hot nation. The plains and forests it does have are vital biomes in Calednonian xp production.

Caledonia borders Iria, the CCCP (Oblast Provincia), and Mir.

Aberdeen
Abderdeen is the capital of Caledonia and destination of all rail lines. It contains several notable landmarks, such as the New Aberdeen Train Station, the Caledonia Library, Castle Vroengard, and HenryDraton's Palace, the latter two still being under construction. The famed Securemall can be found on the western outskirts of Aberdeen. It contains a blend of Medieval architecture with some more modern looking structures scattered about. The East side of town has been developed into a small mining operation do to it's particularly notable ravine. It is spread out across a Roofed Forest, a Savannah, and a Sunflower Plains, making it particularly lush compared to much of the rest of Caledonia Proper.

Corinth
Corinth is a small proto-settlement in the western plains of the mainland. Many builds are planned for it, although it does not have the proper infrastructure to be populated as of now. While it was originally intended to have a Greco-Roman aesthetic, this was changed to a more modern aesthetic in order to easier facilitate builds. Some of the first buildings built were built before this change, however, leading to certain builds having a more classical flavor. It is situated upon another Sunflower Plains in the Northern section of the town, where the city center will probably be, which has been covered with a loose forest in order to make it feel greener. To the South is a large Red-Sand Desert that has been almost completely stripped of all its sand for the production of XP. This Desert is being terraformed, being covered over in dirt and having a sizable lake constructed in the middle to increase aesthetic value.

Exports, Trade


Prot 4, enchanted tools, and weapons are all big exports for Caledonia. Meat312 is a renowned producer of enchanted goods, all of which are available to purchase from securemall in Caledonia once pre-approved for access. Bulk purchases are also available - have a big digging job ahead of you? Buy 10 pickaxes in bulk to receive an even greater discount!

Obsidian is available for purchase as well, produced by Wingzero, Caledonia will price match any better offers you can show proof of! Bulk purchases of obby are welcome.

More shops are soon being setup in the securemall area, with new offerings like logs, rotten flesh, wool, dandelions, stone, andesite, diorite, granite, and more getting added every day!

Players from all over the +,+ and the server in general travel to Caledonia to purchase these goods, and Caledonia is working to improve rail connections to make it easier than ever to access the shops.

XP Production
Wingzero54 created Yoahtl Eastern Hamlet XP (YEHXP) with Gdan, Nevermoregrimm, and gbrb. The four of them created the XP farms in eastern Yoahtl, and used the farms for personal XP production and to assist the Yoahtl government in their XP production.

When Wingzero54 and Meat312 left to create Caledonia, Wingzero54 farmed YEHXP for a while longer but the great distance between the XP farms and Caledonia led Wingzero54 to quit farming them for some time. The other founders grew inactive and quit playing Minecraft, leaving the farms unused. A griefer, believed to be Poortea, griefed the farms but it was quickly cleaned up by Wingzero54 and they were then bastioned to prevent future grief.

When Fredhun14 joined Caledonia he immediately desired to create XP, and together with Wingzero54 (but mostly Fredhun) they began farming the YEXHP farms once again and churning out XP.

Caledonia floated the idea of taking over the territory holding YEHXP from Yoahtl, but was quickly rejected despite Yoahtl's disuse of the land.

After that Caledonia built its' own XP farms to bring production to a local area and reduce reliance on long-distance foreign lands. With the creation of the new farms, Caledonia abandoned YEHXP which now stays under the ownership of GDAN and is available for use to Yoahtl.

Regional Neighbors
While Caledonia is generally considered a nation of the ++ Quadrant (Southeast), it's closeness to the Z-Axis brings it into contact with countries of the +- Quadrant (Northeast). However, at times, many of the countries around Caledonia have been effectively dead, only hanging on to a thin veneer of claims.

Iria
Caledonia and Iria have enjoyed a friendly relationship since Caledonia's inception due to their proximity to each other and their mutual easy-going nature. Caldonia is connected to New Iria International Rail Station, which is the main way players from the majority of the map will reach Caledonia. There are a few spots within Caledonian claims that were built on by Irians before being claimed, such as Wheatland on the Southern Island, which have been respected due to this close relationship.

Adina
Caledonia has maintained a neutral relationship with Adina due to a lack of major political events between the two (as well as the great distance between their capitals). Many Adinans travel to Aberdeen in order to shop at the Securemall. The Consuls were at first wary of Adina due to it's links to the now defunct Vitelia, but it seems to Caledonia that Adina has grown past that.

Mir
Caledonia and Mir are on good terms with each other, though due to the isolationist nature of Mir, not much trading or discourse happens between the two nations. Mir has helped defend Caledonia against raiders before, elevating this relationship from an otherwise neutral status. In addition, they have frequently worked together in military activities around the world due to shared military agendas.

SATO
As a member of SATO, Caledonia enjoys the defensive benefits an alliance provides while bringing closer together with the other member states.

The Commonwealth
The Commonwealth, despite it's distance, could be considered one of Caledonia's closer allies, mainly due to the friendship between the Consuls and Pergyskeel, the head of the Borough of Taliesin. Caledonia is connected to Westminster through the ETE allowing the states of the Southwestern corner of the map (-+ Quadrant) to come visit with ease. This rail is so important that a shortcut rail was dug to bypass going all the way to Entrana, effectively cutting off 8 minutes of a 45 minute trip.

Yoahtl
The relationship between Caledonia and Yoahtl is a complicated one, to say the least. The individual leadership of both countries aren't on particularly good terms with each other, despite sharing an alliance. This is due to the schism of leadership in Yoahtl that directly led to the founding of Caledonia when Wing and Meat left. This has been particularly exasperated due to a beef between prominent Yoahtlan Neotide and Meat.

Southshire
Caledonia also has a close relationship with Southshire, with the Southshire politician TheGameofLife having Caledonian citizenship. TheGameofLife frequently drops by in the Caledonian discord and was prepared to help defend Caledonia in case of an Obby Bomber attack. Both nations share a desire to keep manageable land claims, another point that links them.

Entente
Due to the often shared military agendas of SATO and Entente, Caledonia is on friendly if not neutral terms with the various nations of Entente.

UDF
Caledonia is also on decent terms with the UDF due to previous shared military agendas.

NATO
Caledonia, as part of SATO, has been involved in a greater military conflict against the nations of NATO. Due to this, these relationships are very negative, especially after the Coalition's assault on Pinkerton.