My great-great-grandfather was Colonel JWF Hughes, who lived in Kansas in the late 19th century.

I was researching him on the internet, and it turns out he was involved in a very interesting political war, one which reminded me a lot of Order 66.

In a nutshell, the Kansas legislature had an intense battle between Republicans and Populists over who would be Speaker. Both sides claimed a Speaker, and the Governor (a Populist) stepped in and declared his guy was the rightful Speaker. This did not sit well with the Republicans.

Things got so bad that the Governor ordered Colonel Hughes to take troops into the House and remove all the Republicans.

Colonel Hughes refused this order, straight to the Governor's face, on the grounds that it was completely illegal. Wow!

Colonel Hughes knew that if his troops went in there, such was the climate that the House would erupt in revolt and bloodshed.

The Governor court-martialed him and installed his own guy, but because Colonel Hughes had refused, public and political opinion shifted against the Governor, and the Kansas Supreme court ruled that the Republicans had the legal authority to appoint their speaker.

Anyway, I thought this was a really interesting corollary to O66. We've talked and debated a lot about whether clones follow every order they're given, and more broadly, whether soldiers will refuse orders they feel are illegal or immoral. There's no right answer, of course, but this is an instance where a soldier refused an order-- and probably saved lives and civil war in the process.

And I'm related to him! Cool!