Quote of the Day: Sometimes when I'm home alone, thinking of that special person who is sitting at home at the same time, just waiting to meet me, I think to myself, 'What a loser this chick must be to sit at home by herself and think of some guy she's never met.' ~ Jon Paul
Used coffee grounds from decaffeinated coffee are 15 percent more effective as ferilizer than caffeinated coffee grounds and 19 percent more effective than mixed decaffeinated/caffeinated grounds.
As of 2003, 16 percent Americans wear cannot remove at least one ring from a finger due to weight gain.
Seventeen percent of PC users keep their speakers permanently on mute.
Ducks never get laryngitis. The average goose will suffer from laryngitis four times in its lifetime.
More baseball caps have been manufactured between 2000 and 2008 than in all years prior to 1999.
St. Swithin’s Day. According to English legend, if it rains today, it will rain for the next 40 days. The St. Swithin Society’s annual celebration is held in Toronto.
Cow Appreciation Day in Woodstock, Vermont.
Cigarette Warning Day. On this day in 1965, Congress passed a law requiring all cigarette packages to carry a health warning.
National Get Out of the Dog House Day.
One Life to Live Day. The TV soap opera debuted on this date in 1968.
National Tapioca Pudding Day.
National Get Out of the Dog House Day
Be a Dork Day and Gummi Worm Day.
Sports Cliché Week begins today, honor all those who use sports clichés (bestsportscliches.com).
National Rabbit Week begins today, paying tribute to the rabbit as a house pet (sponsored by Melvin Rabbit of Montreal).
971: The remains of Bishop Swithin of Winchester, who had died in 862, were moved to Winchester Cathedral, so angering his spirit that it caused 40 straight days of rain.
1952: "Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour" presented a gold cup and $2,000 to an 8-year-old Atlanta girl who sang "Too Young." Her name was Gladys Knight.
1976: A school bus driver and 26 children were kidnapped near Chowchilla, California. Driver Ed Ray outsmarted the kidnappers and led the children to safety in Livermore.
1984: In Karlsruhe, West Germany, an elephant reached its trunk through the bars of its cage and turned a valve to run hot water into the hippopotamus tank next door. Three hippos were killed.
1986: Columbia Records dropped Johnny Cash after 28 years. Johnny signed with Polygram the following year.
1994: Wrestler Hulk Hogan testified in a New York court that he had used steroids over a period of 12 years, in his words, "to get big."
1992: Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton received the Democratic presidential nomination in New York. Many Democrats considered Clinton a "sacrificial lamb," since incumbent Republican President George Bush was expected to win reelection easily.
1994: In a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, Microsoft agreed to end practices it had used to corner the market for personal computer software programs.
1995: Singer Aaron Tippin and his assistant manager Thea Corontzos were married at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Nashville.
1999: The Seattle Mariners played their first game in the new Safeco Field, losing to the San Diego Padres, 3-2.
1999: The U.S. government acknowledged for the first time that thousands of workers became ill as a result of making nuclear weapons and announced a plan to compensate many of them.
2003: Tex Schramm, who turned the Dallas Cowboys into "America's Team," died in Dallas at age 83.
2003: A Japanese company announced the Meowlingual, a gadget it claimed would translate cat meows and purrs into human phrases. The company already had sold 300,000 Bowlinguals that translate dog barks into human language. Both gadgets use scientific data on animal sounds from a laboratory that also analyses human voices.
2004: Retired Air Force Gen. Charles W. Sweeney, who piloted the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki in the final days of World War II, died at age 84.
2006: The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to impose limited sanctions on North Korea in response to its launching of nuclear missiles. North Korea said, however, it would continue its nuclear program.
singer Linda Ronstadt is 63 singer Kia Thornton (Divine) 28 actor-director Forest Whitaker 48 actor Jan-Michael Vincent 65 actor Alex Karras 74 actor Ken Kercheval 74 actor Terry O'Quinn 56 actor Brian Austin Green 35 actor Willie Aames 48 actor-comedian Eddie Griffin 41 model Kim Alexis 49 wrestler-politician Jesse Ventura 58
Question 1: Bullroarers are most commonly found in:
(a) Russia
(b) South Africa
(c) Australia
(d) Everywhere
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 1:
*A bullroarer is an instrument that can be found in many cultures around the world, but most commonly in Australia. Bullroarers, also known as the "Aboriginal telephone," are used by Australian aborigines to warn women and children to keep away from a sacred site or ceremony they are forbidden to see. It is usually a small, flat, shaped piece of wood that is attached to a string and spun around to make a low, whirring, roaring sound. The sound reminds some of a hummingbird or the spinning propeller of an old plane.*
Question 2: How far is Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home) from Washington, D.C.?
(a) 125 miles
(b) 27 miles
(c) 78 miles
(d) 8 miles
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 2:
*It is 125 miles from Washington, D.C. It usually took Jefferson four days and three nights to travel from Monticello to Washington D.C. Monticello, located in Charlottesville, Virginia, is situated on the summit of an 850-foot (260 m)-high peak in the Southwest Mountains south of the Rivanna Gap. Its name comes from the Italian "little mountain."*
Question 3: Where is the Candor Chasma region?
(a) On the Moon
(b) On the planet Mars
(c) In the Himalayas
(d) On the island of Borneo
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 3:
*On the planet Mars. The region known as Candor Chasma is a huge canyon located in the Valles Marineris, a 2,500-mile long, 125-mile wide system of canyons running along the Martian equator. As far as we know, it is the largest crevice in the solar system. Stretching almost a quarter of the way around the whole planet, the Grand Canyon would look miniscule by comparison. In places, it is almost five miles deep. The Candor Chasma is one of three connected gorges, Candor, Melas and Ophir that are near the center of Valles Marineris. *
Question 4: Isabela, Fernandina, Santa Cruz, Santiago and San Cristobal are the major islands in the Pacific Ocean island group of:
(a) Samoan Islands
(b) Tokelau Islands
(c) Galapagos Islands
(d) Society Islands
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 4:
*Galapagos Islands. Archipiélago de Colón, or the Galapagos Islands as they are better known, are some 600 miles west of mainland South America. A province of Ecuador and part of that country's national park system, they are renowned worldwide as a wildlife sanctuary. It is here that Charles Darwin famously came aboard 'The Beagle' before writing 'On the Origin of Species'. Of the alternatives, the main landmasses in New Zealand's Tokelau Islands are Nukumonu, Fakeofo and Atafu; Tahiti is the principal island in the Society group; and the two main islands of Samoa are Savai'i and Upola.*
Question 5: Cytotoxic T cells kill:
(a) Tumor cells
(b) Parasites
(c) Bacteria
(d) The influenza virus
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 5:
*A cytotoxic T cell belongs to a sub-group of T lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) that are capable of inducing the death of infected somatic or tumor cells.*
A Texas Blessing:
Bless this house, oh Lord, we cry. Please keep it cool in mid-July.
Bless the walls where termites dine, while ants and roaches march in time
Bless our yard where spiders pass
Bless the garage, a home to please for ants, beetles, ticks and fleas.
Bless the love bugs, two by two,
the gnats and mosquitoes that feed on you.
Millions of creatures that fly or crawl, in Texas, Lord, you've put them all!
I haven't checked all of the links to see if they work, but at least I'm not missing any images.
She's Pissed:
The don't make music covers like they used to:
The National Pastime:
Speaking of sharing:
Childhood Memories Day, a day to try to remember whatever happened to your Hot Wheels, your stuffed animals, your baseball cards, your apple core collection.....
Monday the 13th, believed by some to be an unlucky day in Russia. It's like Friday the 13th in English, German, Polish, and Portuguese-speaking cultures and Tuesday the 13th in Greece and Spain.. Other countries apparently are not lucky enough to have an unlucky day.
Bottled Beer Day. On this date in 1568, the Dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London perfected a way to bottle beer.
Embrace Your Geekness Day, a day to spend endless hours going to strange places on the Internet (wellcat.com).
National French Fries Day.
International Town Criers Day.
Gruntled Workers Day, a day to appreciate workers who are happy in their jobs (sponsored by Tom & Ruth Roy of Lebanon, Pennsylvania).
World Cup Day. The first World Cup soccer competition was held on this date in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay with 14 countries participating. Two weeks later Uruguay took the cup by defeating Argentina.
1568: The Dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London perfected a way to bottle beer.
1876: George Washington Bradley pitched the first no-hitter in baseball, leading St. Louis to a 2-0 win over Hartford.
1930: The first World Cup Soccer competition was held in Montevideo, Uruguay.
1939: Frank Sinatra recorded "From the Bottom of My Heart" and "Melancholy Mood" with the Harry James Orchestra. It was Sinatra's first record.
1954: Dean Stone won the All-Star Game without throwing a pitch. With the American League trailing, Stone came in to pitch in the 8th with two out and Red Schoendienst on third. Before he fired his first pitch, Schoendienst tried to steal home and was thrown out. The American League went ahead in the 9th, and Virgil Trucks came in to save the win for Stone.
1976: History's longest bagpipe concert, starring four student pipers from Churchill School in Salisbury, Rhodesia, ended after 100 hours.
1978: Bob Dylan performed before the largest open-air concert audience (for a single artist). Some 200,000 fans turned out to hear Dylan at Blackbushe Airport in England.
1990: The movie "Ghost" premiered in the U.S. It starred Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg.
1991: Timothy Badyana set a Guinness World Record by running 10 kilometers in 45 minutes 37 seconds in Dayton, Ohio. He ran backwards.
1993: To keep witnesses from describing his clothing, a 19-year-old man stripped naked to rob a Los Angeles bank and ran out with two shopping bags filled with cash. Nearby sheriff’s deputies, noticing a naked man running down the street with two bags full of money, arrested him immediately.
2003: Richard Rodriguez, a university teacher from Chicago, set a world record by completing more than 70 hours on one of Europe's steepest roller-coasters. The 42-year-old smashed the previous record of 35.5 hours, traveling on the Epedition GeForce train at Germany's Holiday Park in Hassloch. He was allowed 15 minute breaks every eight hours. Doctors accompanied him on the 75 miles per hour, 203-foot high ride.
2005: Former WorldCom boss Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison for leading the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history.
actor Harrison Ford is 67 actor Cheech Marin 63 singer Louise Mandrell 55 musician Roger McGuinn 67 singer Denise Miller 46 singer Victoria Shaw 47 singer Neil Thraser 44 singer Deborah Cox 36 basketball's Spud Webb 46
The following sentence in the document has been called one of the best-known sentences in the English language and the most potent and consequential words in American history:
It was hot in Philadelphia that summer when the Second Continental Congress convened. Sometimes, tempers over the language of the Declaration of Independence flared just as hot. As Benjamin Franlin said: "We must all hang together, or we will surely all hang separately."
In 1775, Franklin, disgusted with the arrogance of the British and appalled by the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, wrote a Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was enthusiastic. But, he noted, many other delegates to the Continental Congress were "revolted at it." It would take another year of bitter conflict to persuade the Congress to vote for the Declaration of Independence written by Jefferson -- with some astute editorial suggestions by Franklin.
The Sequence of events on the road to revolution (starting in that hotbed of rebellion, Boston, Massachusetts):
Thomas Paine did as much as any writer could to encourage resistance and to inspire faith in the Continental Army. Paine attacked the faint-hearted, campaigned for a more efficient tax system to meet the costs of war, and encouraged the belief that Britain would eventually recognize American independence.
The Revolutionary War took its toll on both sides, North and South, British Tories and Colonial Loyalists, Young and Old:
Major Battles
Some American Generals of the Revolutionary War:
Some British Generals of the the Revolutionary War:
Women of the Revolution:
Mary Hays McCauly (better known as Molly Pitcher) at the Battle of Monmouth
The American Colonial Navy:
The Winter at Valley Forge:
No battle was fought at Valley Forge. Yet, it was the turning point of the Revolutionary War. It was here that the :Continental Army was desperately against the ropes — bloody, beaten, battle-weary — and ready to quit. Even General Washington conceded, "If the army does not get help soon, in all likelihood it will disband."
Valley Forge was an encampment of the Continental Army in Pennsylvania, just about 20 miles south of Philadelphia. General Washington's troops stayed there from December of 1777 to June of 1778.
Named for an iron forge on Valley Creek, the area was close enough to the British to keep their raiding and foraging parties out of the interior of Pennsylvania, yet far enough away to halt the threat of British surprise attacks.
One reason that Washington choose the section of land was because it offered natural defenses against such an attack. The army would be close enough to maintain pressure on the British forces, yet far away enough to prevent a surprise attack. Washington knew the British would not come from the north or the east, because of the Schuylkill River, and not from the west because of Mount Misery. The only way they could attack Valley Forge would be from the south which would mean suicide for the British forces as that area sits higher than the land to its south and at that time it was open farm land.
On December 19th 1777, when Washington's poorly fed, ill-equipped army, weary from long marches, struggled into Valley Forge, winds blew as the 12,000 Continentals prepared for winter's fury. Grounds for brigade encampments were selected, and defense lines were planned and begun. Though construction of more than a thousand huts provided shelter, it did little to offset the critical shortages that continually plagued the army.
Men, women, and children of all ages, differing backgrounds, and ethnicities came into the camp. Most were of English decent, but also African, American Indian, Austrian, Dutch, French, Germanic, Irish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Prussian, Scottish, Spanish, and Swedish decent were represented. This would be the last time until the Korean War that people of African decent would fight in the same regiments as their fellow Caucasian soldiers.
Soldiers received irregular supplies of meat and bread, some getting their only nourishment from "firecake," a tasteless mixture of flour and water. Others made "soup" from burned leaves and chewed their leather boots. However, due to the talents of Baker General Christopher Ludwig (said to be a congenial man), the men at Valley Forge more often than not received fresh baked soft bread, about one pound daily. So severe were conditions at times that Washington despaired "that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place ... this Army must inevitably ... Starve, dissolve, or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence in the best manner they can." Animals fared no better. General Henry Knox, Washington's Chief of Artillery wrote that hundreds of horses either starved to death or died of exhaustion. One trooper expressed it through his words, "half the army are naked, and almost the whole army go barefoot."
Alternating freezing and melting of snow and ice made it impossible to keep dry and allowed for disease to fester.
Influenza, typhoid, jaundice, dysentery, and pneumonia were among the killers that felled as many as 2,500 men that winter. Ironically almost two-thirds of them perished during the warmer months of March, April, and May when supplies were more abundant. Although Washington repeatedly petitioned for relief, the Congress was unable to provide it, and the soldiers continued to suffer. Women, relatives of enlisted men, alleviated some of the suffering by providing valuable services such as laundry and nursing that the army desperately needed.
The first three months that the troops spent at Valley Forge were most definitely the hardest. Raw weather stung and numbed the soldiers. Empty stomachs were common. Cries of "beef" echoed throughout the camp. The future promised only more desperation and starvation.
The men at Valley Forge did not have many other supplies either. The men were short on guns which many men provided themselves. They were also short on money. Some of the officers there did not get paid because the Continental Congress did not have the funds to pay them.
By February the weather eased somewhat — moving from brutal to merely miserable. In March, Major General Nathanael Greene was appointed head of the dismal Commissary Department and magically food and supplies started to trickle in. By April, the Conway Cabal, a plot to remove George Washington from power, was quashed for good. May, brought news of the French Alliance, and with it the military and financial support of France.
Valley Forge turned out to be the best thing for the Continental Army. For in spite of that difficult winter, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a charismatic but quirky mercenary (a former Prussian army officer) who was not really a baron, began to magically transform threadbare troops into a fighting force by teaching the troops proper military discipline. The army had been handicapped in battle because unit training was administered from a variety of field manuals, making coordinated battle movements awkward and difficult. The soldiers were trained, but not uniformly. The task of developing and carrying out an effective training program fell to von Steuben. This skilled Prussian drill master, recently arrived from Europe, tirelessly drilled the soldiers. Numerous obstacles threatened success. No standard American training manuals existed, and von Steuben himself spoke little English. Undaunted, he drafted his own manual in French. His aides often worked late into the night, translating his work into English. The translations were in turn copied and passed to the individual regiments and companies that carried out the prescribed drill the following day.
On June 19th1778, exactly six months after they Americans arrived, a new army anxious to fight the British streamed out of Valley Forge toward Monmouth, New Jersey. They had been transformed from ragtag rebel force into a mature professional army.
The Winter of 1779-80 in Morristown, New Jersey was even worse than Valley Forge:
After the defeat at Saratoga and the promise of French intervention, the British decided they could not defend both New York City and recently captured Philadelphia. They evacuated Philadelphia and were intercepted at Monmouth Court House where they suffered heavy losses. Monmouth ended that year's major operations for both the Americans and British.
After successful operations in 1776-1777 and the defeat of the British at Trenton and Princeton, General George Washington chose Morristown, New Jersey for his winter encampment in the fifth winter of the war with an army of nearly 9,000 men.
For strategic reasons it was ideal. He was 31 miles from New York City, hence would have adequate time to defend against a British move against either the Hudson Highlands, or against Philadelphia. At the same time he was protected from an attack by the Watchung Mountains and swamplands to the east, and the Ramapo Hills which ran north to join the Hudson Highlands. During the Revolutionary War period there were very few roads and the countryside was densely wooded, making the few existing passes very defensible.
The winter of 1779-1780 was known as a cold winter. Snow began in late October. Intense cold followed for weeks. There were 28 separate snowstorms recorded at Morristown. At least two were of genuine blizzard proportions—howling winds, biting cold, and snow piling up and drifting for two or three days at a time. The snow on the ground was two feet deep. Ice froze to reported thicknesses of six feet in the Passaic and Raritan Rivers. Every East Coast seaport from Virginia north was closed for weeks by ice. It was the only time in recorded history that the Hudson River froze so solidly that sleighs could be driven between Paulus Hook (now Jersey City) and New York.
Streams froze over. Animals that had drifted to the cane breaks and timber perished in the bitter cold. When spring and summer came all the animals had perished from the cold. For months Indian and white hunters alike avoided the place by reason of the carrion stench. Turkey buzzards and animal scavengers that had dens in the cliffs gorged on the putrid flesh of the dead animals.
The winter of 1780 was the worst winter of the Revolutionary War. The starvation was complicated by extreme inflation of money and lack of pay for the army.
All the logistical problems faced at Valley Forge were also present at Morristown--the unshod soldiers, the lack of food and fickle state governments recalling their local militias.
The men who marched into Morristown in December 1779 were tough, battle-hardened, desperate soldiers. They were bitter, disillusioned, starving, neglected, forgotten. Those winter soldiers at Morristown were the men who won the Revolution.
Yorktown:
The Siege of Yorktown or Battle of Yorktown, Virginia in 1781 was a decisive victory by combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, with French forces led by General Comte de Rochambeau and the Marquis de Lafayette, over a British Army commanded by General Lord Charles Cornwallis. It proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War, as the surrender of Cornwallis’s army (the second major surrender of the war, the other being "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne's surrender at the Battle of Saratoga) prompted the British government to eventually negotiate an end to the conflict.
After Cornwallis sent raiders into central Virginia, attacking depots and wrecking supply convoys, he headed for Yorktown, while Lafayette's force of now 4,500 men followed, skirmishing several times with Cornwallis before he reached Yorktown and began to build fortifications there.
Generals Washington and Rochambeau tricked the British into thinking they would be in New York, but actually they went south to Virginia. They surrounded the British by land and cut off their escape route by the York River. Cornwallis was not able to get reinforcements.
On July 6th north of New York City, the French and American armies met at White Plains, New York. Washington and Rochambeau discussed where they should launch a joint attack. Washington believed that an attack on New York was the best option, as the Americans and French outnumbered the British 3 to 1. Rochambeau disagreed, arguing that the fleet under Admiral Compte de Grasse, which was headed to the West Indies, was going to head to the American coast afterwards where easier operations other than attacking New York could be done. In early July, Washington suggested that an attack be made at the northern part of Manhattan Island, but both his officers and Rochambeau disagreed. Washington continued to probe the New York area, until August 14th when he received a letter from de Grasse that he was headed to Virginia with 29 warships and 3,200 men, but would only remain there until October 14th. Admial de Grasse encouraged Washington to come south where they could launch a joint operation. Upon receiving this news, Washington abandoned his plan to take New York, and set out south to Virginia.
The march to Yorktown led by General George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau began on August 19th and has become known as the celebrated march. 4,000 French and 3,000 American soldiers began the march in Newport, Rhode Island, while the rest remained behind to protect the Hudson Valley. Washington wanted to keep absolute secrecy as to where they were headed. Washington sent out fake dispatches that reached British General Henry Clinton in New York and convinced him that the Franco-American army was going to launch an attack on New York, and that Cornwallis was not in any danger.
In August, Clinton sent a fleet from New York to attack de Grasse's fleet. Clinton did not realize how large the French fleet was, and neither did Cornwallis. The British fleet, under command of Thomas Graves, was defeated by de Grasse's fleet in the Battle of the Chesapeake, and forced to fall back to New York. On September 14th, Washington arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia.
On September 26th, transports with artillery, siege tools, and some French infantry and shock troops from the Head of Elk, the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay, arrived, giving Washington command of an army of 7,800 Frenchmen, 3,100 Militia, and 8,000 Continentals. Early on September 28th Washington led the army out of Williamsburg to surround Yorktown. The French took the positions on the left while the Americans took the position of honor on the right. Cornwallis had a chain of seven redoubts and batteries linked by earthworks along with batteries that covered the narrows of the York River at Gloucester Point. That day, Washington reconnoitered the British defenses and decided that they could be bombarded into submission.
On the morning of October 16th, more allied guns were in line and the fire intensified. In desperation, Cornwallis attempted to evacuate his troops across the York River to Gloucester Point. At Gloucester point the troops could break through the allied lines and escape into Virginia and then march to New York. One wave of boats made it across, but when they returned to take more soldiers across, a squall hit, making the evacuation impossible.
The fire on Yorktown from the allies was heavier than ever as new artillery pieces joined the line. Cornwallis talked with his officers that day and they agreed that their situation was hopeless.
On the morning of October 17th, a drummer appeared followed by an officer waving a white handkerchief. The bombardment ceased, and the officer was blindfolded and led behind the Allied lines. Negotiations began on October 18,th between two British officers, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Dundas and Major Alexander Ross and Colonel John Laurens, who represented the Americans, and the Marquis de Noailles, who represented the French. In order to make sure that nothing fell apart between the allies at the last minute, Washington ordered that the French be given an equal share in every step of the surrender process.
The Articles of Capitulation were signed on October 19th 1781. All of Cornwallis' men were declared prisoners of war, promised good treatment in American camps, and officers were permitted to return home after taking their parole. At 2:00 pm the allied army entered the British positions, with the French on the left and the Americans on the right. The British and Hessian troops marched between them. The British soldiers had been issued with new uniforms hours before the surrender and some threw down their muskets with the apparent intention of smashing them until prevented by British Brigadier General Charles O'Hara. Others wept or appeared to be drunk. 8,000 troops, 214 artillery pieces, thousands of muskets, 24 transport ships and numerous wagons and horses were captured.
Cornwallis refused to meet formally with Washington, and also refused to come to the ceremony of surrender, claiming illness. Instead, General O'Hara presented the sword of surrender to Rochambeau. Rochambeau shook his head and pointed to Washington. O'Hara offered it to Washington, but he refused to accept it, and motioned to his second in command, Major General Benjamin Lincoln, who had been humiliated by the British at Charleston, to accept it. The British soldiers marched out and laid down their arms in between the French and American armies, while many civilians watched. At this time, the troops on the other side of the river in Gloucester also surrendered.
For France, victory came at an enormous financial cost, and attempts to resolve the financial crisis would ultimately trigger the French Revolution.
Lord Frederick North, the British Prime Minister, stepped down after the defeat at Yorktown. The next Prime Minister, Charles Watson-Wentworth, the Marquis of Rockingham, had stated as early as 1779 that the colonists should be given their independence, and his first act as PM was to acknowledge the existence of a new country.
The Treaty of Paris of 1783, gave the U.S. all land east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, though not including Florida (On September 3, 1783, Britain entered into a separate agreement with Spain under which Britain ceded Florida back to Spain). The Native American nations actually living in this region were not a party to this treaty and did not recognize it until they were defeated militarily by the United States. Issues regarding boundaries and debts were not resolved until the Jay Treaty of 1795.
Something different. From Monday through Wednesday this week I'm devoting one blog post exclusively to the Battle of Gettysburg, the most decisive battle and turning point of the American Civil War (or as Southerners refer to it as: "The War of Northern Aggression").
On Thursday - Friday, I'll be posting up another post dedicated to events leading up to the American Declaration of Independence/the American Revolution.
I'll be back on Monday next, July 6th with one of my regular blog posts.
The Battle of Gettysburg
A couple of Gettysburg ironies:
The Confederate southern soldiers came to the town from the north (from Cashtown, PA) while Union troops entered from the south.
There was a notice posted at the town limits stating that discharging firearms within Gettysburg was strictly prohibited. Little did the Gettysburg town fathers know what was to come.
Shortly after Confederate General Robert E. Lee won a major victory over Major General Joseph Hooker and the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30 – May 6, 1863) by audaciously twice splitting his smaller Army of Northern Virginia and brilliantly defeating Hooker's superior force ...
... Lee then led his army through the Shenandoah Valley for his second invasion of the North.
Lee's first invasion of the North in 1862 ended in southern failure culminating with The Battle of Antietam [Sharpsburg], widely considered one of the major turning points of the American Civil War. During that battle, Lee was repulsed by General George B. McClellan then commander of the Union Army of the Potomac.
Although not a Union victory in the classic sense, it ended Lee's strategic campaign (Lee's first invasion of the North) and it gave Lincoln the confidence to issue his first Emancipation Proclamation (the first of two emancipation Executive Orders), which discouraged the British and French governments from potential plans for recognition of the Confederacy.
After the battle, in spite of crippling casualties (Confederate losses were 10,318 with 1,546 dead. This represented 31% of the Army of Northern Virginia), on September 18th 1862 Lee, demonstrating great generalship, slipped his army across the Potomac, managing to get his battered army to the safety of the Shenandoah Valley (of strategic value to the Confederacy - as Thomas J. 'Stonewall' Jackson said before leading his Confederate troops through the series of brilliant victories known to history as Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign: "If this Valley is lost, Virginia is lost".
In this second invasion, Lee hoped to reach as far as Harrisburg, Philadelphia, or even Washington, D.C., and to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war (In his pocket, Lee carried a letter from Jefferson Davis, specifying terms for Union surrender, should Lee reach Washington).
Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved just three days before the battle and replaced by Major General George Gordon Meade (Lincoln had lost any remaining confidence he had in Hooker since Hooker considered his primary mission was first to protect Washington, D.C., and Baltimore and second to intercept and defeat Lee. When General Hooker got into a dispute with Army headquarters over the status of defensive forces in Harpers Ferry, he impulsively offered his resignation as commander of the Army of the Potomac in protest, which was quickly accepted by Lincoln. Eventually Hooker went on to regain his reputation as a solid corps commander when put in charge at the Battle of Lookout Mountain, an important role in Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's decisive victory at the Battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee).
The two armies began to collide at Gettysburg on June 30 - July 1 1863, as Lee urgently attempted to concentrate his forces there.
During the night of June 30th Brigadier General John ("Old Reliable") Buford and his Union cavalry division arrived south of town and began skirmishing with Confederate infantrymen to the west (Buford, along with Philip Sheridan, were considered to be two of the finest Union cavalry commanders).
Neither Confederate Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew nor Major General Henry Heth believed that there was a substantial Federal force in or near the town, suspecting that it was only Pennsylvania militia.
It was Lee's order to avoid a general engagement until his entire army was gathered to full strength.
First day of battle:
In spite of Lee's order, around 5 a.m. on July 1st, Heth's division with two additional brigades headed easterly in columns along the Chambersburg Pike towards Buford's dismounted Union cavalry.
Heth's division made history by inadvertently starting the Battle of Gettysburg. Heth sent two brigades ahead in a reconnaissance in force. His memoirs referred to sending them in a search for shoes in Gettysburg, but some historians consider this an apocryphal story -- Heth knew that elements of a division commanded by Jubal A. Early had been in Gettysburg a few days earlier (on June 26th) and any available shoes would have been taken at that time. Besides, sending two brigades on such a scavenger hunt would have been wasteful. Heth's true motivation remains hidden to history.
The Confederate brigades made contact with Buford's dismounted Union cavalry and spread out into battle formation.
Heth's men reached Buford's brigade, who raised determined resistance and delaying tactics from behind fence posts with fire from their breechloading carbines, stacking up the Confederate advance along the Pike (commenting on the Federal advantage of having breechloading carbines, one Confederate said: "The Yankees could load those rifles on Sunday and fire them all week long.").
By 10:20 a.m., Major General John F. Reynolds finally arrived with the vanguard of I Corps Union infantry. His comment to Buford was "What goes, John?" Buford's reply was simply "There's Hell to pay." How right he was.
Early in the fighting, while Reynolds was directing troop and artillery placements, he wheeled in his saddle and fell from his horse, killed by a bullet in the back of the neck, dying almost instantly.
It was a warm beginning of July in 1863 Pennsylvania, even with the occassional slight breeze. Due to daytime temperatures soaring to 87°, soldiers would swelter in their heavy wool uniforms from the stiffling heat and humidity. This was an unforseen factor during the battle.
Around 2:00 p.m., Federal positions began to collapse both north and west of town.
A retreat was ordered to the high ground south of town at Cemetery Hill. Lee understood the defensive potential to the Union if they held this high ground. He sent orders to Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell that Cemetery Hill be taken "if practicable."
Ewell hesitated to attack thereby giving the Union troops a chance to dig in along Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge,Culp's Hill andLittle Round Top as well as bring in reinforcements with artillery. By the time Lee realized Ewell had not attacked, the opportunity had vanished.
Ewell's decision not to attempt the assault is considered by historians to be a great missed opportunity. But in fairness to Ewell, his troops had to negotiate their way through the narrow streets of Gettysburg (creating a huge logjam of Rebel soldiers) before they could gather into attack battle formation.
However, historians also speculate that if Jackson had not died shortly after the Battle of Chancellorsville, he would have immediately grasped Lee's meaning and exploited the opening by aggressively moving his Confederates through Gettysburg and attacked the Federals all along the high ground.
The first day at Gettysburg, more significant than simply a prelude to the bloody second and third days, ranks as the 23rd biggest battle of the war by number of troops engaged. About one quarter of Meade's army (22,000 men) and one third of Lee's army (27,000) were engaged.
It was due to Buford holding off the Confederate assaults until the arrival of Union infantry that enabled Meade to make a stand south and east of the town on the next two days.
Second day of battle:
Lee's battle plan for July 2nd called for a stealthy attack on the Union left flank and to roll up the Federal line. Lee's plan, however, was based on faulty intelligence, exacerbated by the continued absence of Major General James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart from the battlefield. Instead of moving beyond the Federals' left and attacking their flank, the Confederates faced Union infantry directly in their path.
Due to a move against orders, Major General Daniel E. Sickles of the III Corps had left a significant terrain feature, Little Round Top, undefended.
The chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac, Union Brigadier General Gouverneur K. Warren, recognized the tactical importance of the hill and urgently sought Union troops to occupy it before the Confederates could. A staff officer sent by Warren encountered Colonel Strong Vincent's brigade nearby.
Colonel Strong Vincent, commander of the third brigade, realizing that Little Round Top had been left undefended (except for a small unit of Union signalmen and a few sharpshooters), seized the initiative and, without consulting his superior officers, decided that his brigade was in the ideal position to defend it. He directed his four regiments to Little Round Top without waiting for permission.
By Vincent's unilateral action, the extreme left flank of the Union Army on Little Round Top now consisted of the 16th Michigan and then proceeding counterclockwise were the 44th New York the 83rd Pennsylvania and finally, at the end of the line on the southern slope, the 20th Maine, who managed to fend off every rebel attempt to flank the Union Army left. However, should the Confederates eventually succeed in their assault, they could then possibly sweep across both Little Round Top and Big Top, thus posing a very real threat to the entire Union Army.
As fighting raged in the Wheatfield, Devil's Den and the Peach Orchard, the Federals had a precarious hold on Little Round Top, an important hill at the extreme left of the Union line. Vincent's brigade of four relatively small regiments beat back a number of assaults by units of the Alabama Brigade of Hood's Division (consisting of the 4th, 15th and 47th Alabama regiments as well as the 4th and 5th Texas regiments. A third Confederate attack was joined by the 48th Alabama regiment).
However, as the Alabama and Texas regiments eventually swarmed around the crest of Little Round Top it seemed all might be lost for the Union troops holding the hill. Just when it seemed that the Union line was about to break from the latest Rebel onslaught (Vincent fell mortally wounded when he rallied the 16th Michigan as their line began to crumble), the 140th New York, under Colonel Patrick "Patty" O'Rourke from Fifth Corps arrived at the crest of the hill and charged down the slope at the Confederates. So sudden was the the arrival of the 140th New York that the men of the regiment had no time to load their rifles. As the 140th New York rushed into the gap caused by the crumbling 16th Michigan line their young, valient, and Irish Colonel O'Rourke was shot and died instantly leading his men (killed hitting his head upon a rock after sustaining a bullet wound in the neck). The arrival and charge of the 140th New York repulsed the Confederate attack on the western slope of Little Round Top and prevented a potential disaster for the Union troops holding the crest.
The final crucial defense of Little Round Top on this second day was one of the most fabled episodes in the Civil War and propelled Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine, into prominence after the war. Chamberlain received the Medal of Honor for his conduct in the defense of Little Round Top.
Seeing the Confederates shifting around his flank, Colonel Chamberlain first stretched his line to the point where his men were in a single-file line, then ordered the southern most half of his line to swing back during a lull following another Confederate charge. It was there that they "refused the line"—forming an angle to the main line in an attempt to prevent the Confederate flanking maneuver.
"Colonel Vincent's badly wounded .... but Weed is dead ... and Hazlett's dead ... and but they're holdin' good ..."
"Here they come again. Ready Boys?"
Finally, almost out of ammunition, with no resupply in sight, a last ditch effort to stave off the Confederate's latest charge on Little Round Top culminated with a bayonet charge by the 20th Maine led by Chamberlain down the hill.
"Bayonets!"
By about 10:30 p.m., the second day's fighting came to an end. The Federals had lost some ground during the Rebel onslaught (the Southerners did capture the lower part of Culp's Hill) but Union soldiers still held a strong defensive position along Cemetery Ridge. Federal troops retained possession of East Cemetery Hill, most of Culp's Hill and Little Round Top, as well.
The importance of holding Little Round Top was that it anchored the left flank of the Union line during the fight to come on the 3rd day.
Jeb Stuart and his three cavalry brigades arrived in Gettysburg around noon but had no role in the second day's battle.
Both sides regrouped and counted their causalities while the moaning and sobbing of thousands of wounded men on the slopes and meadows south of Gettysburg could be heard throughout the night under the blue light of a full moon.
Third day of battle:
Lee wished to renew the attack on Friday, July 3rd, using the same basic plan as the previous day: Longstreet would attack the Federal left, while Ewell attacked Culp's Hill on the right. The Confederates attacked, and the second fight for Culp's Hill ended around 11 a.m., after some seven hours of bitter combat.
Union commander Meade had decided his army would remain in place and wait for Lee's next attack. His logic was that since the Confederates had attacked both (reinforced) flanks of his line without success, Lee he correctly guessed, would now consider the center of his line the most vulnerable and would therefore attack this position.
Lee's failure to take the Union right and left forced him to change plans. Longstreet would command the Virginia division of Major General George Edward Pickett, plus six brigades from Lieutenant General A. P. Hill's Corps, in an attack on the Federal position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge.
On the Confederate side, Longstreet tried in vain to talk Lee out of attacking this position, arguing that it was strongly defended and that no 12,000 Confederates could push the Federals off it. But Lee thought the battered Union soldiers were nearly beaten and would collapse under this one final offensive.
Prior to the attack, all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the Federal positions would bombard and weaken the enemy's line. Around 1 p.m., from 150 to 170 Confederate guns began an artillery bombardment that was probably the largest of the war. The Army of Northern Virginia was critically low on artillery ammunition, and additionally, many of the shells exploded in the Union rear. Thus the cannonade did not significantly affect the Union position.
Lee rode among the soldiers of Pickett's division to inspire them, confident that this charge would be successful. He truly believed that, no matter what the odds, his army would prevail. Gettysburg was the price the South paid for having Lee as its principal Army commander.
Around 3 p.m., the cannon fire subsided, and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the three-quarters of a mile (1,200 m) to Cemetery Ridge in what is known to history as "Pickett's Charge".
As the Confederates approached, there was fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top, and musket and canister fire from the II Corps commanded by Major General Winfield Scott ("Winnie") Hancock.
Nearly one half of the attackers in Pickett's charge did not return to their own lines.
Although the Federal line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the "Angle" in a low stone fence, just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees, reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was repulsed. The farthest advance of Brigadier General Lewis A. ("Lo") Armistead's brigade of Pickett's division at the Angle is referred to as the "High-water mark of the Confederacy", arguably representing the closest the South ever came to its goal of achieving independence from the Union via military victory.
As the Confederates were being repulsed, Federal soldiers were shouting "Fredericksburg!", "Fredericksburg!", "Fredericksburg!" in retaliation for the 12,653 Union casualties suffered in front of Marye's Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg (from December 11th to December 15th 1862) many of whom were killed or wounded as they charged Confederate defenders entrenched on the Heights.
Pickett's Charge was a bloodbath. While the Union lost about 1,500 killed and wounded, the Confederate casualties were several times that, so that over 50% of the men sent across the fields were killed or wounded. Pickett's three brigade commanders and all 13 of his regimental commanders were casualties. Major General James L. Kemper was wounded, and Brigadier General Richard B.Garnett and Brigadier General Lewis Armistead did not survive (Armistead left his bible to Winfield Hancock). Major General Isaac Trimble and Brigadier General James Johnston Pettigrew were the most senior casualties, the former losing a leg and the latter wounded in the hand and dying during the retreat to Virginia. Pickett himself has received some historical criticism for surviving the battle personally unscathed, but his position well to the rear of his troops (probably at the Codori farm on the Emmitsburg Road) was command doctrine at the time for division commanders.
To his dying day, Pickett mourned the great loss of his men and supposedly said bitterly about Robert E. Lee: "That old man destroyed my division."
Pickett was also on record as having said, after being asked why Pickett's Charge failed, that: "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it."
As soldiers straggled back to the Confederate lines along Seminary Ridge, Lee feared a Union counteroffensive and tried to rally his center, telling returning soldiers that the failure was "all my fault." Pickett was inconsolable. When Lee told Pickett to rally his division for the defense, Pickett allegedly replied, "General Lee, I have no division now." Pickett's official report for the battle has never been found. It is rumored that Lee rejected it for its bitter negativity and demanded that it be rewritten, and an updated version was never filed.
After Gettysburg, despite never receiving condemnation by Lee or Longstreet, Pickett's career went into decline.
On April 1st 1865, Pickett's defeat at the Battle of Five Forks was a pivotal moment that unraveled the tenuous Confederate line and caused Lee to order the evacuation of Richmond, Virginia, and retreat toward Appomattox Court House. It was a final humiliation for Pickett, because he was two miles away from his troops at the time of the attack, enjoying a shad bake (fish fry) with some other officers. By the time he arrived at the battlefield, it was too late.
The armies stared at one another across the bloody fields on July 4th, the same day that Vicksburg surrendered to Major General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee reformed his lines into a defensive position, hoping that Meade would attack. The cautious Union commander, however, decided against the risk, a decision for which he would later be criticized. He did order a series of small probing actions, including sending the U.S. Regulars over a mile towards the right of the Confederate lines, but they withdrew under artillery fire and Meade decided not to press an attack. A series of sharp exchanges between the opposing skirmish lines merely added more names to the casualty lists. By mid-afternoon, the firing at Gettysburg had essentially stopped, and both armies began to collect their remaining wounded and bury some of the dead. A proposal by Lee for a prisoner exchange was rejected by Meade.
On July 5th, in a driving rain, the bulk of the Army of Northern Virginia left Gettysburg on the Hagerstown Road. The Battle of Gettysburg was over, and the Confederates headed back to Virginia. Meade's army followed, although the pursuit was half-spirited. The recently rain-swollen Potomac trapped Lee's army on the north bank of the river for a time, but when the Federals finally caught up, the Confederates had forded the river. The rear-guard action at Falling Waters on July 14th ended the Gettysburg Campaign.
After the battle, Meade notified Lincoln that "We have driven the enemy from our soil." Lincoln was furious that the remnants of Lee's army hadn't been captured or destroyed. His reaction was: "When will these generals understand that this entire country is ALL our soil."
To be fair to George Meade, Billy Yank of the Army of the Potomac had been mauled badly in the 3 days of fighting and was in no condition to confront Bobby Lee and Johnny Reb in another fight, even if it was just an action with the Confederate rear guard. To his credit, Meade understood this and was unwilling to take on the Army of Northern Virginia on ground not of his choosing. Meade also knew that although the Army of Northern Virginia was wounded it was not fatally crippled and that Lee, if pressed, would turn and fight -- it was a fight Meade wasn't up for especially with the Potomac River at his back, thus cutting his army off from a clear escape route, should it become necessary. Finally Meade was astute enough to know that, at that time, although there were many small garrisons of Federal troops surrounding Washington D.C., the Army of the Potomac was the only major force capable of protecting the Union capital from rebel incursion. Should he be defeated, there would be no major Federal army capable of stopping Confederate soldiers [either from Lee's army or another rebel force] from marching into the city.
The Battle of Gettysburg was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War (Union casualties were 23,055 - 3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing. Confederate casualties were more difficult to assess but were estimated to be 23,231 - 4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing. The casualties for both sides during the entire campaign were 57,225).
There was only one documented civilian death during the battle: Ginnie Wade, 20 years old, who worked as a seamstress with her mother in their house. She was shot while baking bread in the kitchen, killed by a stray bullet that pierced her left shoulder blade, went through her heart, and ended up in her corset. She died instantly. More than 150 bullets hit the house during the fighting.
And so, the bloody carnage would carry on for two more grueling years. Both Union and Confederate units from Kentucky, Kansas, Missouri, Maryland and other states would face off in other engagements on the battlefield.
The Confederates lost the Battle of Gettysburg due to several mitigating circumstances:
President Abraham Lincoln replaced Major General Joseph Hooker with Major General George Gordon Meade a mere 3 days before the battle. In the Battle of Antietam, Meade had replaced the wounded Hooker in command of I Corps, selected personally by McClellan over other generals his superior in rank. Lincoln's choice of Meade was perhaps due to several reasons: At the beginning of the war, Meade was assigned command of a brigade of Pennsylvania volunteers (so Meade had a first hand familiarity of Pennsylvania terrain); although the army had been soundly defeated at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, Meade handled his corps with great skill and protected the important fords on the Rappahannock River for the army's retreat; finally, Meade performed well at Antietam, which is probably the reasons why Lincoln had confidence in him to lead this army, pursue (and hopefully defeat) Lee in Pennsylvania.
Lee faced a new and very dangerous opponent in George Meade, and the Army of the Potomac stood to the task and fought well on its home territory.
Throughout this campaign, General Lee seemed to have entertained the belief that his men were invincible; most of Lee's experiences with the army had convinced him of this, including the great victory at Chancellorsville in early May and the rout of the Union troops at Gettysburg on July 1st. Although high morale plays an important role in military victory when other factors are equal, Lee could not refuse his army's desire to fight. To the detrimental effects of their collective blind faith was added the fact that the Army of Northern Virginia had many new and inexperienced commanders (Neither A.P. Hill nor Richard Ewell, for instance, though capable division commanders, had commanded a corps before). Also, Lee's method of giving generalized orders and leaving it up to his lieutenants to work out the details contributed to his defeat. Although this method may have worked with Jackson, it proved inadequate when dealing with corps commanders unused to Lee's style of command. Lee faced dramatic differences in going from defender to invader—long supply lines, a hostile local population, and an imperative to force the enemy from its position. Lastly, after July 1st the Confederates were simply not able to coordinate their attacks.
During the Gettysburg Campaign, Major General "Jeb" Stuart, acting under ambiguous orders, circled the Union army, but in the process deprived Lee of his "eyes and ears" while in enemy territory. Stuart did not return until the 2nd day of the battle and did not participate in that day's fighting. In fact, upon reporting to Lee, he supposedly received a severe rebuke from Lee, whereupon Stuart offered Lee his sword as well as his resignation from the army, both of which Lee refused to accept, saying "We will talk no more of this."
At the time of Lee's Gettysburg Campaign, his "right arm", Lieutenant General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson had been killed by 'friendly fire' at Chancellorsville that previous May. Many historians speculate that if Lee had given Jackson the order to attack Cemetery Hill "if practicable", instead of to Ewell, Jackson would immediately understood Lee's meaning and have found a way to sweep the Federals off that high ground. Lieutenant General James ('Old Pete') Longstreet, who Lee called his "Old War Horse", was now Lee's second in command. Although historians consider Longstreet the finest corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and arguably the best corps commander in the conflict on either side, he was still no Jackson, who military historians regard to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in United States history.
There was a logjam of rebel troops moving through the narrow Gettysburg streets, which caused a serious delay in their attack on the Federal line digging in on the high ground that first day.
An explosion at the Richond, Virginia munitions arsensal caused it to close - artillery shells had to come from Charleston, South Carolina. These Charleston fuses burned slower and, as a result, shells landed 2 football fields away from the union front lines during the artillery barrage prior to Pickett's Charge.
The Confederates failed to take Culps Hill (this was because Mcallister's mill pond and rock creek (about 4-5 feet deep) that prevented the rebels from attacking around Culps Hill and flanking it. Had they taken Culps Hill, the Confederates would had severed Union communications and left the Baltimore Pike exposed, making it almost impossible for the Federals to move troops and supplies into the battle.
Prior to the 15th Alabama attack on Little Round Top, the Confederates had to march all day with little or no water before they were position to attack, thus they were severely dehydrated even before the attack took place. And the Confederates had to attack uphill over steep terrain, which was exhausting.
Use of Union signal flags on top of Little Round Top further delayed the rebels from attacking for 2 hours. The Confederates had to countermarch in order to keep out of sight of the Union signalmen in order to disguise their movements and avoid detection prior to their attack, which wasted much time.
The End of 'The Lost Cause':
European investors gave the Confederacy approximately a 42 percent chance of victory prior to the Southern defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. News of the severity of the two rebel losses led to a sell-off in Confederate bonds. By the end of 1863, the probability of a Southern victory fell to about 15 percent. Confederate victory prospects generally decreased for the remainder of the war. Analysis also suggests that McClellan's possible election as U.S. President on a peace party platform as well as Confederate military victories in 1864 did little to reverse the market's assessment that the South would probably lose the Civil War.
There had been many woeful misunderstandings between North and South in the years that led up to the Civil War, but the most tragic misunderstanding of all was that neither side realized, until it was too late, that the other side was desperately in earnest. Not until the war had actually begun would men see that their rivals really meant to fight. By that time it was too late to do anything but go on fighting.
Southerners had been talking secession for many years, and most people in the North had come to look on such talk as a counter in the game of politics. You wanted something, and you threatened that dire things would happen if you did not get what you wanted; but you didn't necessarily mean to do what you were threatening to do, and there was no sense in taking brash words at their face value. America as a nation of poker players understood all about the business of calling bluffs. Not until the guns began to go off would the North realize that when men like Jefferson Davis talked about seceding from the Union they meant every word of it.
The same was true, in reverse, in the South. It seemed incomprehensible there that the Federal Union meant so much in the North that millions of people would be ready to make war to preserve it. The North seemed to dislike both slavery and slave owners; to the average Southerner, it stood to reason that the North would be happy to get rid of both.
On April 9th 1865, Lee surrendered after the Battle of Appomattox. Cut off from supplies and any escape route blocked by Grant's Army and the Union Army of the James, Lee agreed to meet Grant in the front parlor of Wilmer McLean's home, near the Appomattox Court House, to discuss peace terms.
It is one of the ironies of the Civil War was that the war was said to have started in Wilmer McLean's front yard and ended in his front parlor. McLean was a wholesale grocer living in Manassas, Virginia. Initial enagagements on July 18th 1861, in what would become the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle of the war, fought on July 21st 1861 took place on McLean's farm. Union Army artillery fired at McLean's house, headquarters for Confederate Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard, and a cannonball dropped through the kitchen fireplace.
Lee resisted calls by some officers to reject surrender and allow small units to melt away into the mountains, setting up a lengthy guerrilla war. He insisted the war was over and called for inter-sectional reconciliation.
Grant's terms of surrender were exceedingly generous for its time. Neither the side-arms of the officers nor their baggage would be confiscated. Grant also allowed all Confederates to take home their horses and mules to carry out the spring planting. Each officer and man would be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observed their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside. In other words, unlike the end of other civil wars, there would be no mass trials for treason. He also provided Lee with a supply of food rations for his starving army. Lee said it would have a very happy effect among the men and do much toward reconciling the country.
As Lee left the courthouse and rode away, Grant's men began cheering in celebration, but Grant ordered an immediate stop. He said: "I at once sent word, however, to have it stopped. The Confederates were now our countrymen, and we did not want to exult over their downfall."
It was only a matter of time before the surrender of other Confederate armies began. As news spread of Lee's surrender, other Confederate commanders realized that the strength of the Confederacy was fading, and decided to lay down their own arms. Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston's army in North Carolina, with which Lee had hoped to combine forces, surrendered to Major General William T. Sherman on April 26th. General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department in May and Cherokee Brigadier General Stand Watie surrendered the last sizable organized Confederate force on June 23rd 1865.
Although there were several more small battles after the surrender, the Battle of Palmito Ranch in Texas, fought on May 12th – May 13th 1865, is commonly acknowledged to be the last major clash of arms in the war.
Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana Volunteer Infantry was the last person killed during the Battle at Palmito Ranch, and probably the last combat casualty of the war.
Lee never forgot Grant's magnanimity during the surrender, and for the rest of his life would not tolerate an unkind word about Grant in his presence.
Lee did not wear the insignia of a Confederate general, but only the three stars of a Confederate colonel, equivalent to his last U.S. Army rank. He did not intend to wear a general's insignia until the Civil War had been won and he could be promoted, in peacetime, to general in the Confederate Army.
Although Lee, Jefferson Davis and some other ex-Confederates were indicted for treason, they all received blanket amnesty issued by President Andrew Johnson as he left office in 1869.
Lee's had only one regret about his surrender at Appomattox Court House, given the effects of Radical Republican Reconstruction policy on the South. Speaking to former Confederate Governor of Texas Fletcher Stockdale, he said:
"Governor, if I had foreseen the use those people [Yankees] designed to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; no sir, not by me. Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in my right hand."
Even so, in his public statements and private correspondence, Lee argued that a tone of reconciliation and patience would further the interests of white Southerners better than hotheaded antagonism to federal authority or the use of violence.
Lee is also on record as stating that "So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South." (although he opposed allowing blacks to vote: "My own opinion is that, at this time, they [black Southerners] cannot vote intelligently, and that giving them the [vote] would lead to a great deal of demagogism, and lead to embarrassments in various ways.").
After the American Civil War, Lee turned down several financially tantalizing offers of employment that would merely have traded on his name and instead accepted an offer to serve as the president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia for several reasons. First, he had been superintendent of West Point, so higher education was in his background. Second, and more important, he believed that it was a position in which he could actually make a contribution to the reconciliation of the nation. Third, the Washington family were his in-laws: his wife was the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. Lee had long looked on George Washington as a hero and role model, so it is hardly surprising that he welcomed the challenge of leading a college endowed by and named after the first president.
Lee remained president of the College from October 2nd 1865 until his death. Over five years, he transformed Washington College from a small, undistinguished school into one of the first American colleges to offer courses in business, journalism, and Spanish. Lee's son, George Washington Custis Lee, followed as the school's next president. Washington College was renamed Washington and Lee University immediately upon his death.
On September 28th 1870, Lee suffered a stroke that left him without the ability to speak. Lee died from the effects of pneumonia shortly after 9 a.m. on October 12th 1870. On the day of his death, his last words were: "Tell Hill he must come up. Strike the tent."
In spite of his role in the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee remains one of the most beloved and respected army officers in United States history, not only in the South but in the North as well.
Admirers pointed to his character and devotion to duty, not to mention his brilliant tactical successes in battle after battle against a stronger foe. Military historians continue to pay attention to his battlefield tactics and maneuvering, though many think he should have designed better strategic plans for the Confederacy. However, it should be noted that he was not given full direction of the Southern war effort until very late in the conflict.
On February 18th 1874, Benjamin Harvey Hill of Georgia, during an address before the Southern Historical Society in Atlanta, Georgia, characterized Robert Edward Lee this way: "He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbour without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward.”
General Lee began the pardon process in June of 1865, when he sent his official application to General Grant. Observing the chain of command, Grant submitted the application to Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, along with his strong recommendation that it be approved. Secretary Stanton duly sent the pardon application to President Andrew Johnson.
Before the application could be considered, an impediment had to be removed. A federal court in Virginia had indicted Robert E. Lee for treason and, although the indictment seemed to be little more than political posturing, it might stand in the way of a pardon. So once again General Grant stepped into the fray, sending a request to President Johnson to squash the indictment in as much as Grant had issued an official parole to Lee at Appomattox as a condition of his surrender. Although the indictment was never formally blocked, it was unable to attract any support and simply faded away.
Lee soon learned that there was another obstacle; an application for a pardon had to be accompanied by an oath of allegiance to the Union. Accordingly, on October 2, 1865, Lee, in the presence of a notary public, affixed his signature to the following prescribed oath:
"I, Robert E. Lee, of Lexington, Virginia, do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves, so help me God."
And there was yet another unanticipated hindrance that Lee had to deal with. Some of his former Confederate associates, a small but vocal group, objected to Lee’s amnesty application and especially his oath of allegiance to the Union, claiming that his actions were contrary to the principles for which the South seceded. They besieged Lee with protests as well as pleadings to disavow both actions. Lee did his best to explain his motives to this group and he tried to assuage their anger. His efforts in this endeavor were not entirely successful. But, as he firmly believed in the course he was following, he continued to pursue the legal measures required for obtaining a pardon.
Lee’s notarized oath of allegiance was forwarded to William H. Seward, Secretary of State, who would have then forwarded it to President Johnson. But the President never received the pledge, so the pardon process could not be completed. There is no evidence to indicate that Secretary Seward deliberately withheld the document from the President. And it is highly unlikely that such an important document could simply have been misplaced. But what happened to the document after Seward received it remains a mystery.
Without the oath of allegiance no action could be taken on Lee’s pardon application. Although Lee must have been disappointed, he accepted the matter stoically and made no further attempts to pursue a pardon. Robert E. Lee died without receiving a pardon or having his citizenship restored in his lifetime. And, for the next 100 years the matter was considered a closed chapter of history.
In 1970, a Civil War buff obtained permission to research old State department files stored in the National Archives. During his research, he came across a cardboard box labeled "Virginia." While rummaging through this box, he spied an aged sheet of paper containing a faded pen and ink inscription. Upon examination, he was stunned to learn that he was actually holding the notarized pledge of allegiance to the United States that Robert E. Lee had executed in 1865. Considering the numerous changes in administrations over the years, changes in State department staffing and relocations of offices and files, it is almost miraculous that this single sheet of paper survived for over a century, first in the State department and then in the National Archives.
In 1975 after a five-year campaign by Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr., a resolution to posthumously restore Lee's full rights of citizenship (Lee's right to vote was restored in 1888) passed by a unanimous April U.S. Senate vote and a 407-10, U.S. House of Representatives vote ( One of these dissenting Congressmen, the Democratic Representative from Michigan, John Conyers, strongly and vocally opposed the measure. Conyers referred to the resolution as "neither healing nor charitable." ). In spite of this minor opposition to the measure, the resolution became effective June 13th 1975. President Gerald R. Ford signed the resolution on August 5th 1975 on the portico of the Lee mansion, with a dozen of Lee's descendants attending (including great-great-grandson Robert E. Lee V).
The National Holiday of Quebec (French: La Fête nationale du Québec) is the National Holiday of the Canadian province of Quebec. A paid statutory public holiday, it is celebrated annually on June 24.
Quebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province and North American jurisdiction with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level.
Quebec is Canada's largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division; only the territory of Nunavut is larger. It is bordered to the west by the province of Ontario, James Bay and Hudson Bay, to the north by Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay, to the east by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick. It is bordered on the south by the U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. It also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is the second most populous province, after Ontario.
The flag of Quebec, called the Fleurdelisé and referred to as the national flag, was adopted for the province by the government of Quebec, during the administration of Maurice Duplessis. It was the first provincial flag officially adopted in Canada, first shown on January 21st 1948, at the Parliament Building in Quebec City. Quebec's Flag Day — January 21st — commemorates its adoption each year, though for some time it was celebrated in May.
The Fleurdelisé on the flag of Quebec takes its white cross from the ancient royal flags of France and its white fleurs-de-lis and blue field from a banner honoring the Virgin Mary reputedly carried by French-Canadian militia at General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm's victory at Carillon (now Ticonderoga, New York). Contrary to popular belief, the fleurs-de-lis are not taken from the banner of the kings of France, who used golden fleurs-de-lis. The white fleurs-de-lis on Quebec's flag are symbols of purity, which originally represented the Virgin Mary. The flag is blazoned Azure, a cross between four fleurs-de-lis argent.
Quebec City is the provincial capital and the second most populous city in the province after Montreal.
The flag of Quebec City depicts a golden yellow ship on a deep blue field surrounded by a crenelated white design representing its unique city walls. The ship is Samuel de Champlain's ship, the Don de Dieu.
Quote of the Day: Women are more verbal than men. That's why when you see an elderly couple together, it's always the man who has the hearing aid. ~ Jeff Stilson
1892: Robert Ford was gunned down in a Creede, Colorado, saloon. Ten years earlier, as a new recruit in the Jesse James gang, he had killed Jesse for a $10,000 reward.
1949: NBC debuted the first network television western, Hopalong Cassidy, starring William Boyd and Edgar Buchanan. Edited theater films had been shown earlier on local New York City television.
1953: Journalist Jacqueline Bouvier announced her engagement to U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy.
1977: 15-year-old Marlene Raymond of Toronto set a world limbo record by scrunching under a limbo bar only 6 and 1/8 inches above the floor. And the limbo bar was on fire!
1983: The space shuttle Challenger, carrying America's first woman in space, astronaut Sally K. Ride, coasted to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1985: Ron Howard’s "Cocoon" beat out "Rambo: First Blood, Part II" starring Sylvester Stallone for top North American movie of the week.
1989: Roseanne Cash’s recording "I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party" hit #1. It was the first #1 country song written by Paul McCartney and the late John Lennon.
1991: A $100 check made out to Pablo Picasso sold for $6,500. In 1962 an art lover gave Picasso the check and asked for a picture. Picasso drew a smiling little devil on the back of the check and returned it to the buyer.
1994: President Bill Clinton complained in St. Louis that unfair and negative reports about him were "feeding a cynical mindset" in America.
1995: Singer Daryle Singletary married actress Kerry Harvick at the First Baptist Church in Daryle’s hometown, Comanche, Texas.
1996: A report by the World Bank revealed one-fifth of the world's population had to live on less than a dollar a day.
1997: After three days eluding gamekeepers, an 8-foot, 175-pound alligator named Douglas was finally captured in an Atlanta residential area and adopted by the Wild Adventures amusement park in Valdosta, Georgia.
1998: Walt Disney World Resort in Florida admitted its 600-millionth guest.
2002: A drunk driver in Karlskoga, Sweden, didn't notice he had lost a wheel until he was pulled up by police. The man could not believe he was driving around on just three wheels. He was charged with drunk-driving.
2005: The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported the nation's second confirmed case of mad cow disease.
2007: In Riccione, Italy, a businessman opened a women-only beach on the Adriatic coast to give the country's females an oasis from men and children. Milan housewife Cinzia Donati said it was wonderful "to relax, read or doze without hearing some child shouting 'Mamma, Mamma' 600 times -- and without men ogling you all the time." The beach offered beauty tip, fitness classes, manicures, pedicures and cooking lessons.
musician Mick Fleetwood is 67 musician Jeff Beck 65 UB40's Astro 52 singer-musician Curt Smith 48 singer Glenn Medeiros 39 singer Solange Knowles 23 actress Sherry Stringfield 41 actress Michele Lee 67 actress Danielle Spencer 44
Question 1: Quebec is the only Canadian Province that doesn't have English as official language. The Province of Quebec is French. The percentage of its population having French as their first language is:
(a) about 85%
(b) about 70%
(c) about 55%
(d) about 95%
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 1:
*About 85% - approximately 13% speak English.*
Question 2: The province's area corresponds to the area of:
(a) Arizona
(b) Alaska
(c) Florida
(d) Texas
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 2:
*Alaska, with an area of 1,540,000 sq km.*
Question 3: Which of these sentences is NOT true about Quebec City, the capital of the province?
(a) The Old Town is a World Heritage site
(b) It receives an average of 11 feet of snow every winter
(c) It was the first permanent settlement in North America
(d) It is the only fortified city in North America, north of Mexico
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 3:
*The first permanent settlement in North America was Jamestown, Virginia, USA, founded in 1607. Quebec was founded in 1608.*
Question 4: This is NOT true about the city of Montreal:
(a) It has the busiest port in Canada
(b) Its population increased by 80% in 2002
(c) It is located on an island
(d) A street symbolically divides the city in two parts: the French in the East and the English in the West
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 4:
*The busiest port in Canada is Vancouver, in British Columbia. Prior to 2002, Montreal was a city of 1 million inhabitants. Since 2002, 15 municipalities separated and the population of the city of Montreal was brought down to 1,620,000 inhabitants. St. Laurent Boulevard is the symbolic frontier between the French part of town and the English one.*
Question 5: Whose mother was a French Canadian?
(a) Madonna
(b) Marilyn Monroe
(c) Hillary Clinton
(d) Julia Roberts
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 5:
*Madonna. Madonna's mother was named Madonna Fortin.*
Question 6: Which of these Nobel Prize winners in literature was born in the province of Quebec?
(a) Dario Fo
(b) William Golding
(c) Patrick White
(d) Saul Bellow
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 6:
*Saul Bellow. He was born in Lachine, now a part of Montréal. Bellow won the Nobel Prize in 1976 for Humboldt's Gift (which explores the changing relationship of art and power in a materialist America). Dario Fo is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor, and composer. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was an Australian author who was widely regarded as a major English-language novelist of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973.*
Question 7: According to Quebecers which of these great singers is NOT considered representing Quebec's unique culture?
(a) Plume Latraverse
(b) Gilles Vigneault
(c) Felix Leclerc
(d) Celine Dion
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 7:
*Céline Dion is an American in every way, except for her nationality. Quebecers are proud of her and her achievements but do not see her as an ambassador of Quebec culture.*
Question 8: French Canadians are sometimes called "Frogs" by their Canadian and American neighbors. It is an old insult used by British people on French people, inspired by:
(a) The French penchant for dining on frogs legs
(b) The "froglike" shape of the French monarchy symbol: the fleurs-de-lis
(c) During the Middle Ages, Paris and the surrounding countryside were overrun with frogs
(d) A corruption of the French word for frog
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 8:
*The "froglike" shape of the French monarchy symbol: the fleurs-de-lis*
Question 9: Bombardier is the greatest economical success of the province of Quebec. In what field does this company excel?
(a) engineering
(b) communication
(c) food products
(d) insurance
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 9:
*Engineering. Bombardier is one of the world leaders in aeronautics, as well as expertise in train and subway train engineering.*
Question 10: Quebec is the _______________ province of Canada:
(a) westernmost
(b) southernmost
(c) northernmost
(d) easternmost
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Question 10:
*Northernmost. No other province stretches over 62 degrees of latitude North. British Columbia is Canada's westernmost province, with its capital city, Victoria, located on Vancouver Island. Ontario is the southernmost province of Canada. Commonly called the Heartland Province, Toronto, on Lake Ontario, is the province’s capital. The city of Ottawa, the capital of Canada, is also situated in Ontario. Its southern boundary is the state of Minnesota in the U.S. Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada.*
Bonus Question 11: What French king ignored the New World during most of his long reign and signed the Paris Treaty, in 1763, ceding almost all american territory to England?
(a) Louis XVI
(b) Louis XIV
(c) Louis XV
(d) Louis XVII
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Bonus Question 11:
*Louis XV. Louis XV reigned from 1715 to 1774. France made strong efforts to colonialize North America, and they once had much more territory than England. If they had persisted in these efforts, who knows what America would look like now? But Louis XV lost his interest in the New World during the 18th century. Philosopher Voltaire translated this indifference as: "Pourquoi se battre pour quelques arpents de neige?" (English translation:"Why should we fight for a few arpents of snow?"). [An arpent is the name given to a unit of length and to a unit of area. It is used in Quebec as well as in some areas of the United States that were part of French Louisiana]. Louis XV also lost the French colony in India. Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. He was the only king of France to be executed. Louis XIV (5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715) ruled as King of France until his death in September 1715, four days before his seventy-seventh birthday. His reign lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, the longest documented for any European monarch to date. At the death of his father and mother ( King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette) Louis XVII became King of France and Navarre in 1793. He was imprisoned during the French Revolution from August 1792 until his death in 1795. He never ruled.*
Bonus Question 12: Quebecers are known to swear a lot, and the blasphemer's dictionary contains a large range of swearwords. Most of them are related to:
(a) Church
(b) Animals
(c) Prostitution
(d) Body parts
For the answer click, hold and drag your mouse from star to star (below)
Answer to Bonus Question 12:
*Church. Some examples: tabarnak, câlisse, crisse, ciboire, simonak, sacristi, osti. In English: tabernacle, chalice, Christ, ciborium, simoniac, sacristy, host.*
This is
A young man, with a promising career ahead of him, decided to marry a respectable convent girl, untarnished with the sins of contemporary society. After the wedding service, the bridal couple had to drive through the more unsavory areas of the city on the way to the reception.
"William, what are those women doing leaning against lampposts?"
"Oh, those are just tarts who hire their bodies out for sex at fifty dollars a time."
"Wow, fifty dollars!" exclaimed the bride. "The monks only used to give us an apple..."
The
Commonwealth of Massachusetts is one of four of the United States to officially designate themselves Commonwealths (Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Virginia are the other three).
Colloquially, Massachusetts is often referred to simply as "the Commonwealth," although "state" is used interchangeably. While this designation is part of
the state's official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts and the other 3 Commonwealths have the same position and powers within the
United States as other states.
Although there were many Native American tribes and subtribes living in the area, such as the Narragansett, Abenaki, Pokanoket and Wampanoag among others, the newly arrived Puritans decided on naming the
colony the Massachusetts Bay Colony, after the Massachusett Native American people who inhabited
the bay area. The name Massachusett has been translated as "near the great hill," "by the blue hills" "at the little big hill," or "at the range of hills."
The
Puritans were originally destined for the mouth of the Hudson River, near present-day New York
City, at the northern edge of England's Virginia colony, but their ship, the Mayflower was blown slightly off
course. After a gruelling 66-day journey that transported the English Separatists (Puritans), from Southampton England in September 1620, a sea voyage
that was marked by disease (which claimed two lives), the vessel first dropped anchor inside the hook tip of Cape Cod (Provincetown Harbor) in November of
1620.
However, sometime later during further exploration of the area, Pilgrims (as the Puritans came to be known) did discover Plymouth
Harbor and thus established Plymouth Colony (popular legend says that the Pilgrims disembarked
from their boat by stepping onto what is now known as Plymouth Rock to get to the shore but there are no written accounts to support this myth). This
colony was the second permanent English settlement in North America [the first being Jamestown, Virginia, founded on May 14th 1607]. Plymouth, founded in
1620, is the oldest municipality in New England the oldest continually inhabited English settlement in the modern United States).
On April 20th 1957, recreating the original voyage, Mayflower II set sail to cross the Atlantic. However, unlike the original Mayflower's Atlantic voyage, Mayflower II took a more
southerly route in order to avoid sea ice. Built in England, the Mayflower II was a gift from Britain to America. The vessel's journey took it from Plymouth,
England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts. The ship, owned by Plimoth Plantation, is now moored at State
Pier in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts.
The ship was replicated as accurately as possible, from the carefully chosen English oak timbers, to the hand-forged nails,
hand-sewn linen canvas sails, actual hemp cordage, and the Stockholm tar of the type used on 17th century ships. Carved into the stern of
Mayflower II is a blossom of a hawthorne, or English mayflower.
Visitors to Plimoth Plantation and who board the Mayflower II meet role players in period costume who share their personal
accounts of shipboard life, playing the part of Mayflower passengers or sailors as well as settlers living in the Plymouth settlement.
If it wasn't for Samoset (also known as Somerset),
an english speaking member of an Abenaki tribe that resided at that time in Maine, and meeting his companion Tisquantum (better known as Squanto), an english speaking Native American of the now extinct Patuxet tribe, a subtribe of the Wampanoag Confederacy two days later, it is likely that
the Pilgrims would have perished during their first year in the colony.
The Flag of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts displays, on both sides, the state
coat of arms centered on a white field. The shield depicts an Algonquin Native American with a bow held in his right
hand and an arrow held in his left hand. The arrow is pointed downward, signifying peace. A white star with five points appears next to the figure's head,
signifying Massachusetts' admission as the 6th U.S. State. A blue ribbon surrounds the shield, bearing the Commonwealth's motto in latin:
Ense Petit Placidam, Sub Libertate Quietem ("By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty"). Above the shield is the state military
crest: a bent arm holding a broadsword aloft. The sword has its blade up, to remind that it was through the American Revolution that liberty was won. The
flag was officially adopted in 1908, but had been used unofficially since the American Revolution.
When The Workin' Day
Is Done, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun:
A Girl's Best Friend:
More Girls Best
Friends:
The Perfect Man?
Gravity - The Bane of All Girls:
No Wonder
Granny's Dancing:
Does this camera lens make my ass look big?
School Daze:
The Male Brain at
Work:
The Perfect Woman?
The
Perfect Woman Trophy Goes To:
Beer in the Frig:
Heh-Heh-Heh:
Pay Attention,
Boys:
This is why they're called Knockers
Why Women Take Longer in the Shower:
How a real woman washes the floor:
It Talks:
Life's a
Beach:
Just a Day at the
Beach:
The Right Way To
Make Wine:
Nice Wine
Rack:
Your Package is
Here:
Why Men Love
Women and Sports:
Oooh, Archery:
Shush!
We're hunting birdies:
Going
Down:
The Kama Sutra:
A Man's
Remote, A Manly Man's Remote:
How To Brainwash A Man
My kinda Yo-Yo's:
Deserted
Islands
A Quick History of the South:
How to Make a Redneck Girl's Top:
Redneck Waitress:
Redneck Thanksgiving:
Redneck
Dictionary:
A Redneck
Poem:
SUSIE LEE DONE FELL IN LOVE,
SHE PLANNED TO MARRY JOE.
SHE WAS SO HAPPY 'BOUT IT ALL,
SHE TOLD HER PAPPY SO.
PAPPY TOLD HER,
"SUSIE GAL,
YOU'LL HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER.
I'D JUST AS SOON YA MA DON'T KNOW,
BUT JOE IS YA HALF BROTHER."
SO SUSIE PUT ASIDE HER JOE
AND PLANNED TO MARRY WILL
BUT AFTER TELLING PAPPY THIS,
HE SAID, "THERE'S TROUBLE STILL.
YOU CAN'T MARRY WILL, MY GAL,
AND PLEASE DON'T TELL YA MOTHER.
BUT WILL AND JOE, AND SEVERAL MO'
I KNOW IS YO' HALF BROTHER."
BUT MAMA KNEW AND SAID,
"MY CHILD,
JUST DO WHAT MAKES YA HAPPY.
MARRY WILL OR MARRY JOE;
YOU AIN'T NO KIN TO PAPPY."
From Arabia
Thinking Outside The
Box:
Life in a
Harem:
Arabian
Slaves
Arabian
Dancer:
Early
Photography
Great Art
Space Stuff:
A Short History of
the United States:
The
American Revolution:
The American Revolution: Born in a tavern and ended in a tavern. The United States founding governments occupied 11
different capitol buildings experienced 15 years of challenges that included war, hyper-inflation, a failed constitution, judicial corruption, armed citizen and
U.S. Army rebellion.
Women of the
American Revolution:
Naughty
Colonials:
Major Battles
The American Colonial
Navy
The French Fleet Arrives
Just In Time:
The
American Civil War:
The
Confederate Plot to New York City:
The Great
Locomotive Chase:
Herman Haupt
A Military Genius
According to an old saying, "amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics." any serious student of the military
profession will know that logistics constantly shape military affairs and sometimes even dictate strategy and tactics.The appearance of the
steam-powered railroad had enormous implications for military logistics, and thus for strategy, in the American Civil War. Not surprisingly, the side that
proved superior in "railroad generalship," or the utilization of the railroads for military purposes, was also the side that won the war.
Herman Haupt was an American civil engineer and railroad construction engineer and executive. As a Union Army General in
the American Civil War, he revolutionized military transportation in the United States and was one of the unsung heroes of the war.
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer came close to expulsion from the United States Military Academy due to excessive demerits, many from
pulling pranks on fellow cadets. He graduated last in his class of 1861. Ordinarily, such a showing would be a ticket to an obscure posting and mundane
career, but he had the fortune to graduate just as the war caused the army to experience a sudden need for new officers. Early in the Gettysburg
Campaign, Custer's association with cavalry commander Major General Alfred Pleasonton earned him promotion from First Lieutenant to Brigadier
General of United States Volunteers at the age of 23 (one of the youngest generals ever). He was also the first Union officer to scout enemy positions from
a hot air balloon.
Thomas Ward Custer, a younger brother of George Armstrong Custer, was also a United States Army officer during the American
Civil War and was a two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor for bravery. He perished with his brother George at Little Bighorn in the Montana
Territory.
Uncle Billy's Hard War:
This definition of Sherman's would later be called Total War by historians. The purpose was twofold. First, it was designed to cripple
the South's ability to wage war. Second, it was an attempt to force southern soldiers to make a choice - either fight or desert the army to defend their
homes and farms (which seemed to have the desired effect. By 1865, there were approximately 100,000 southern deserters).
Virginia's Shenandoah Valley was vital real estate in the Civil War. Economically it was one of the nation's top wheat-growing regions
(the Midwestern prairie was not yet broken to the plow) as well as a variety of other food crops.
Phillip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign called ("The Burning")was a huge success. The Union Army of the Shenandoah left
the Southern farmland a desolate landscape of destruction. As testimony to this effort, Sheridan left a written record bearing witness to the scope of his
accomplishment. The buildings and materials destroyed or seized included: 1,200 barns, 71 flour mills, 8 sawmills, 7 furnaces, 4 tanneries, 3 saltpeter
works, a woolen mill with 1,165 lbs. of cotton yarn, a powder mill, a railroad depot, and 974 miles of rail. The livestock taken included: 15,000 swine,
12,000 sheep, 10,918 cattle, 3,772 horses, 545 mules, and 250 calves, with 435,802 bushels of wheat, 77,176 bushels of corn, 20,397 tons of hay, 500
tons of fodder, 450 tons of straw, 12,000 lbs. of bacon, 10,000 lbs. of tobacco, and 874 barrels of flour.
Sheridan's victory was pivotal. This staggering amount of destruction and confiscation at the hands of his army assured, without a
doubt, that the Shenandoah Valley would be useless to the Confederate army and to the South for some time. Without the Shenandoah Valley, Lee's
critical supplies were cut off. Without supplies, the end of the Confederacy was indeed in sight.
No other campaign in the entire war has contributed more to keeping alive sectional feeling than William T. Sherman's march through
Georgia and South Carolina. Sherman and his army of 60,000 Union soldiers began the march through Georgia on November 15th 1864
without benefit of a supply train or any communication with the outside world with his final objective being the coastal city of Savannah. His advantage was
that he had been given detailed information on where in Georgia he could best resupply his army and since the march began just after the Georgia crops
had been harvested, Sherman's foragers found the Georgia barns bursting with grain, fodder, and peas, the outhouses full of cotton, the yards crowded
with hogs, chickens, and turkeys. The soldiers in the Southern armies were starving, not because there was no food, but because the railroads had been
destroyed and it was impossible to send supplies to the front. Sherman (who was affectionately called "Uncle Billy" by his soldiers) was not content simply
to use what food and supplies he needed, but boasted that he would "smash things to the sea" and make Georgia howl. His men entered dwellings,
taking everything of value that could be moved, such as silver plate and jewelry; and killed and left dead in the pens thousands of hogs, sheep and poultry.
Many dwellings were burned without any justification. Sherman in his own Memoirs testifies to the conduct of his men, estimating that he had destroyed
$80,000,000 worth of property of which he could make no use. This he describes as "simple waste and destruction." One of the most serious aspects of
his work was the destruction of the railroads; the Central from Macon to Savannah, for instance, was almost totally ruined.
On the day following Sherman's entry into Savannah he sent this telegram to President Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas
gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."
The South also used harsh methods. On his march, it was discovered that confederates had planted torpedoes (land mines) in the
roads. Sherman found these hidden torpedoes to be contrary to the rules of war. Sherman ordered that Confederate prisoners of war walk the roads
ahead of Union troops to locate and dig up these mines.
Confederates also murdered Union prisoners of war which prompted Sherman to issue a similar retaliatory order (but Union soldiers
considered his order so repugnant, it was seldom carried out).
The Dark Side of the Civil
War
Andersonville, Georgia:
Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois:
Reconstruction
The North may have won the Civil War but the South won the war of Reconstruction
Reconstruction is the era in the U.S. history from 1863 to 1877, when the U.S. focused on abolishing slavery, destroying all traces of
the Confederacy, establishing the rights of Freedmen (the name used for freed slaves), and through three new constitutional amendments - the Thirteenth
Amendment banning slavery; the Fourteenth Amendment banning race-based voting qualifications; and the Fifteenth Amendment which prohibits denying
a citizen the right to vote (strengthening the role of the federal governments and its courts). Reconstruction policies were debated in the North as soon as
the war started, and began in earnest after the Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, and the federal occupation of major parts of
southern states allowed the formation of new, loyal state governments. President Abraham Lincoln was the major policymaker until his death in April,
1865. Reconstruction began in each state as soon as federal troops controlled most of the state. It ended at different times in different states. The
Compromise of 1877 saw the collapse of the last three Republican state governments in the South, so 1877 is the usual date given for the end of
Reconstruction, although some historians extend the era to the 1890s. The bitterness and repercussions from the heated conflicts of the era lasted well
into the 20th century. "Reconstruction" is also the term used in textbooks for the history of the entire U.S. 1865-1877.
The 11 confederate states readmitted back into the Union were:
Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana and Virginia. These 11 states had not yet been readmitted when Andrew Johnson took office.
All southern states except Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia, readmitted to Congress in June 1868. These former confederate states (not yet readmitted by 1868) did not participate in that election. In 1870 Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia were readmitted.
July 24th 1866 -Tennessee was the 1st
June 22nd 1868 - Arkansas was the 2nd
June 25th 1868 - Florida was the 3rd
June 25th 1868 - Alabama was the 4th
June 25th 1868 - Louisiana was the 5th
June 25th 1868 - North Carolina was 6th
June 25th 1868 - South Carolina was 7th
(June 25th 1868 - GEORGIA FIRST readmittance)
December 22nd 1869 - Second reconstruction for Georgia began(Kicked OUT !)
January 27th 1870 - Virginia was the 8th
February 23rd 1870 - Mississippi was the 9th
March 30th 1870 - Texas was the 10th
Mar. 30, 1870 - The 15th Amendment is added to the Constitution.
July 15th 1870 - GEORGIA READMITTED AGAIN - Georgia was the 11th and last Confederate state to be readmitted back into the Union.
The United States government has never recognized the right of states to secede, and considers the states to never have left the union during the American Civil War. The states were required to agree to Reconstruction before being permitted to send representatives to Congress again.
Quote of the Day: Sometimes when I'm home alone, thinking of that special person who is sitting at home at the same time, just waiting to meet me, I think to myself, 'What a loser this chick must be to sit at home by herself and think of some guy she's never met.' ~ Jon Paul
Say What?/pussydrink.jpg)
Speaking of Tops:/in-the-kitchen.jpg)
Maybe ...
And a Man's Tee:
Them Wacky, Wacky Irishers:/irish-sunglasses.jpg)
My Kinda Dentist:/dentist.jpg)
My Kinda Barbers:/barbers.jpg)
Monopoly Variations:
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And the Blue Angels:
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/money-go.jpg)
A Texas Blessing:
Later on, Crouton 
She's Pissed:
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The National Pastime:/baseball-country.jpg)
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/most-lethal-animal.jpg)
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Have a GRR-ATE weekend 
It was hot in Philadelphia that summer when the Second Continental Congress convened. Sometimes, tempers over the language of the Declaration of Independence flared just as hot. As Benjamin Franlin said: "We must all hang together, or we will surely all hang separately."
The Sequence of events on the road to revolution (starting in that hotbed of rebellion, Boston, Massachusetts):
Major Battles
Women of the Revolution:
The American Colonial Navy:
The Winter at Valley Forge:
Yorktown:
Later 
The Battle of Gettysburg
Finally (click on this link:) 
Later 
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Oh Canada:/no-canadians.jpg)
No Soup for You!/whiskey-soup.jpg)
This has been on several blogs but it's funny:
New from Burger King:/blow.jpg)
Bacon Lip Balm:/bacon-lip-balm.jpg)
Best Invention Ever:
Dirty Old Men:/older-man.jpg)
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Later on, Crouton 
The
Commonwealth of 
How To Swim With
Sharks:
Who's Here
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Summertime:
Extreme
Kung-Fu:
Don't Mess With
Grandma:
Airbags save lives:
The
Potatoheads:
Do Penguins Fly?
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Back in the Day:
Orgasms Around
the World:/orgasm-switch.jpg)
The Female Brain at
Work:
Famous and
Notorious Women:
German
Third Reich Women:
Super
Heroines:
And More:
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A Girl's Best Friend:
More Girls Best
Friends:
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Gravity - The Bane of All Girls:
No Wonder
Granny's Dancing:
School Daze:
The Male Brain at
Work:
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The
Perfect Woman Trophy Goes To:
Beer in the Frig:
Heh-Heh-Heh:
Pay Attention,
Boys:
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Life's a
Beach:
Just a Day at the
Beach:
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The Right Way To
Make Wine:
Nice Wine
Rack:
Your Package is
Here:
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Why Men Love
Women and Sports:
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Oooh, Archery:
Shush!
We're hunting birdies:
Going
Down:
The Kama Sutra:
A Man's
Remote, A Manly Man's Remote:
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My kinda Yo-Yo's:
Deserted
Islands
Redneck Waitress:
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Redneck Thanksgiving:
Redneck
Dictionary:
A Redneck
Poem:
From Arabia
Thinking Outside The
Box:
Life in a
Harem:
Arabian
Slaves
Arabian
Dancer:
Early
Photography
Great Art
Women of the
American Revolution: 
Naughty
Colonials:
The
American Civil War: 
The
Confederate Plot to 
New York City:
The Great
Locomotive Chase:
The Dark Side of the Civil
War
Religious
Stuff
Get Thee to a
Nunnery:
The Spread of the Bubonic Plague:
Atlantis:
Hero of Alexandria:
