Daily history

Good morning,


Today will be a bio and past history.

We here in Greenville, SC dodged the bullet Friday. We got a lot of rain and sleet but 50 miles north in Black Mountain, NC there was 10 to 12 inches of snow.

                                     
                                     Daniel Morgan


                                      Super Patriot


Daniel Morgan was born in Lebanon Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey in 1735. He was the fifth of seven children; his father was an iron worker in a forge. When he was sixteen he got into an argument with his father and ran away and worked his way across Pennsylvania and on down into the Shenandoah Valley taking on small jobs along the way. Daniel was big, rough-cut man who had rather drink, gamble and fight that study. He finally settled in Charles Town in present day West Virginia. This is not to be confused with Charleston, WV. Daniel showed a capacity for hard work by clearing land and being a teamster. After a year he had accumulated enough money to buy his own team. He had been involved in the French and Indian War and was captured by British General Burgoyne’s troops and given 300 lashes which would have been fatal to most men but Daniel survived but the hatred of the Recoats was permanently, indelibly etch in his memory.

When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775 the Continental Congress asked that the middle states send reinforcements to break the siege of Boston. The Virginia House of Burgesses authorized two rifle companies one of which was led by Daniel Morgan. Morgan gathered his troops in Winchester, Virginia in July of 1775 and set out for Boston arriving there in 22 days. Morgan had a superb group of snipers known as “Morgan’s Sharpshooters.” Later on Congress authorized the invasion of Canada, Montreal and Quebec in particular. The attack on Quebec was led by American Colonel Robert Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold. Daniel Morgan and his men were aligned with Arnold’s forces. The Americans attacked in two thrusts, Arnold from the north and Montgomery from the west. After the attack was under way, Colonel Arnold went down with a leg wound and Morgan assumed command. He led the troops over the wall into the city but Montgomery’s attack from the west had stalled because Montgomery had been killed. The commander of the British troops saw this and swung around and got behind Morgan and his forces were forced to surrender piecemeal. Morgan was held prisoner but was exchanged in 1777. After rejoining Washington he found that he had been promoted to Colonel because of his actions at Quebec. His orders were to organize and recruit the 11th Virginia Regiment. He rounded up 400 riflemen but there was one test he gave them all. He put boards with the heads of known British officers painted on them and his recruits had to hit the head with the first shot at 100 yards. This tale reached England and the British military was appalled. It was considered ungentlemanly to single out officers and downright treacherous to single out one individual officer and from then Morgan was considered a war criminal. Morgan and company were present at some of the most important battle of this war for independence. They were at Saratoga, Freeman’s Farm and Bemis Heights to name a few. A funny thing happened at Freeman’s Farm. The British infantry advanced with the officers in the fore and after the first exchange of fire, every one of the British officers were down. I wonder where that came from. On another occasion during the heat of battle Colonel Arnold rode up to Morgan and pointed to a British Colonel that was in command of an infantry regiment and said to Morgan “That man is worth a regiment dead”. No sooner than he finished that statement than Morgan called over one of his snipers named Timothy Murphy and pointed to the British Colonel. Thirty seconds later the British colonel was history and the British infantry began to retreat in disarray. After these engagements Morgan became disgusted with the politics within the military seeing that those with less experience and less skilled were being promoted over him because he was not well connected, he was a pure warrior. He was allowed to resign and he moved to his home in Winchester, Virginia. He was asked to come out of retirement more than once by General Horatio Gates but refused. It was only after Gates’ disastrous defeat at the Battle of Camden that he did indeed come out of retirement. He was tasked with sweeping the back country of the Carolinas clear of the Redcoats by his new commander General Nathaneal Greene. While moving down from Virginia his movement was discovered by British General Charles Cornwallis and he sent the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton and 1,100 troops to intercept Morgan. Morgan had interviewed as many troops as he could that had fought against Tarleton so he could get some idea of his tactics. Finally, Morgan decided to make a stand near Cowpens, South Carolina. Morgan sent a few out a few militias to hunt for Tarleton and to lure him back into a bowl shaped meadow in a dense forest. Morgan had his troops hidden in the forest. The impulsive Tarleton immediately ordered his men to chase down the militia who led them into the center of the bowl shaped meadow. Then Morgan ordered a double envelopment and almost surrounded the British/Loyalists and they capture or killed all but about 200 of Tarleton’s troops. Tarleton escaped however but the victory for Morgan was complete. His execution of this double envelopment is considered on of the best in military history. This victory and the annihilation of British Colonel Charles Ferguson’s infantry unit at the battle of King’s Mountain, North Carolina rang the death knell for the Redcoats in the Carolinas.

Morgan began to suffer bodily from all the tribulations of warfare and retired to his home in Charles Town and instead of clearing land; he began buying up land and eventually owned 250,000 acres. He sold his property and built a house in Winchester, Virginia in 1782. He eventually served as a US Representative from Virginia for a number of years before dying at his daughter’s house in Winchester in 1802. He was 66 years old. He is buried in the Mount Hebron Presbyterian Church cemetery in Winchester. There are many counties, cities and places all over America named in his honor and deservedly so. I put him in the same arena with those men and women that were in the right place at the right time for this great nation to propagate. It was no accident.

This date in history December 20

1862    On this date Confederate General Earl Van Dorn makes a successful raid on US General Ulysses Grant’s supply depot in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Grant was on his way to Vicksburg, Mississippi to capture this final Confederate bastion on the Mississippi River. Grant was approaching Vicksburg from the east and US General William Sherman was approaching from the north. This two pronged attack depended greatly on being supplied on a regular basis. The Confederates knew they could not survive a coordinated attack but they also knew that the Yankees needed their supplies. The Confederates decided to send Van Dorn with a fairly large cavalry unit from Grenada, Mississippi up to Holly Springs. Van Dorn easily ran off the small US infantry unit that was protecting the depot. He gathered up as many supplies that he could carry off and destroyed the rest. This attack caused Grant to delay the attack on Vicksburg until more supplies could be brought in. This was the high point in Van Dorn’s military career because he had been defeated in his last two engagements. Van Dorn was a notorious boozer and womanizer and five weeks from this date he was caught in bed with a married woman and her husband unceremoniously shot and killed him.

1860    On this date the South Carolina state legislature votes to secede from the United States in protest of the election of Abraham Lincoln as President because Lincoln was a Republican. This political party was formed in 1850 for the sole purpose of the abolition of slavery. Soon after South Carolina’s secession, six other states seceded and they formed the Confederate States of America. After the first shots were fired, four other states joined the Confederacy.

1986    On this date three black men were driving from Brooklyn to Queens, New York when their car broke down. They walked several miles to the pre-dominantly Italian neighborhood of Howard Beach and went into a pizza parlor to use a phone to call for help. They were told that there was no phone available so they ordered a pizza. Afterward they left and a gang of white teenager was waiting outside. The whites attacked and one of the blacks ran out into the street and was struck and killed by an automobile. One of the other blacks was able to run away but the other was not and was severely beaten but survived. This event stirred racial tensions in New York to a fever pitch that attracted national attention. The Reverend Al Sharpton organized a protest march and demanded a special prosecutor to look into this outrage because the District Attorney of Queens could not be trusted to be unbiased. Governor Mario Cuomo agreed and appointed Charles Hynes as special prosecutor. Hynes finally was able to convict three of the teenagers for the fatality. This was not the end of it. In 2005 three other black men were attacked by a group of white teenager wielding baseball bats. Two of the men escaped unscathed but one was beaten. Racial tensioned flared again. The state of New York passed severe penalties for hate-crimes and things calmed down…for now.

1987    On the day before the ferry Doma Paz had departed an Island near Leyte in the Philippines headed for Manila. The ferry was rated for 1,400 passengers but the demand for the 375 mile trip was great since it was near Christmas so they crammed about 4,000 passengers aboard. After the ferry was out in the open most of the veteran crew was drinking and watching TV with a rookie helmsman at the wheel. The ferry was approaching a busy straight when the 8,000 barrel oil tanker Victor loomed out of the darkness and the two ships collided and a violent explosion and fire ensued. Rescue ships arrived on the scene but were unable to get anywhere near because of the intense heat. There were only 23 survivors mostly from the tanker. For weeks scorched and burned bodies washed up on beaches up and down the Philippine Sea. It was the worst marine disaster in history.

1836    On this date President Andrew Jackson introduced to Congress a treaty that he had negotiated with Ioway, Fox, Sac, Sioux and Omaha Indian tribes. The tribe had agreed to move to lands designated by the US to make room for settlers. However, the US had negotiated over 400 treaties with the Indians most of which were ignored or broken by the US depending on the financial considerations. These events are a black mark on the history of this great nation.

Born today

1865    Irish Patriot Maud Gonne. She said “The English may batter us to pieces but they will never break our spirit.” Hang in there, Maud. We Americans kicked their ass twice in fifty years.

1894    Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies. When chastised about his superiority attitude he said “Considering the company I keep in this place, it is hardly surprising.” The world hates snobs, Bob.

1902    Chicago mayor Richard Daley. He said “We shall reach greater and greater platitudes of achievement.” Dick, you were a dumb-ass, a very powerful dumb-ass, but still a dumb-ass.

1579    English writer John Fletcher. He said “I find the medicine worse than the malady.” John, you must know Doc Hammond.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.