Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"There is one outstanding fact about Spaceship Earth, it did not come with an instruction book."

                                   Buckminster Fuller

Two weeks ago two men launched a boat in Baldwin County, Alabama to go squirrel hunting in the Tensaw/Mobile river delta. I have launched at that very same ramp to go fly fishing for bream and bass in the branches of the Tensaw River. The water in that area is like you might suspect it is smooth, languid and black with tannin. It reminds you of the Okefenokee swamp. In short, it is nearly impenetrable jungle if you get out of the boat. These two squirrel hunters never returned from their trip and not a scrap of them was ever found, not even the boat. It is unlikely they will ever be found because if they are dead the damp and fetid air would promote decomposition. Not only that there are black bears and alligators and various other predators and parasites throughout the area. Not only that, if one or both of them wanted to disappear off the face of the earth that would be a top notch place for the trail to end.

Along those lines, many years ago while Lake Hartwell on the South Carolina/Georgia border was filling up after the dam was closed, there were a few homesites that were partially underwater and were magnets to SCUBA divers and snorkelers. A group of divers were taken to one of the homesites to explore. One of the divers was in serious financial trouble. The home site was on the top of a hill that was partially submerged and when the divers went over the side, this man in financial trouble swan around to the opposite side of the hill and got aboard a waiting boat and off he went. Later on the dive master did a head count and discovered that he had a missing diver. An extensive search was initiated but nothing was found. Near to the homesite was a section of the lake that went down to 160 feet. It was reasoned that if the diver had got into trouble and drowned over that spot they would never find him since he had a weight belt on. The local law enforcement was not satisfied and they kept up the search. It took a couple of years but the man was found by tracking his SSN and profession. It was a good plan but he was nailed.

The indigenous peoples of North America (Indians) have begun to buy up huge tracts of land and donating it to the Federal Land Trust. This means the land cannot be build upon nor even homesteaded. The Indians want to keep some of the lands that their ancestors lived on before it was stolen from them by the US Government by treaties us honkies never honored. The Indians have been waiting patiently for us to do the honorable thing but it has never happened so they are doing it on their own. It is mostly the Winnebagos, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Rosebud Sioux and Nez Perce but there are others involved. It seems that the Indians are using the profits from their casinos to buy these lands so that makes us honkies paying for the Indians to recover that lands that were theirs in the first place. God works in mysterious ways.

The Good News section below mentions the town of Six Mile, SC. Here is the legend that brought about that name.

Before and during the American Revolutionary War there was a large Cherokee village in northwestern South Carolina named Keowee. There was a Cherokee princess that lived in the village named Isaqueena. This princess had a British soldier as a boy friend and she learned that the local mititia was planning an attack on Star Fort located ninety-six miles south-southwest of Keowee. Her boyfriend was stationed at that fort. One night Isaqueena mounted a horse and rode to Star Fort to warn her lover of the attack. The route she took is known to this day as The Isaqueena Trail. The trail is marked by distances from Keowee. There is the town of Six Mile, 12 mile creek, 18 mile Creek, 23 mile creek, 26 mile creek, etc. and the location of the Star Fort is known to this day as Ninety-Six, SC. Supposedly Isaqueena was able to arrive ahead of the militia and the British soldiers were prepared for the attack. This is just a legend but these landmarks got their names somehow.

Good news:

There is a good story about a man that really cares about his neighborhood. Aaron Smith has deeply involved himself into his community affairs in the small town of Six Mile, South Carolina. Six Mile is almost as far as you can go in northwestern South Carolina without being in North Carolina or Tennessee. It is also the location of one of South Carolina's nuclear power plants. This man recently won a run off election for a seat on the Six Mile city council. This not the first foray into politics for Aaron. He has already served his community on the city planning commission, he is a member of the Six Mile Volunteer Fire Department and is involved with the city of Seneca, South Carolina Sheriff's Explorer Program. He is attending Tri-County Tech taking a course in mechanical design and plans to attend Clemson and take courses that will make him an architect. Aaron is 18 years old.


This date in history December 29

1778   On this date British Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell and an army of between 2,500 and 3,600 launched a surprise attack on the city of Savannah , Georgia . Included in the army were the 71st Highlanders, some New York Loyalists and a group of Hessian mercenaries. Savannah was defended by Patriot Major General Robert Howe and a rag tag army of 650-900 infantrymen. Howe saw that he did not have a chance and ordered the evacuation of the city then he ordered the withdrawal of the Patriot troops. The Georgia Brigade was cut off and nearly annihilated with the killing of 83 and the capture of 483. After the completion of the withdrawal the British had suffered 3 killed and 10 wounded. The British occupied Savannah and left only because they wanted to in July of 1782. The majority of the residents of Savannah were Loyalists anyway making their occupation much easier. The Patriots tried to kick the British out of Savannah once in 1779 when they established a siege but it didn’t work so the Patriots said to hell with it and just sealed off the city so no one came or sent except by sea. What was peculiar was that Savannah was a hotbed of Loyalists (Colonists loyal to the King of England) in fact; the entire state of Georgia was more than 50% Loyalist. That is really peculiar because right next door in South Carolina was full of firebrands for independence from Great Britain . Maybe ya’ll don’t know the reason why there is a Georgia in the first place. The state of Georgia was formed by England at the behest of the wealthy plantation owners in South Carolina to be a buffer between their plantations and the bloodthirsty Spanish slave traders coming up from Spanish-owned Florida. This meant that the people that settled in Georgia were owing to the British crown for the lands that were given to them. I suppose that is where the Loyalist syndrome came from. It sucked, in any event.

1890    On this date one of the most damnable acts ever committed by the US Army happened. The plains Indians had been vanquished and sent to reservations, especially the fiery Lakota Sioux. The last remnants of this once proud and independent tribe were sent to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota . Due to the corruptness of the US officials, the Sioux on the reservation were not getting the food that was promised to them and starvation was staring them in the face not to mention the abominable living conditions. The killing of the chief medicine man, Sitting Bull, further inflamed the situation. Before he died, Sitting Bull had told his follower that if they resurrected the ritual of the Ghost Dance, they could regain their strength and power that they had in the past. So the ritual of the Ghost Dance was begun. This ritual would not have made any difference but it did give the Sioux the hope and belief that they could prevail therefore the Ghost Dance was forbidden by the US authorities. On this date, on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek, a group of Sioux were doing the Ghost Dance when a group of US Cavalry shows up to try to put a stop to it. During the confrontation a cavalryman and an Indian get into a scuffle and a shot was fired. No one knows who fired the shot but immediately the cavalrymen opened fire and in a matter of seconds 146 Lakota Sioux were dead more than half were women and children. This Massacre at Wounded Knee is the last armed conflict between the US army and Native Americans. There is a book titled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee authored by Dee Brown that all should read; I promise you it will give you pause about what we Americans are all about.

1170    Earlier Henry II had seen to it that Thomas Becket was made the Archbishop of Canterbury in the hope that Becket would help him get the church out of state business. But almost as soon as Becket assumed the position, he said that he supported the Church taking part in state business. There were several heated conversations between Henry and Thomas but with no resolution to the problem. In a moment of anger Henry says “What parcel of fools and dastards have I nourished in my house, and not one of them will avenge me of this upstart clerk?” Well, four of Henry’s knights saw this as Henry wanting Becket dead. On this date, the four knights enter Canterbury Cathedral and killed Thomas. The Christian world is in an uproar that a man of the cloth is killed in the house of God. Henry caught a large ration of shit about this and in 1174 he was forced to do penance at Thomas Becket’s tomb. Not only that, England had to endure the church meddling in state affairs until Henry VIII came along and put a stop to it. The church canonized Thomas Becket meaning he was made a Catholic Saint. In 1220 Becket’s remains was re-buried in Canterbury Cathedral (been there).

1862    Earlier US General Ulysses Grant had planned a two pronged assault on Vicksburg , Mississippi . He assigned one prong of the attack to US General William Sherman and Grant would direct the other one. It was a good plan except for one thing. CSA Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and Earl Van Dorn and their respective cavalry units were out there roaming the countryside. Forrest and Van Dorn found Grants supply dump and destroyed it. This forced Grant to delay if not scratch the attack but he did not get word to Sherman in time. The Rebs only had 6,000 troops dug in to face Sherman and his army of 37,000. But within just hours of the attack the Rebs received an additional 6,000. On this date, Sherman attacked as planned but his attack was across open country and anticipated. With Grant not attacking and providing a diversion, the dug in Rebs crushed the attack before it had got started. Sherman learned from this experience and never again attacked across open ground and always inflicted more casualties than he received.

1940    Earlier in July the countries of Holland , Belgium , Norway and France had fallen to the onslaught of the German army. In August Hitler put Operation Sea Lion into effect. This was the plan to defeat England and complete his domination of Europe. Hitler was assured by Herman Goering that England could be defeated by air power alone. So the German air force began the bombing of RAF air bases and radar sites. The German’s sent 1,500 bombers over in a single day. Nothing worked except the German air force began losing many, many aircraft to the RAF fighter pilots. The enraged Hitler ordered that to hell with the RAF bases, bomb the hell out of English cities especially London in the hopes of breaking the English morale. That didn’t work either but in this date, the worst air attack yet came. The Germans rained incendiaries on London starting conflagrations that burned for two days and nights. The upside of this was that the RAF bases were spared attack and were able to repair and recover. The result was that on the next air attack, 56 German aircraft went down in a matter of minutes. After this, Hitler said to hell with Operation Seal Lion.

Born today:

1809 British Prime Minister William Gladstone. He said “No man becomes good or great except through great and many mistakes.” If this is true, I must be 10 feet tall and bulletproof.

1936 US actress Mary Tyler Moore. She said “Sometimes it takes you to really know someone to realize that you are really strangers.” Tack onto that “especially if you have been married three times and had two live-ins”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow