Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is because they see the past better that it really was, the present worse that it really is and the future less resolved than it will be."

                                     Marcel Pagnold

We have a new subscriber. It is a second cousin that I have not heard from in quite a spell. She thrives in that burgeoning metropolis of Boiling Springs, South Carolina. Welcome aboard, Sandy.

By the way, I have a blog site also. This same epistle that shows up in your e-mail will be in my blog eventually. So if you had rather just read the blog and not get the e-mail advise. The blog is bigalsdailyhistory.blogspot.com

I asked a couple questions about the shooting of the state capitol steps in Austin, Texas and got a response from an old friend that lives in one of the suburbs. She said the state of Texas allows people to carry a hog-leg in public as long as they have a permit. I think the same thing is true here in South Carolina. I am not entirely sure but I have a hog-leg close by at all times anyway. The main question is why is the shooter still alive. Texans have a reputation of "Shoot first and ask questions later." They didn't do that this time.

I try to stay out of the political arena in this venue. I tried to once and all I ended up doing was fence and parry which is not the purpose here. The main purpose is the teaching of historical events and historical people, but I will say this. I have never been more afraid for my country that I am today. The present administration does not appear to have the welfare of this nation at heart. It appears that they had a preconcieved idea about turning this country into something they had imagined, the Constitution be damned. I do not believe the President is a bona fide citizen and I do not believe he is a dyed in the wool Patriot such as myself and many, many others. The welfare of this nation should be at the top of his agenda...it is not. I just hope that we can survive long enough to solve the problem at the voting booth for that is the only way.

I will accept any other opinions but I will not accept a list of problems or wrongdoings or sins committed without a possible and viable solution. A chimpanzee can identify problems but it is the movers and shakers that find solutions. Don't sent me problems without a solution. Hot air disperses the quickest.

In the cities of New York, Atlanta and San Francisco billboards began popping up showing Charles Phillips, the President of the software maker Oracle, in a clinch with a woman that was not his wife. The woman was YaVaughnie Wilkins. Almost immediately Phillips confessed to an eight year tryst with Wilkins and stated that divorce proceedings with his wife have been underway since 2008. That means he was seeing Wilkins for six years before the proceeding were initiated. He has since dumped Wilkins also. Phillips has been appointed to the President's Economic Recovery Board and even more recently to the Tiger Wood Counsel on How Not to Get Your Butt Kicked in Divorce Court.

This date in history January 24

1781    On this date the combined cavalry forces of the Virginian Lieutenant Colonel Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee and South Carolinian Brigadier General Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion descended upon a 200 man British encampment near Georgetown, South Carolina. Henry Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia and was the father of CSA General Robert E. Lee. Francis Marion was born on a plantation on Winyah Bay near Georgetown, South Carolina. Marion had been given command of the South Carolina Militia while the commander, Thomas “The Gamecock” Sumter, was recovering from a severe wound. The raid came as a complete surprise to the British and the Patriots were able to capture a large portion on the encampment including several officers and the camp commander. A month later “Light-Horse Harry” Lee was able to destroy another British unit on the banks of the Haw River in North Carolina. Lee’s unit was able to close in on the British without opposition this was because the uniforms worn by the Patriots were very similar to those worn by the British cavalry unit of the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton. When the Patriots were within sight of the British they waved greeting to them and kept it up until they were within striking distance. After this is was nothing short of a slaughter. The British commander, Colonel John Pyle, lost three fingers and the sight of one eye during the attack but was able to escape by jumping into a nearby pond and hiding in the reeds. To this day that body of water is known as “Pyle’s Pond”.

1956    Earlier a 14 year old black kid from Chicago named Emmett Till was visiting his great-uncle on his farm near Money, Mississippi. He bragged to the locals there that he had a white girlfriend in Chicago and was challenged to see if he could get one there in Mississippi. Emmett was the typical teenager and accepted the challenge. He went into the local convenience store and made a pass at a married white woman working there. A couple of days later the woman’s husband came home from a business trip and was told of what happened with Emmett. So J.W. Milam and his cousin Roy Bryant go to Emmett’s great-uncle’s farm and kidnap Emmett. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. They beat Emmett to death with their pistols; Milam and Bryant took Emmett’s corpse to the crest of the Tallahatchie Bridge, wrapped barbed wire around Emmett’s neck and the other end to a heavy cotton gin fan and threw them both off the bridge. The corpse was eventually discovered and Milam and Bryant were arrested and went to trial for murder. They were acquitted because the defense lawyer was able to convince the jury that the corpse was so decomposed that the true identification could not be determined. The prosecution produced a ring that was found on the corpse that was known to be owned by Emmett. The defense blew it off as being stolen. Anyway, because of the law of double jeopardy Milam and Bryant, knowing they could not be tried again, on this date sold their description of the murder of Emmett to Look magazine for $4,000. Emmett’s mother retrieved his corpse back to Chicago and in her anger held an open casket funeral that was attended by over 5,000 people. No other attempts to bring Milam and Bryant to justice but they both died of cancer a few years later. God works in mysterious ways.

1848    Earlier a Swiss emigrant to the United States named John Sutter had acquired 7,000 acres in Mexico owned California if he would swear allegiance to Mexico and keep those pesky European settlers at bay. The land was in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco. Sutter had ideas of creating a type of commune on his lands. He determined that in order to build housing he would need a saw mill so he hired a man named James Marshall to build one. The main water source in that area was the American River and Marshall decided to build his water powered saw mill on the south fork of the American River. He began digging to deepen the creek and in the diggings he kept seeing flashes of light off some of the flakes therein. On this date he gathered up some of the flakes and took them to Sutter who immediately took them to an assayer who told Sutter that it was indeed gold. Sutter tried to keep this discovery a secret and succeeded for a while but eventually the word leaked out and in 1849 the largest gold rush in history was under way. Sutter did not have to worry about the Mexicans any longer because Mexico ceded all its lands in California to the United States as a result of the US victory in the Mexican War. You would think that this would make Sutter very happy but by 1852 his thoughts of a commune had gone down the toilet and the oncoming gold seekers trampled his gardens and slaughtered his farm animals for food. He spent the last years of his life petitioning the US government to recompense him for his losses at the hand of the miners. He did not get anything.

1943    On this date the commander of the German 6th Army, General Frederick von Paulus, entreated Hitler to allow his army to surrender. Hitler refused. Earlier Hitler had launched Operation Barbarossa which was the attempt to conquer Russia. There were three armies that departed Germany on this mission. Paulus was the commander of the central army whose main target was the capture of the city of Stalingrad. Upon arrival at the gates of Stalingrad he ran across a nut he could not crack so he surrounded the city and established a siege in an attempt to starve the people of Stalingrad into submission. In spite of millions starving to death, the city did not fall. Eventually the Russian army got on its feet and attacked Paulus’ army at its weakest point, the Romanian detachment. After breaking through here, the Russians swarmed around the Germans and encircled them cutting off their supplies. After the Russians had overrun his last airfield, Paulus knew the end was near especially since the descent of the worst winter in fifty years. A few days after the loss of this airfield, Paulus surrendered his army to the Russians, Adolph Hitler be damned. The Russians, remembering the people that starved to death in Stalingrad, accepted the surrender and gathered up the 500,000 half starved, half frozen Germans and sent them to prison camps. Of those that were captured, only 16,000 ever lived to see Germany again. Paulus was tried at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials, but was released and spent his last days in East Berlin.

Quotable quotes:

“I go to see my doctor and tell him that when I get up in the morning I look in the mirror and begin to throw up. The doctor said that he did not know what was causing the nausea but my eyesight was perfect.” Rodney Dangerfield

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.