Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“Apparently bears are attracted to women in their menstrual cycle. I would say that a 1,000 pound grizzly against a 120 pound woman with cramps is a fair fight.”

                                          Dave Barry



On January 15 in 1781 super-patriot Daniel Morgan began assembling a 1,000 man army to attack the meanest English officer ever to step foot on American soil along with his army. It was Colonel Banastre Tarleton. After a two day march Morgan’s army prepared a trap into which Tarleton and his army quickly fell. This trap was sprung near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. The history of the battle is in this lesson further down. Morgan was a hell of a fighter, y’all. It was he that formed up a team of snipers and targeted the guides and officers of British military units. He was clearly instrumental for the Patriot victory at Saratoga, probably the most important victory in the American Revolutionary War because this victory brought France in the war on the side of the Patriots. The English thought that Morgan’s targeting of the officers was “ungentlemanly”. Too damned bad, y’all, it got the job done. The killing of English General Pakenham by a sniper early in the Battle of New Orleans insured a victory for US General Andrew Jackson and his army of great variety.



A columnist for the Charleston, S.C. newspaper wrote a piece saying that we South Carolinians should feel guilty about our ancestors firing the first shots of the American Civil War in January of 1861. I wrote him back. Here it is:

Mr. Burger,

I read with interest about your opinion that everyone presently in that area roughly bounded by the Catawba River, the Savannah River and the Atlantic Ocean should feel guilt because of what happened in 1861. I may be a bit off track but I am a native South Carolinian (Greenville) and embarrassingly I feel no guilt. I am a historian especially the War of Northern Aggression and the American Revolutionary War. I have read tomes of material about both events but I still cannot tell what was in the minds of the typical foot soldier before, during or after an engagement. But of those that I was able to glean it was pure horror. Of the diaries of the Union soldiers it is mostly about the preservation of the Union, and of the Confederate soldiers it was they felt like they were being invaded. I am not in denial as you suggest, I just know what I read. Unlike you, I cannot read the minds of those who initiated the revolt; I only know what they wrote. I suggest that you read "Company H" by Sam Watkins (Confederate) and nearly anything by Elijah Rhodes (Union) if you haven't already. They had an insight into reality that neither you nor I can experience. I simply cannot believe that a young man from a hardscrabble farm in Tennessee would fight with unparalleled ferocity so that some fat cat in Mississippi could keep his slaves. There is a documented event where a company of Confederate soldiers were surrounded and being cut to pieces until only one soldier was left. He ran out of ammo and began swinging his rifle like a club. When he was overcome they asked him why he fought so fiercely, he simply said "Because y'all are down here". Why did he and thousands like him fight to a standstill armies that had them outnumbered two or three to one? Anyway, my maternal ancestors as far as I can tell came from Habersham County, Georgia (they were not Bulldogs as yourself) and my fraternal ancestors came from the Marshall, North Carolina area both were farming families and not slave owners. I apologize again for not feeling guilty. I think you wrote this article just to stir the pot, it worked, thanks for listening,

Al Campbell

Greenville, SC


The Charlotte police were called to an apartment complex about a disturbance. When they arrived they found a naked man running up and down the walkway screaming and yelling. When the cops tried to subdue him, he was able to plant a right cross on each of the officer’s jaws knocking them down. One of the officers that had been on the force for 13 months unholstered his Glock and pumped two rounds into the man which naturally subdued him. He died on the way to the hospital. Whatever happened to a nightstick, Mace, pepper spray, a Taser, rubber bullets, et al? There is no question that the police officer lost his temper and in this redneck’s mind he is going to get away with murder.



This redneck also has an opinion about law enforcement and the general public. I believe that both the police and the taxpayers feel that when it comes to law enforcement it is “Us against them”. It is really unfortunate that the police are empowered with the authority to make their personal beliefs enforceable as a crime. After all they are employees of the taxpayers, but neither they nor the taxpayers see it that way.



This date in history January 17






1950    After nearly two years of “casing” the Brinks Armored Car Service main office in Boston, Massachusetts, career criminal Arthur “Fats” Pino decides it is time to knock it over. Fats went out and hired ten other career criminals and on this date they go in and commit one of the most successful and profitable robberies ever executed up until that time. They walked out of the building with $2.6 million dollars and left absolutely no clues. They were all wearing rubber Halloween masks, long black overcoats and chauffer hats similar to those worn by the Brinks armored car drivers. The only thing they left was a few strands of rope that they used to tie up the office personnel. Fats and the other robbers agreed to hide their share of the money and not touch it for 6 ½ years when the statute of limitations expired. One of the conspirators named “Specs” O’Keefe gave his share of the money to one of the others to hold for him while he went to prison to serve 6 years for another crime. All the criminals laid low for 6 years and just days before the statute of limitations ran out, Specs gets cold feet and does not believe the guy he gave his share to still has it and wants proof or he will blow the whistle. Well, Fats ain’t going to sit still for that and sends a “hit man” to the prison to kill their compatriot. The “hit man” only wounds Specs and then he really does “blow the whistle” and the Boston PD begins rounding up the other conspirators. A couple had died in the interim but all of those that were left went to the slammer for a long stretch. Only a couple of thousand dollars of the take was ever found. It is legend that the rest of the money is hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but who can tell.



1966    On this date a US Air Force B-52 that had been on patrol over the eastern Atlantic was attempting to hook up with a KC-135 tanker to re-fuel and head back its base in North Carolina. Something went wrong and the B-52 ran into the re-fueling boom and the incoming fuel ignited and the B-52 exploded killing all four of its crewmen. The explosion also destroyed the KC-135 but four of these crewmen were able to bail out successfully. The real downside was that the B-52 had four 70 kiloton nuclear bombs aboard and when the plane came apart the bombs fell to earth near Polamares, Spain. None of the bombs were armed but if the bomb comes apart, highly radioactive Plutonium escapes. Two of the bombs landed in an open field creating two craters and did indeed come apart spewing radioactive dust into the air. Another one of the bombs landed in a dry creek bed and the mud in the creek bed prevented that bomb from coming apart and it was retrieved almost intact. The fourth bomb fell into the ocean and was never found. Within a matter of hours Polamares, Spain was swarming with Air Force personnel and nuclear specialists. The United States chose to scrape tons of soil from around the two craters until there were no more indications of radioactivity and hauled the dirt out of there. This was not the first nor will it be the last “Broken Arrow” incident. “Broken Arrow” means that a nuclear weapon had been lost or damaged. On another occasion another B-52 accidentally dropped its weapon is a bay near Wilmington, North Carolina and that puppy has never been found to this day. When I was in the Air Force I was based at Elmendorf, AFB near Anchorage, Alaska and before that I was stationed at Eielson AFB south of Fairbanks. Both of these bases had SAC units assigned meaning there were nuclear weapons close by. I was an air traffic controller at both places and you would not believe what went on while I was there. SAC had a “Recon” outfit at Eielson and their job was to fly up and down the Bering Straights (just a few miles from Russia, our sworn enemy at the time) and take “western movies” or photographs of Russian airbases. Because of the reaction of the SAC officers at Eielson at times, there was no doubt in my mind that there was some kind of encounter with the Russians, either one of our recon aircraft was shot at or shot down on more than one occasion. Satellites do that job for us now. Back then it would scare the hell out of you because the threat of nuclear war was just a hairsbreadth away.



1977    Earlier in 1972 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was a violation of the 8th Amendment because it was cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore banned. Well, in 1977 with almost 70% of the American public favoring the death penalty, the Supreme Court re-instated the death penalty. There was a man on death row in Utah named Gary Gilmore. Gary shot and killed an elderly couple because they would not loan him their car, for crying out loud. Gary had been sentenced to death by firing squad and on this date Gilmore was marched out to a post in the middle of a field inside the Utah prison grounds tied to a post and was shot through the heart by twelve riflemen. Gilmore was the first person executed after the death penalty was re-instated. Gilmore was arrogant to the last. When the guards came to get him to take him out to the post, he said “Let’s do it”.



1781    Earlier the Commander of the Continental Army in the South, General Nathaniel Greene, decided to divide his army into two parts because this would force the British Forces in the area led by General Charles Cornwallis to fight on more than one front and it would be easier for these smaller units to feed themselves. The commander of one these Continental units was Colonel Daniel Morgan who was in command of about 1,000 troops. Morgan was assigned the task of kicking the British out of the Star Fort near the town of Ninety-Six, South Carolina. General Cornwallis smelled this out and sent the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton to intercept Morgan. On this date Morgan’s scouts detected the approach of Tarleton near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. Morgan hid the majority of his troops into a bowl shaped forest. He instructed a few of his militia to skirmish with Tarleton’s troops for two shots and then run away through the center of the “bowl”. Tarleton’s troops believing it was a rout followed the troops into the center of the bowl then Morgan’s troops unleashed a deadly crossfire while the original skirmishers came back and joined their brethren adding to their killing efficiency. After this, Morgan brought in a cavalry attack on the flank of the hapless British/Loyalist troops. Tarleton ran like hell and came within a gnat’s ass of being captured. The British/Loyalists had about 700 of their number killed or captured. Morgan lost 12. After this battle and the Battle of Kings Mountain that came later in which the British/Loyalist commanded by British Colonel Thomas Ferguson were totally annihilated, Cornwallis knew that he had to get his ass and his army out the Carolinas and join up with the British army under General Sir Henry Clinton in New York. He didn’t make it.



Born today:



1860    Russian writer Anton Chekhov. He said “I do not know much about ballet, all I know is that during intermission the ballerinas smell like horses.” Thoroughbreds, I am sure.



1886    English writer Arthur Firbank. He said “In heaven the language is Hebrew, Spanish is seldom spoken.” Look at the date, ya’ll.



1899    US super criminal Al Capone. When asked if he had ever been to Canada he said “I don’t even know what street Canada is on.” Al, shut the hell up.



1931    Governor of Virginia Lawrence Wilder (black man) said “The first black president will be a black politician.” Lawrence, shut the hell up too.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.