Daily history

Quote of the day:




‘What would Jesus do?’ may be a good philosophy for some but it doesn’t help when I am trying to figure out how much to tip a hooker.”




Charles Gulledge






The Sons of Confederate Veterans in Mississippi have requested a commemorative automobile license tag for Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The people that are opposed to this strengthen their position by saying that Forrest was a leader of the KKK. What Forrest was all about is this:






Forrest was a very wealthy Tennessean that joined the Confederate Army as a cavalryman after the outbreak of the American Civil War. Forrest’s leadership and skill in cavalry tactics became evident very soon. He quickly worked his way into a generalship. His cavalry unit was the most feared by the US Army. US Grant called him “That Devil Forrest”. JEB Stuart called him “The greatest cavalry officer ever foaled.” His exploits in defeating Union army units while severely outnumbered are legendary. After the end of the war in 1865 a group of bored and angry ex-Confederate soldiers gathered in Pulaski, Tennessee and organized the first KKK unit. Their purpose was to play pranks and raise general hell primarily because they were going to lose their lands and fortunes in “Reconstruction”. This did not meet with the approval of the general population and Forrest was recruited in 1866 to instill some discipline into this mob. Forrest did indeed form this group into a quasi-military unit and they did not go and do anything that did not have a redeemable purpose. After about 18 months the mob went back into their old habits and Forrest ordered the dissolution of the KKK and went back to his old profession. Forrest and his brother were prolific slave traders and that is where they made their fortunes. Forrest died and is buried in Memphis. The denial of a commemorative license tag should NOT be based on his dealings with the KKK, but maybe because of his business of buying and selling other people’s souls. I will get some grief about this synopsis from some of my subscribers but it is my opinion none the less.






The power change in Egypt is complete. Mubarak has moved bag and baggage to an Egyptian resort on the Red Sea. Before Mubarak left he turned over his political power to the Egyptian military to keep the peace until general elections that are scheduled for next September. Call it what you want, but when the military takes over the political power of a country it is called a coup-d’état. The Egyptian military units that were on patrol in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez have shouldered their weapons, dismounted from their tanks and APC’s and joined in jubilation with the demonstrators. It is thrilling for me to see history made right before my very eyes. By the way, Hosni Mubarak was not elected, he was vice-president when Anwar Sadat was assassinated and retained power for 30 years. That, my friends, is a dictatorship.






This date in history February 14








1779 A few days earlier a 350 man militia under the command of Patriot General Andrew Pickens was attacking the British forces at Star Fort near Ninety-Six, South Carolina. General Pickens ordered a withdrawal and sent the militia to seek out a column of 700 Loyalist recruits that had just been assembled by British Colonel James Boyd. Boyd and company were headed to North Carolina to join with another British army. Scouts located the column and Pickens devised a two pronged attack with all but 150 of his troops attacking the flank of the column and the other 200 led by Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke attacking the opposite flank through a swamp. It was tougher going through the swamp than expected but Clarke made their way through and the attack called the Battle of Kettle Creek was launched. Even though the Patriots were outnumbered by almost two to one, the attack was successful because one of the first persons killed was British Colonel James Boyd. The Loyalist soldiers panicked and Dooly and Clarke herded the green recruits like cattle. This successful attack interrupted the plans of the British continued occupation of the Carolinas and Georgia. A little later Colonel Dooly was murdered by Loyalists in his log cabin on his plantation near the Savannah River in Georgia. Dooly County, Georgia is named for him. A spring that served the Dooly house is located within the boundary of Elijah Clarke State Park on the banks of Clarke Hill Reservoir (named for Elijah Clarke) on the South Carolina/Georgia border. There is a concrete monument at this site honoring this martyr to our freedom.




1929 Earlier the New York mob decided to expand their operations in Chicago and sent Alphonse Capone to head up the operation. The only problem was that the larger portion of the Chicago crime income belonged to a man named “Bugs” Moran. “Bugs” was not about to give up his Chicago kingdom to anyone, especially a snot-nosed Sicilian. These two fenced back and forth trying to take total control of the city. Moran had called a meeting of his captains for conference about future strategy against the Capone organization. The meeting was set for at a warehouse owned by CRT Cartage and there were seven members of the Moran organization that were supposed to be at the meeting. Somehow Capone got wind of the meeting. On this date the seven members arrived at the warehouse a waited for Moran to arrive. Instead of Moran, three policemen crashed into the front door and told Moran’s men to turn around and face the wall and they opened up with Thompson sub-machine guns and shotguns cutting the seven to ribbons. Moran was approaching the warehouse when he saw the policemen go in so he just kept walking. It wasn’t policemen ya’ll, they were assassins from Detroit hired by Capone. This event was called The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. The next day Moran said “Only Capone kills like that”.




1779 Earlier one of the greatest explorers in history had paid two visits what was later to become the Hawaiian Islands. Captain James Cook was on a five year exploration trek and was expected to circumnavigate the earth. On this date he returned from exploring the north Pacific and sailed into Kealakekua Bay. Little did he know that this date was a holy one to the Hawaiians and especially on this particular day. The Hawaiians believed that the fertility god Lono resided in this bay and this was the day that the god was worshiped. Well, the Hawaiians were not pleased that two boatloads (HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery) of honkies interrupted the ceremony and when Cook and a small boat load of sailors headed for shore, they were met with the Hawaiians throwing rock and other missiles. Cook did not know what the hell was going on, he was met by the smiling Hawaiians on the other two trips. He had no way of knowing of the ceremony worshiping Lono. Anyway, when Cook’s boat reached shallow water, the Hawaiians waded out and cracked Cook upside the head with an oar-shaped war club and killed him. A few of the sailors on Cook’s small boat made it back to the safety of the Resolution. The next day the English got their revenge by opening up with a broadside of their cannon and killed 30 Hawaiians. Needless to say, honkies were persona non-gratis in these islands for a generation.




1864 Earlier Union General William T. Sherman and an army of 20,000 left Vicksburg, Mississippi headed to the rail center of Meridian, Mississippi. He had ordered US General William Smith to depart Memphis with an army of 4,000 to meet him in Meridian. Sherman had decided that he was going to wage total war not only against the Confederate military but the civilian population also in an attempt to break the southern states will to fight. The Confederate Army consisted of 10,000 headed by Leonidas Polk for the entire state who tried the best that they could to delay Sherman but on this date Sherman and his army entered Meridian during a torrential rainstorm. While waiting for Smith’s army to arrive, Sherman set about destroying railroads, storage facilities, banks, hospitals, hotels and whatever useful building that existed. Sherman waited until February 20 for Smith to arrive and then left headed to Georgia to start his infamous “March to the Sea”. The reason Smith did not arrive was that he was ambushed by a CSA army and slaughtered almost to the point of annihilation. That’s right folks; it was CSA General Nathan Bedford Forrest at his best.






1943 Earlier Hitler sent his ace general Erwin Rommel into North Africa to bail out the inept Italian Army that was losing its grip of territory previously gained. Rommel organized one of the best fighting groups ever assembled in the vaunted Afrika Corps. The Afrika Corp relied heavily on armor such as tanks and self propelled artillery. There was a thunderous battle between Rommel and British General Montgomery in which Rommel was forced to retreat westward toward Tunisia. The American army had landed in North Africa behind Rommel’s lines and was headed east to cut off Rommel’s retreat. Rommel decided that he should take the offensive against the newly arrived Americans and decided that the weakest point is Kasserine Pass, a two mile gap in the Dorsal Mountains in Tunisia. Rommel’s first attack was repulsed and he brought up more armor and ran through the American lines like greased lightning. The first major battle against Rommel was won by Rommel. Then the American brought up their best tank commander in General George Patton. After this it was all downhill for Rommel.






Born today:






1913 Immortal football coach of Ohio State Woody Hayes. He said “If we did not have winners, there would be no civilization.” Woody was fired from Ohio State the day after he hit Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the chin after Charlie had incepted an OSU pass and ran out of bounds in a Bowl game that sank Woody’s hopes of winning…forever.






1913 Infamous labor leader Jimmy Hoffa. He said “I have a lot of faults, but being wrong is not one of them.” I wonder where his corpse is.




1960 US rapper and TV star Ice-T. He said “I have a phone, a fax machine, a copier and a hand grenade....Everything you need to do business in Los Angeles.” Ice- T stars on “Law and Order-SVU”. I like him.






Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow