Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Indecision may, or may not be my problem.”

Jimmy Buffett

Jan C. Nice seeing you.

Thanks to my friend Phil Bradley I am reading volume 4 of a set of 12 books about the American Civil War. The set was published in 1911. Here is one event that is worth retelling:

The first Confederate cavalry super-star was a Virginian named Turner Ashby. His father fought in the War of 1812 and his grandfather fought for freedom in the American Revolution. Colonel Ashby had several of the finest examples of horse flesh in the United States. His favorite was a pure white stallion that was alleged to be the fastest horse alive...if not the smartest and best trained. Colonel Ashby delighted in allowing himself to be seen by the Union cavalry and wave his egret feather plumed hat at them and simply trotting away and do the same thing again and again. There was no horse in the Union cavalry that could match Ashby's mount...or so it seemed. On one occasion a Union cavalry officer had a mount that was the equal in sheer speed. Ashby took off at a gallop with the Union officer and his large bay mare close aboard. Ashby took one shot with his pistol but missed and drew his saber. The larger Union officer caught Ashby's saber hand with one hand and his luxuriously long beard with the other and dragged them both to the ground uninjured. Ashby's mount stopped immediately. The rest of the Union cavalry came up and Ashby was captured. They were escorting Ashby aboard his mount back to the Union lines when Ashby pressed a knee into the horses side. It bolted to the left, jumped a very tall fence and disappeared into a forest with Ashby aboard. In addition to sheer speed the white stallion could also jump. There were no “jumpers” in this group of Union mounts. A short time later that Union cavalry unit saw a rider in dressed in gray on a distant hill aboard a white stallion. The rider removed his plumed hat, swept it down almost to the ground put it back on and disappeared...it was....well, you know.

The “Secession Ball” was held in Charleston, SC with about 400 participants, some in period costumes. A ticket was $100 a person and all the money went to charity. As expected there were some protesters stating that the ball was just to celebrate slavery. How in the hell can one person tell another what they were/are thinking? If I were to hold a party to acknowledge the death of Mohammad, could I expect the local Muslims to protest because they believe I am really glad that he is dead. Maybe. In any case it is a private party and I will use whatever premise that I wish just like the “Secession Ball”. The media requested entry to the ball but were rejected because it was a private party. They said “If you want to come in buy a ticket.” There were no takers. By the way, Mohammad died about 632AD after being poisoned. Mohammad and his troops had attacked a Jewish settlement, beheaded the men leaders, sold the women and children into slavery and Mohammad took the best looking woman as his wife. Later on he threw a party and had some of the Jewish slaves act as servants. The Jews administered poison to the meat (lamb and goat) and Mohammad had several portions. He fell ill and hung onto life by a thread for three years before succumbing.

      This Date in History   December 22

1984   On this date a 45 year old white man named Bernard Goetz is surrounded by four young black men on a New York subway car. The thugs demanded money from Goetz. Instead Goetz whipped out a .38 caliber revolver and opened fire wounding three of them and the fourth was cowering in a doorway when Goetz said “You don’t look too bad, here’s another” and shot him in the back severing his spinal cord. This eighteen year old black man was named Darrell Cabey who was paralyzed from the waist down and had brain damage. Goetz fled the scene but turned himself in eight days later at a police station in New Hampshire. In the subsequent interview that was videotaped Goetz admitted that he was scared and when the four smirked at him he wanted to “kill them all” but felt he has just protecting himself and pled innocent to attempted murder at his arraignment. Goetz’s actions was racially motivated according to the District Attorney but many people in New York and around the country agreed with Goetz and money flowed in for his defense. Goetz’s act was very divisive to the city of New York where racial tensions were very high at the time. In 1987 Goetz went to trial and was acquitted of attempted murder and assault but was convicted of a violation of New York’s Sullivan Law that forbids unlicensed firearms in the city. He served a little over eight months in prison for that indiscretion. After his release he was sued in a civil suit by Darrell Cabey for damages to the tune of $14 million. Goetz promptly declares bankruptcy and disappears into the woodwork. I can assure you that if that scenario happened here in Greenpatch I doubt that the shooter would be arrest but if he was, he would be released on his own recognizance. If it happened to me, I would shoot first and take whatever heat comes later. I will not be mugged by some undisciplined jackasses that had rather rob someone rather than work.

1894   On this date a French Army Captain named Alfred Dreyfus is arrested and charged with treason for giving military secrets to the Germans. Four months later Dreyfus was convicted on the flimsiest of evidence and sent to infamous Devil’s Island Prison on the north coast of South America. Captain Dreyfus was guilty of nothing but being Jewish. The French military hierarchy was vehemently anti-Semitic. Two years later newly found evidence pointed to a French Captain Esterhazy as the culprit in giving secrets to the Germans. The French Military had no choice but to put Esterhazy on trial who was acquitted in four hours. The French military was not about to admit that they had made a mistake with the Jew Dreyfus. When this trial was made public the famous novelist Emile Zola printed an article in a Paris newspaper labeled “L’Accuse” accusing the French courts of being under the thumb of the French military. This caused a division in the French people. The nationalists and the Catholic Church supported the military and the Republicans, socialists and those interested in religious freedom for just as opposed and lined up to support Dreyfus. In 1898 A French Captain named Hubert Henry who originally found the evidence against Dreyfus admitted he had forged most if not all of it and then committed suicide. Esterhazy had log since fled the country. The French Military brought Dreyfus back for another trial and again convicted him and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. But this time a new administration was in place and they immediately pardoned Dreyfus. In 1906 the French courts overturned his original conviction. This whole debacle brought social reform and a reduction to the power of the military. Formal laws were passed that provided the permanent separation of church and state which in my opinion, was the main problem all along.

1775   On this date the Continental Congress voted to form a Continental Navy commanded by Esek Hopkins as commander of the fleet. This fledgling navy only had four vessels, the Alfred, Columbus, Andrea Doria and the Cabot. They had four captains, Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle and John Burrows Hopkins. They had only 8 lieutenants but one of which was to become a national hero in John Paul Jones. Esek Hopkins was an interesting man; he was also a very wealthy man from Rhode Island. He married a very wealthy woman but he made a fortune during the Seven Years War. He bought a boat with his wife’s money and became a privateer sailing up and down the east coast. As a privateer he was essentially a pirate working for whoever paid him the most or allowed him to keep a majority of the booty he captured. The Continental Congress wanted him to continue this enterprise working for the Colonies and again offered him a percentage of the take. What they were really after was warships and that is exactly what Hopkins and company did, especially John Paul Jones. They would sneak aboard British warships, assassinate the Captain and any of the crew that objected, take command and sail the ship into Continental. Our navy did not begin in an auspicious manner but look at us now. In this case, crime paid.

1978   On this date a man named John Wayne Gacy confessed to murdering 24 young men and boys and burying their bodies under his suburban Chicago house. Law enforcement officials did indeed find the bodies. Gacy was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Gacy spent 14 years on death row where he painted pictures of clowns that sold for thousands of dollars. Gacy was a clown in charity events from time to time, if you can believe that. Finally after all of his appeals were exhausted he was executed by lethal injection in the prison in Joliet, Illinois and hell rejoiced at the new arrival. For a while Gacy was the worst serial killer in American history until George Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, was caught and convicted of killing over 48 women that were mostly prostitutes in the Pacific Northwest. He is visiting John Wayne Gacy as we speak.

1884  John Chisum is born in Tennessee in 1824. When he was six, his family moved to Paris, Texas. After he grew up he became involved in construction for a while then he decided that he wanted to raise cattle and started a cattle ranch on the Pecos River in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Chisum was very successful and was soon running over 80,000 head. The problem was that running a herd that large over such a wide range invited cattle rustlers and it soon became apparent that Chisum was losing about 10,000 head a year to rustlers. Chisum found that this unacceptable and tracked down the culprits. The culprits were a group running a mercantile establishment known as “The House” in Lincoln County. The House was really not a mercantile business; it was a clearing house for rustled cattle that were sold to the US Cavalry under exclusive contract meaning that Chisum and the other large ranchers were undercut by The House. Tensions flared and one of the employees of Chisum shot and killed one of the employees of The House. This shooter was Billy the Kid. After this shooting a war broke out between the large ranchers and The House forever known as the Lincoln County War. The war raged for several months but it became apparent that The House would prevail because they had the backing of the US Cavalry and the war ended. Devastated by the Lincoln County War and the continued loss of cattle, John Chisum moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to retire. He died three months later. Even then he left an inheritance of over $500,000 which was an enormous amount at the time.

Born today:

1639   French writer Jean Racine. He said “Often it is fatal to live too long.” That stupid statement sounds like a Frenchman doesn’t it?

1912   First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson. She said “Children are likely to live up to what you believe in them.” Lady Bird was a class act.

1945   US Journalist Diane Sawyer. She said “I guess the one lesson I learned was that there is no substitute for paying attention.” Indeed, Diane, indeed.

       Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow