Friday

                     Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing then you are successful.”

                                     Howard Cain

Here are a few brief headlines from my neck of the woods.

A fight broke out outside the Club Odyssey in Rock Hill, SC involving over 50 people. Shots were fired with no one being hit. The crowd scattered when the cops rolled in.

Over in the Tega Cay area (on the border of North and South Carolina near Charlotte) the employees of a Wal-Mart found two babies unattended in a Lexus in the parking lot. The cops arrived and sure enough, there was a 2 year old and a 4 year old in the car crying their eyes out. The cops went into the store and had the driver paged. Seven minutes after page the female driver emerged. She said that she just went in the store for a few minutes and the babies were asleep. The total time that the babies were alone was over 30 minutes. The woman was arrested and the cops called the father to come and get the kids and the Lexus.

Again over in Rock Hill a 23 year old man was pumping some gas into his car when a woman walked up and asked for $10. Apparently an arrangement was reached and the two went into a close by Executive Inn motel room whereupon the woman produced a knife and took the man’s wallet containing about $600. She was last seen jumping into a white Crown Vic with several men aboard. At least she could have earned the $600. What was that man thinking, he could have been murdered...on second thought I know what he was thinking.

Down near Belton, SC (about 30 mile southeast of Greenville) 43 year old Randy Nabors was found hiding behind a farm building. When he was ordered out by the cops, Nabors wanted to fight and fired his Glock at the cops and the cops responded with shots of their own. Randy went down like a sack of potatoes and bled out before EMS could get him to the hospital. He was shot in the hind leg and his main artery was severed. When that happens you only have minutes to live.

            This Date in History October 21

1779 On this date South Carolinian Henry Laurens is named as Ambassador to Holland. Soon thereafter he was on his way to Holland to negotiate a treaty to secure them as an ally against England. He takes with him a proposal written by William Lee that was accepted and signed by Holland. On his way back to the US, Laurens’ ship was intercepted off the coast of Newfoundland by a British warship and he was arrested. While the British were going through Laurens’ personal belongings, they found the treaty signed by the Dutch. The British used this document to declare war on Holland and Laurens was sent to London, tried and convicted of treason and spent 15 months in the Tower of London. Laurens was eventually released in a prisoner exchange in return for the British retrieving Lord Charles Cornwallis that had been captured at Yorktown by US General George Washington. After returning to the US, Laurens retired to his plantation near Charleston, SC. He was approached several times to become a candidate for Continental Congress or the governorship of South Carolina but Laurens refused in each attempt and chose to stay down on the farm and he stayed on the farm until he died in 1792. By the way, there is a county near Greenville named for Henry Laurens.

1861 Earlier in the year, the Union observers had seen the Confederates strengthening their forces in and around Leesville, Virginia. Leesville is across the Potomac River from Washington and any military buildup that close to Washington was cause for alarm. The US General in command of the US Army of the Potomac was General George B. McClellan and on this date he sent a detachment of 1,600 troops to look into the buildup. The commander of the US troops was inexperienced and green but he was the close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln and therefore received a rank that made him a regimental commander. His name was Henry Butler. It was not Butler’s fault that he was sent on this expedition with no military training or experience. Butler sent yet another green and inexperienced trooper out to scout out and find the Confederates. The scout thought he saw the Confederate encampment but in reality he had not. On this information Butler deployed his troops in an open field that was bordered of three sides by a forest and on the back side was a 100 foot cliff called Ball’s Bluff that dropped into the Potomac River. Soon the forest began filing with the wild-eyed Confederates and when the time was right, the screaming Confederates came boiling out of the wood and pushed those Yankees right into the river. Some drowned and some were killed on the drop over the cliff including Butler, but in any event it was a total debacle for the Union Army. Lincoln was appalled at the loss of Butler and blamed himself for his loss and he should have. Sending a totally untrained and inexperienced individual into combat who has the rank because of who he knows rather than what he knows is nothing short of murder.

1805 Napoleon Bonaparte has the all of Europe under his heel and is looking into the invasion of England. Napoleon knows he must have an overpowering Navy of his own to keep the British Navy in check during any invasion. On this date, the British Navy, 27 warships strong and under the command of Lord Horatio Nelson, sighted the combined navy of France and Spain 33 warships strong off the coast of Trafalgar, Spain. The Franco Spanish fleet deployed in a “line-of–battle” meaning that all of their ships were in a straight line sailing in the same direction. They were expecting Nelson to deploy his ships in a straight line and sailing in the opposite direction and they would exchange broadsides. Instead Nelson signaled his ships into two divisions and sailed into the enemy fleet at right angles. The British fleet took a few broadsides at the onset but when they broke through the Franco/Spanish line of battle, they delivered a series of devastating broadsides of their own. The Franco/Spanish fleet was all but destroyed with the sinking of 19 ships and the loss of 14,000 soldiers and sailors while the British suffer not one ship loss but did lose 1,500 troops. The greatest loss was when Nelson’s flag ship HMS Victory was closely engaged in battle and a French Marine sniper up in the rigging found Nelson and delivered two shots into chest and lungs. Nelson was taken below and died soon thereafter. Before dying he was told about his victory and said “I am satisfied now. Thank God I have done my duty.” Nelson’s corpse was stashed into a barrel of rum to preserve him until they got him back to England. Nelson was acknowledged to have saved England from invasion in the destruction of the Franco/Spanish fleet. He was buried with honors in the cemetery at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London (been there). From this event the daily ration of grog (rum) to the English sailors is called “Nelson’s Blood”. There is a park in London that is known to this day as Trafalgar Square with a column and statue of Lord Nelson at the entrance (been there, too).

Births and deaths:

1956 US actress Carrie Fisher is born. She said “I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art.” Hey Carrie, listen to Plato. He said “Life is to be lived as a child at play.”

1920 US LSD guru Timothy Leary is born. He said “Dropping acid has three effects. It enhances your long term memory, damages your short term memory and I forget the rest.” Me too, but it ain’t because of dropping acid.

           Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow