Tuesday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The heights by great men reached and kept,

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Over in Spartanburg, South Carolina the Sheriff office was called about a man chasing a woman around the parking lot of the Sun and Sand Motel. The cops arrive to see a man indeed in pursuit of a woman although he was staggering a lot. The cops tried to arrest him but he wanted to fight. He chose to spit in the face of a female officer and then he declared that he had AIDS. It was then that the cops entered into a more aggressive method of arrest. The man was hit with a plethora of charges. By the way, the police report stated that the perpetrator was injured during the arrest and was taken to the hospital for treatment. I have this mental image...

It is generally accepted that the first humans to enter North America were immigrants from Siberia that crossed the Bering Sea Land Bridge during the last Ice Age about 13,000 years ago. A while back near Bozeman, Montana a construction company asked for permission to take some dirt from a land owned by a local rancher to be used as fill for a new grammar school and it was allowed. During one dig they found a large number of obviously man made spear and arrow points along with several carved figurines made of mammoth tusk ivory. Finally they uncovered a burial pit with an ocher covered skeleton of a young child. The land owner is a biological geneticist. She asked the local Native American tribe (Crows) for permission to take a DNA sample and reluctantly they allowed it. It took a while but thru carbon-14 testing it was determined that the skeleton was about 13,000 years old meaning this was one of the oldest remains ever found in North America and was clearly was a member of the first human tribe to ever set foot on this land. A DNA sampling was taken and it was determined that this child's ancestors were 1/3^rd Siberian and 2/3^rd Indonesian. This information was relayed to the local Crow chief. It was an emotional moment for this man because in the past the Native Americans did not know for sure who their ancestors were...now they did. Evidently people from Indonesia and Siberia met just before crossing the land bridge into North America. This type of DNA is unknown anywhere else in the world making the Native Americans unique. After all of this the remains were taken back to the very grave where they were found and re-interred during a very emotional ceremony by the local Crow tribal elders. I was touched.

     This Date in History  October 11

1776 On this date a British fleet under the command of Sir Guy Carleton defeated 15 American gunboats on Lake Champlain. The American gunboats were commanded by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold. Arnold fought valiantly in delaying the British fleet to allow the defenses of New York to be completed. As we all know about the treasonable act perpetrated by Arnold later on. He was in command of the American fort at West Point, New York and offered it to the British for $20,000. He was discovered after his compatriot John Andre was arrested. No one really knows what precipitated this despicable act but the best rumor is that his new wife was from a privileged family and wanted the same lifestyle with which she had become accustom with Arnold and he did not have the means to accomplish this. So he tried to gather money by other means. But that is just a rumor.

1862 Earlier on September 17 the infamous battle of Antietam occurred which resulted in the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee commanding, having to retreat into Virginia to rest and recover from this struggle. On October 9 the Army of the Potomac, General George B. McClellan commanding, was still in camp near Antietam. He had no intentions in following Lee into Virginia remembering that his army was nearly cut to pieces by Lee the last time he was in Virginia in the Battle of the Seven Days. So while McClellan languished, Lee sent the brash but efficient cavalry officer General J.E.B. Stuart and 2,500 troopers on a raid into Pennsylvania to try to cut The Yankee supply lines. Stuart chose to go into Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and try to destroy a railroad bridge that was necessary for the transportation of goods into the Washington/Baltimore area. On this date Stuart and company rode into Chambersburg seeking the bridge. They found the bridge but were unable to destroy it because it was made of iron. They headed back toward Virginia gathering booty as they went including 2,000 horses. They were able to pass almost within sight of McClellan’s camp without being detected and crossed the Potomac to the safety of Virginia and the Army of Northern Virginia. It is a mystery to me how Stuart, 2,500 mounted troopers and an extra 2,000 horses could go anywhere undetected, but I ain’t J.E.B. Stuart.

1923 An attempt was made to rob a Southern Pacific railroad train in Oregon. The thieves chose to use an explosive charge to blow open a mail car. As the train entered a tunnel the thieves jumped into the engine and took the fireman and engineer captive and set off the explosive charge in the mail car. They had used way more explosive than necessary and blew the rail car to smithereens killing the mail car attendant. In the following confusion, the thieves shot and killed the engineer, the fireman and the brakeman and fled. The local police only found a pile of clothes and a few scraps of paper and were at as loss for clues. They called in master detective Edward Heinrich. He examined the clothes and determined that the stains on the clothes were not grease as previously thought but it was pine and fir tar, which was typical of the lumberjacks in the area. One of the scraps of paper was a mail receipt that Heinrich back tracked and eventually discovered the three perpetrators. They were tried and convicted and given a life sentence thanks master detective Edward Heinrich.

1809 On this date one of the leaders of the Corps of Discovery, Meriwether Lewis, died in a tavern on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. By the way, the Natchez Trace is a trail from Nashville, Tennessee to the area of Natchez, Mississippi on the river. Lewis had been given the governorship of the territory of Louisiana by his mentor, Thomas Jefferson. But Lewis was not politician and found out about crooked double dealings in short order. Also he had promised the details and maps that he and Clark had accumulated in that famous trip. Jefferson was disappointed that none of this had been delivered in three years. Lewis had stopped at Grinder’s Tavern to spend the night. Mrs. Grinder reported that she had heard Lewis pacing the floor and talking out loud. She finally heard two pistol shots and Lewis staggered out of his room and asked for help from Mrs. Grinder. She did not provide assistance because she said she was too scared. The next morning a few men went into Lewis’ room and find him slashing at himself with a razor and he eventually died. It is apparent that he committed suicide.

Born today:

1959 US Representative Bob Inglis (SC). He said “Asking and incumbent member of Congress to vote for term limits is like asking a chicken to vote for Colonel Sanders.” Bob swore to us that he would only stay in Congress for two terms. He was working on his sixth term when he was defeated by Trey Gowdy. When Inglis was asked why he did not do what he said about the two terms he said “The power and influence you have is so intoxicating it is addictive.”

          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow