Monday

                   Musings and History

“When we talk to God we are praying. When god talks to us we are schizophrenic.”

                                           Lily Tomlin

I recently had a specialist look into my ancestry. My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Justus and she was born on a farm near Hendersonville, NC. From this I discovered that her grandparents had moved to that farm from South Carolina in 1829. They had issue of 9 children one of which was Walker Sevier Justus, my great grandfather. They also lost 4 sons in the Civil War most fighting with Co. I, 16^th North Carolina Regiment, these men were my great-great uncles. They were William, Wilson, Merida and Mitchell.

This Regiment was under the command of General Wade Hampton III, a well known South Carolinian along with Generals Dorsey Pender and Alfred Scales, both North Carolinians, and was present at some of the major battles of the entire war including: 2^nd Manassas, Seven Pines, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsvile, Gettysburg and were present at the surrender at Appomattox. Two of my great-great uncles died at Petersburg, one died at Fredericksburg and one died Valley Mountain, Va.

It was the 16^th North Carolina that penetrated the Union center at Gettyburg during Pickett's charge but had to withdraw when Stuart's cavalry did not meet arrive and give support.

I have often wondered why I get teary-eyed when writing about these battles and now I know why.

I honor the Confederate flag because it reminds me of my ancestry and I don't give a damn about the politics. If you want to give me a hard time about it...then bring it.

This Date in History November 21

1985 On this date Jonathon Jay Pollard is arrested. Pollard was an American Jew working for United States Naval Intelligence as an analyst. As incredible as it seems, Pollard was arrested for espionage for selling intelligence information about different Muslim groups and countries to Israel. I personally do not have a problem with this but Secretary of State Casper Weinberger really wigged out about this information leak and persuaded the Justice department to seek a life sentence. Pollard was eventually convicted of espionage and was sentenced to life. The Israeli government did not really object to the sentenced and deemed it as an embarrassment. However, a few years later the Israeli government pushed to have Pollard’s sentenced reduced because his sentence was far more severe than other similar cases where information was being sold to “friendly” countries and they gave Pollard an Israeli citizenship. It was for naught because Pollard is still in the slammer with no end in sight.

1783 On this date the first manned flight of a sort occurred. Frenchmen Jean-Francois Rozier and Francois Laurent traveled 5.5 miles across the city of Paris in a hot air balloon. They were aloft for about 25 minutes. One hundred and twenty years later, the Wright Brothers gave us controlled flight. They were not the first to fly in a heavier-than-air vehicle. There were several flights made in gliders that were uncontrolled. In their patent they called the control surfaces ailerons which are what they are called today. Man has been seeking a way to break the bonds of gravity all the way back to Greek mythology and Daedelus and Icarus in particular. Even Leonardo da Vinci designed a wing that was supposed to be used by humans but as far as we know it was never built and tested.

1776 US General George Washington ordered General Charles Lee to abandon his position Westchester County, New York and to join Washington in New Jersey. Lee liked it in New York and did not particularly care about reinforcing Washington so he dawdled and delayed moving his troops. But eventually he headed towards Washington’s position. Lee was a horny guy and sought a place to engage a willing woman along the way and found one in “Widow White’s Tavern” in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. The next morning a British detachment led by the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton woke Lee up, arrested him and took him to a British camp in his sleeping gown. That’s right; men wore gowns for sleeping in those days. While in captivity he even designed battle plans for the British. Before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Lee was in the British army and he and Tarleton were in the same unit. After serving a short sentence Lee went and joined Washington in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. He had a short argument with Washington whereupon he was kicked out the Continental army. Lee was well thought of in the Indian community because he was married to a Mohawk. That’s right, he was married.

1860 Tom Horn is born this day of a farm near Memphis, Missouri. As a youngster he loved to roam field and forest with his dog and rifle hunting for game. He sharpened his skills with rifle to a fine edge but Tom had a problem at home. His father was a violent man and beat him and his mother on a regular basis which resulted on Tom running away from home at the age of 14. He made his way to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he took a job as a teamster. He showed and unusually good adaptation at learning different Indian languages, Apache in particular. His skill at languages earned him a job with the US Cavalry as an interpreter and scout. Some time after this Tom decides to put his skills with a rifle to good use and becomes a hired assassin. He said “Killing is my specialty. I look at it as a business proposition, and I think I have corner on the market.” He took a job with the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency. Under normal circumstances a Pinkerton detective would stop short of killing, but under some cases they would form small armies and engage in shootouts with bank and train robbers. Then he became a free-lance assassin. He was hired by a huge cattle corporation in Wyoming to take out a “settler” who had started a ranch in the open range which was considered private property by the corporation for the grazing of their cattle. On occasion the settler would brag about how good the beef tasted was that he found grazing on his land and refused all attempts to buy him out. The corporation hired Tom to put an end to this problem. The settler showed up dead a few days later. It was determined that the settler was shot at a distance of over 300 yards. No one in the area could make that shot other than Tom Horn. Tom eventually went to the gallows for killing a 14 year old boy.

Born today:

1694 French philosopher Voltaire. He said “In England it is considered well to kill an admiral once in a while to encourage the others.” Voltaire had an acid tongue but he wrote some good stuff.

1907 US writer Jim Bishop. He said “A writer in not, per se, a good critic anymore that a drunk is a good bartender.” I am not a good bartender.

1922 US basketball coach Abe Lemons. He said “You finish last in your league they call you an idiot. You finish last in medical school and they call you a doctor.” Tack on to that “lawyers”.

1945 US actress Goldie Hawn. She said “There are just three ages for female actresses in Hollywood, Babe, District Attorney and Driving Miss Daisy.”

           Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow