Wednesday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“All we have is the here and now. If we play it right it is all we will need.”

                                         Ann Richards

Here is a Medal of Honor citation given to one bad dude, y’all. The history lesson will follow.

WOODFILL, SAMUEL

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 60th Infantry, 5th Division. Place and date: At Cunel, France, 12 October 1918. Entered service at: Bryantsburg, Ind. Birth: Jefferson County, Ind. G.O. No.: 16, W.D., 1919.

Citation:

While he was leading his company against the enemy, his line came under heavy machine gun fire, which threatened to hold up the advance. Followed by 2 soldiers at 25 yards, this officer went out ahead of his first line toward a machine gun nest and worked his way around its flank, leaving the 2 soldiers in front. When he got within 10 yards of the gun it ceased firing and 4 of the enemy appeared, 3 of who were shot by 1st Lt. Woodfill. The fourth, an officer, rushed at 1st Lt. Woodfill, who attempted to club the officer with his rifle. After a hand-to-hand struggle, 1st Lt. Woodfill killed the officer with his pistol. His company thereupon continued to advance, until shortly afterwards another machine gun nest was encountered. Calling on his men to follow, 1st Lt. Woodfill rushed ahead of his line in the face of heavy fire from the nest, and when several of the enemy appeared above the nest he shot them, capturing 3 other members of the crew and silencing the gun. A few minutes later this officer for the third time demonstrated conspicuous daring by charging another machine gun position, killing 5 men in one machine gun pit with his rifle. He then drew his revolver and started to jump into the pit, when 2 other gunners only a few yards away turned their gun on him. Failing to kill them with his revolver, he grabbed a pick-axe lying nearby and killed both of them. Inspired by the exceptional courage displayed by this officer, his men pressed on to their objective under severe shell and machine gun fire.

           This Date in History   November 1

1512 Earlier in the year 1475 a genius was born in Caprese, Italy. His father was a minor city official and at an early age his family moved Florence, Italy. At the age of 13 Michelangelo was apprenticed out to a local artist. It soon became obvious that this young man was an artist with skills rarely seen. He was taken under the wing of the powerful art patron Lorenzo de Medici and delivered the breathtaking sculptures of “The Pieta” and “David” which stunned the art world, especially the Pope. Michelangelo was called to Rome and was commissioned to several works of art for the Vatican. Eventually in 1508 the Pope commissioned him to paint the history of the Christian world in a series of frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The ceiling was curved and between a series of buttresses making the design and perspective very difficult, not to mention that the painting had to be done by Michelangelo while lying on his back. His workmen built scaffolding up as close as they could to the ceiling but in some places they had to bore holes in the ceiling and drop platforms down. In most of these cases Michelangelo incorporated the holes into the scene he was painting. Four years later on this date, the Sistine Chapel was opened to the public. The visitors were stunned with the beauty and magnitude of this gigantic accomplishment. It is the same today.

1765 Earlier Great Britain had fought two wars trying to keep control of what was then called the English colonies or present day United States. First it was the French and Indian War that lasted about 7 years and then there was Pontiac’s Rebellion that lasted two more years. These years of conflict had put Great Britain in a big need of cash. They had already added a “Sugar Tax” to the colonists to try to recoup some of their expenses. The “Sugar Tax” essentially was buried in tax on molasses which the men colonists used to make Rum which was an essential part of their lives and they were not going to do without it. England was still in need of even more cash to pay the English soldiers and mercenaries they had stationed in the colonies so they came up with a “Stamp Act” which was enacted on this date. What this abomination did was tax each and every document in the colonies including newspapers. Well, since there was no rum involved the colonists, men especially raised almighty hell. They threatened the tax collectors, burned their houses down among other things. The tax collectors finally said “to hell with it” and stopped trying to collect. The Stamp Act was the beginning of the colonists complaining about “taxation without representation” which was the prelude to the Revolutionary War. With the failure of the Stamp Act, England still was hurting for money so they instituted the “Tea Tax”. It was then that those wild and crazy guys, The Sons of Liberty emptied three British ships of their tea into Boston harbor later called the “Boston Tea Party”. England was not pleased and we all know what happened next.

1952 For reasons known only to the United States military industrial complex, on this date the United States detonated history’s first thermo-nuclear device on the island/atoll of Eniwetok in the central Pacific. The United States military felt it was necessary to develop the most powerful nuclear weapon as soon as possible after the Russians detonated a bomb similar to the Hiroshima device in 1948. The father of the Hiroshima bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer and several other nuclear physicists plead with the United States to not pursue the development of thermo-nuclear weapons because all it would do is initiate an arms race because the Russians would soon follow suit and they were right. The Eniwetok device was 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. There is no telling what is out there today. I read about the device known as “Bravo” that was detonated in the Bikini atoll, also in the central Pacific that had a “yield” of 15 megatons (15 millions of tons) of TNT. Think about that y'all, the Hiroshima bomb had a “yield” of kilotons (hundreds of tons) of TNT. Everyone should keep in mind the devastation that can be inflicted by what has been called “A scorpion in a bottle”. Once it is out, look out.

1924 Earlier William Tilghman was born in a small town in Iowa in 1854. He was a rather rambunctious youth and moved west at the age of 16. He fell in with a group of thieves who began stealing horses from the Indians. That proved to be a bad move by having the Indians after you. Billy decided that being chased by the Indians was not a smooth move so he gave up rustling and moved to Dodge City, Kansas where he briefly was a deputy marshal before buying a saloon. He was arrested twice for alleged train robbery and rustling but the charges did not stick. Slowly but surely he became one of the most trusted and respected lawmen in America. He was universally known as “Uncle Billy”. He was especially intolerant of people that took the law into their own hands including lynch mobs and broke up more than one mob and saw to the prosecution of the mob leaders. I read a story about him going to a cabin way back in the wilderness where four bank robbers were holed up. He was alone and attacked the cabin single handed and after a roaring gunfight was able to bring in all the robbers to jail by himself. “Uncle Billy” was a hell of a lawman. He finally moved to Oklahoma City and became a state legislator and at times a deputy sheriff. He never retired; it seemed that “Uncle Billy” loved his profession. He accepted a job as city marshal in Cromwell, Okla. and was killed trying to arrest a drunken prohibition agent. Let me repeat that, he was killed trying to arrest a drunken prohibition officer.

                  Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow