Friday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I can hardly wait until the Democrats start blaming me for the unrest in Syria.”

                                              Sarah Palin

Trivia question of the day:

How fast is a cheetah?  Answer at the end of the blog.

I have a running game with the manager of the restaurant where I frequent. After my bill is totaled he will ask me what happened on this date. Wednesday my tab was $10.80 and he said “What happened in the year 1080?” I said “That is 14 years after the Battle of Hastings in 1066.” I went on to explain...Earlier the king of England Edward the Confessor had promised William of Normandy (west coast of France) the crown of England after his death. On his death bed in January of 1066 Edward changed his mind and named Harold Godwinson as king. Harold was a member of a prestigious family. William was not pleased and promised that he would take the crown by force if necessary. He gathered an imposing infantry and cavalry, horses included, but had to wait for good weather to cross the English channel. In October of 1066 the weather calmed and William and company set sail. Their fleet was spotted by the English and Harold led his army down toward the landing beach and established a defensive perimeter near the town of Hastings. William did not disappoint and attacked as soon as his troops were arrayed. One of William's mounted knights broke through the defenses and with one swipe of his sword beheaded Harold. After this Harold's troops retreated in disarray and the victory was William's. In December of 1066 now William the Conqueror was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey...and that is what happened in 1066. BTW Windsor castle, the home of the present ruling family of England, was built by William...he was also a Viking. At the time of the battle William was 36 years old and Harold as 44.

I have never bought the premise that Moses and the Hebrews were lost for 40 years in the deserts east and southeast of Egypt.
The Egyptians for centuries had been squabbling with the Assyrians (present day Syria) or the Hittites (present day Turkey) for the control of present day Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, the Jordan River valley and surrounding lands. There is no doubt that the Hebrews knew of this during their Egyptian bondage and knew that these lands were north of Egypt. North is easy to find, y'all, all you have to do is see the sunrise, put the sun on your right shoulder and you are facing north. Not only that, Moses was a soldier in the Egyptian army and without a doubt knew where these lands were. I read an explanation by a Hebrew scholar that made sense. He maintained that Moses knew that it would be imperative that they have a substantial army before beginning a campaign to capture “The Promised Land”, present day Israel. In fact, God through Joshua instructed the Hebrews to not leave anyone alive that they encountered so there would be no attacks from the rear. Right after the Exodus the Hebrews had no army at all and if they tried to invade, yes invade, up the Jordan river valley they would be slaughtered wholesale by the resident tribes. The scholar says that Moses camped in the desert 40 years to at least double the size of his army, manufacture weapons and train the army in combat tactics and discipline. After this was accomplished they began their campaign and was successful. Works for me...Moses was no dummy.

This Date in History February 2

1943 Earlier on June 22, 1942, in spite of an existing treaty, Adolph Hitler ordered an enormous German army divided into three sections to start an invasion of Russia. Hitler’s military advisers had warned Hitler that if the attack could not begin by the first of May it should not begin at all because of the severe Russian winters. The German army was not ready by the first of May but Hitler ordered the invasion to begin late anyway. The Germans made progress by leaps and bounds primarily because they had control of the air. The slaughter they inflicted on the Russian army and civilians was beyond comprehension. They laid siege to Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad and cut off any supplies to those cities and millions died. It was the German 6^th Army that had Stalingrad surrounded. Russian premier Josef Stalin was not about to let the city named after him to surrender and ordered the residents and the Russian Army defending the city to resist to the bitter end and resist they did. The Germans bombed the entire city into rubble trying to break their spirit. It did not work and the Russians used the rubble to establish formidable defenses. The Germans had no choice but to send in small squads of 8 or 10 to try and root out the defenders. That did not work either. The Russians proved to be formidable street fighters. In October the worst winter in fifty years arrived as advertised. The drop in temperature caused a break in the attack and gave the Russians defending the city time to reorganize and receive reinforcements. In November the Russians army launched a merciless counter-attack. The Italian and Romanian soldiers surrendered immediately but not the Germans. They held out until they were surrounded by the Russians and all of their supplies had been cut off. The German army that had surrounded Stalingrad in the beginning numbered about 200,000. On this date the remaining German army at Stalingrad numbering only 90,000 surrendered ending the siege of Stalingrad. Of the 90,000 Germans that went to prison camps, only 5,000 lived to see Germany again.

1847 In October of 1846 a group of wagons gathered at South Pass, Wyoming to cross the formidable Sierra Nevada Mountains into California. The assumed leader of this wagon train was George Donner. All they had to navigate by was a crude map out of a magazine. They were warned that it was too late in the year to try to cross the mountains and should wait until spring. They left anyway. They ran into some tough terrain and at one point made only 36 miles in 13 days. As you might suspect the winter snows caught them in a narrow pass and they had to abandon their wagons loaded with tons of meat and flour plus their oxen. I suppose all of y'all know the story of the Donner Party but it was on this day that the first person died. The final number was 42 dead and those that survived did so by cannibalism. It was dark days in that mountain pass just a few miles from Lake Tahoe.

1781 A while back I wrote about the Battle of Cowan’s Ford and the death of William Davidson during the Revolutionary War. Today’s lesson is a continuation of that saga. Patriot General Nathaneal Greene was waiting at Steele’s Tavern near Salisbury, North Carolina for the militia that was engaged in the Cowan’s Ford attack the day before. Greene was to meet with the militia at the home of David Carr which was six miles south of Steele’s Tavern. The militia did not arrive as agreed because they were attacked by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s Dragoons at Tarrant’s Tavern five mile south of David Carr’s house and 10 or 50 Patriots were killed. While waiting at Steele’s Tavern, Greene struck up a conversation with his doctor that was staying there also and mentioned that he was very hungry and was penniless. The owner of the tavern, Elizabeth Maxwell Steele overheard Greene and offered Greene breakfast and gave him two bags of gold coin. Greene was elated because he could now pay his troops. There was a portrait of British King George III hanging in the Tavern. Greene went to the portrait and wrote on the back “O George, hide thy face and mourn” and turned the portrait toward the wall. This portrait and inscription is kept in the Thyatira Presbyterian Church museum near Salisbury to this day. Greene now fed and with cash is further elated upon the discovery of 1,700 muskets and ammo near Salisbury.

Answer to the trivia question:
A mature cheetah can reach speeds of from 68 to 75 MPH in short bursts.

            Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow