Thursday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I recently had a physical examination like I have every 7 years. When the nurse weighed me I was shocked to learn how much the gravitational pull of the Earth has increased since my last visit.”

                                                   George Carlin

Trivia question of the day:

What American scientist specializing in liquid fueled rocket engines did the Germans study to perfect their V-1 and V-2 rockets? Answer at the end of the blog.

I am still reading “Killing England” which is the history of the American Revolutionary War. I am on the Chapter that included that winter of 1777-78 when George Washington and the Continental army was encamped in Valley Forge, Pa. These soldiers were not an “army”. George Washington was not a military man, a great leader but he knew very little about forming, training and arming men into a combat unit. The soldiers were originally in tents but that wasn't working because they could not heat them so Washington ordered trees to be cut down and huts built with a fireplace. Most huts were about 16 X 25 feet and 6'-6” high. 12 men slept in these huts on straw thrown on the floor...no toilet and no kitchen but lots of lice. They did not have uniforms, they supplied their own. The men from the northern states were prepared for the cold but those from North Carolina and further south were not. No one had the shoes and boots needed to prevent frostbite. There was virtually no food and no sanitation. Troops were dying of cholera and literally freezing and starving to death. When one man was assigned guard duty the other men in his hut would contribute a much clothing that they could spare to try and keep him from freezing to death. Washington's aide-de-camp was Alexander Hamilton and he at one point told Washington that he believed the army would disintegrate if improvements were not made and soon. About that time God sent a savior in the person of Baron Von Steuben, a lifetime Prussian officer who joined Washington at Valley Forge. He was a paunchy 47 year old that had been kicked out of the Prussian army and never achieved a rank higher that captain. Why? He was a homosexual but was an expert on military tactics and training. Ben Franklin was in France trying to gain their support and he knew the Continental army was in trouble and needed a career military officer to whip them into shape. He found Von Steuben. There was a problem. He could not speak English but he could speak German and French. So Washington assigned Marquis de Lafayette as Von Steuben's aide-de-camp. Lafayette could speak French and English. Washington had forbidden his troop to scavenge from small individual farms because he knew what a hardship it would put in them but Von Steuben convinced Washington that his troops had to be in top physical shape to fight successfully. From then on the Continental army ate well. Von Steuben also introduced the American soldier to a slit trench or a latrine always placed downhill from the food and water supply and illnesses virtually disappeared. When spring came...the Continental army was ready and there was indeed a light at the end of the tunnel.

Washington wrote “Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been...excited by their sufferings, to a general mutiny.”

I also read that that some of the NFL player are continuing to dishonor the national anthem because they think they have been treated unfairly.

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.

Answer to the trivia question:

It was the works of American Dr. Robert H. Goddard that the Germans studied to perfect their V-1 and V-2 rockets.

            Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow