Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
If you’re from the Northeast, you’ve most probably heard this term before: Masshole. Some clever person coined this expression to describe, most probably, the person from Massachusetts who had just cut them off in their horse and buggy. Since then, it has come to be a term describing anything annoying that comes from the Bay …
Continue reading "Three Times Massachusetts Earned the Title Masshole"
Land use and land rights within the United States have always been touchy subjects. Just ask the first colonists who landed and were confronted by the natives; for that matter, ask the natives. Right now, ask the armed occupants who are effectively "squatting" on Federal land in Oregon, who state that, "This isn't going to end …
Continue reading "Land Rights and the Formation of the U.S. Army"
As it stands right now, an undetermined number of persons have taken over several buildings in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns Oregon, to protest what they see as the unconstitutional activity of the Federal government's use of land. Many of the protesters are self-professed "militiamen," who are armed and profess a desire to hold …
Continue reading "The Oregon Insurrectionists and the Whiskey Rebellion"
Xenophobia: intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. So, let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time, some religious dissenters called Puritans fleeing persecution left their country with its state-sponsored religion for better lands. They arrived in North America in 1620 and settled there. Where they almost immediately began persecuting …
Continue reading "Xenophobia: An American Saga"
Today is the 61st Veterans Day. It comes at a time when many see a military-civilian divide. It is a good time to look back and examine why we have a day set aside for veterans and how to bridge the gap. It might strike some as odd that although we have had veterans even …
Continue reading "This Veterans Day, Let’s be Americans"
November 11, 1918, dawned as any other day for the exhausted men of the U.S Army’s 26th Division, nicknamed the “Yankee Division” because it was a National Guard division from New England. The Yankees had been on the front since February, with only one brief rest for two weeks in August. They had taken so …
Continue reading "The Veteran Transformation of November 11, 1918"
A lot has been written about the great Civil War general and 18th President of the United States. But the what many do not have is a glimpse into the mind of the great man from Ohio. Therefore, I give you the Life and Times of U.S. Grant, an unfiltered view. Enjoy what you just …
Continue reading "The Life and Times of Ulysses S. Grant"
In 2010, as the popular uprisings that comprised the Arab Spring were flaring across the Middle East, more than one commentator must have looked back in time to make comparisons to other democratic revolutions. And as the Arab Spring became drenched in blood, heartache, and divisiveness, that same commentator might have noted with sadness the …
Continue reading "What Do the Revolutions of 1848 Tell us About Modern Politics?"
Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with the saying, "Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them." This would generally seem to be the case, as while many may have heard of General Walter Krueger, commander of U.S. Sixth Army in the Pacific, very few have ever heard of Walter E. Pottle, the first sergeant for …
Continue reading "The Fighting First Sergeant: Walter Pottle and World War II"
On the morning of September 15, 1862, the fate of the Civil War was held in the hands of Union Brigadier General Dixon S. Miles. Those hands were probably shaking slightly that morning, although not from fear, but from the delirium tremens. You see, Miles was a drunk. A graduate of West Point, Miles had not done his …
Continue reading "Drunken Disaster at Harper’s Ferry"
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