April 19 in Military History: the Shot Heard Round the World and the first flight of the Intruder

Unto the Breach ^ | April 19, 2018 | Chris Carter

[fugazi]

1775: An expedition of 700 British regulars under the command of Lt. Col. Frances Smith departs Boston to seize and destroy military stores of the Massachusetts Militia in Concord. At dawn, 70 militia members led by Capt. John Parker meet the British at Lexington, and the two sides briefly skirmish. The Americans withdraw and regroup, attacking the redcoats again at North Bridge with a much larger force, forcing the British to turn back towards Boston.

The American Revolution has begun.

1861: 86 years to the day after the “shot heard round the world,” Massachusetts volunteers headed for Washington, D.C. are attacked by a secessionist mob in Baltimore. Four soldiers and eight rioters die in the opening shots of the American Civil War.

Meanwhile, Pres. Abraham Lincoln orders a Naval blockade of Confederate ports in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The blockade is extended to North Carolina and Virginia the following week.

1917: The Army-chartered transport ship SS Mongolia becomes the first vessel to challenge Germany’s naval blockade of England. Fitted with three 6-in. guns manned by Naval crews, Mongolia drives off and damages – possibly sinking – a German U-boat in the United States’ first Naval engagement since entering World War I.

1945: Following the most massive artillery, Naval gunfire and air bombardment of the Pacific War, U.S. soldiers and Marines of Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.’s combined Tenth Army launch a coordinated ground assault against the dug-in Japanese defenders of the infamous Shuri Line on Okinawa.

In June, Buckner, the son of Confederate Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, becomes the highest-ranking U.S. officer killed in action during World War II. His replacement, Maj. Gen. Roy S. Geiger is the only Marine to ever...

[rockrr]

Encouraging him further off the ledge I see.

Carry on! ;’}

[DiogenesLamp]

Do you truly doubt that the Founding Fathers would not have fought to the death to prevail?

You naively think that will power is the only necessity for victory. You should read about the Spartans at Thermopylae.

When one side has so much more people to throw at you, you are going to get vanquished, unless you have some sort of substantial leverage to even the odds.

No. The Founding fathers would have all been killed had George III decided to send his full force against them. We must thank his forbearance more than anything else.

They were, after all, fighting for their liberty which seems to me to be a far greater motivator than fighting for slavery.

So were the Confederates. They already had slavery, and Lincoln repeatedly told them over and over again, "If you like your slavery, you can keep your slavery", so "slavery" wasn't even on the table as a motivation for either side. The North claiming it was about slavery was just another propaganda effort to dehumanize the other side in the manner the US Government attempted to dehumanize the Germans in WWI.

The Confederates were also fighting for their liberty, but they just didn't have enough men to oppose someone who had four times their population.

[DiogenesLamp]

Demo-cracy means means the "Demos" (Common People) are the rulers.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/democracy

Replacing the word "Demo" with "Slave" makes the word mean that the slaves are the rulers.

It's logically incorrect, but of course I don't think you care. It gives you another opportunity to introduce the word "slave" in the conversation.

In the manner that pro-abortion people cannot help themselves in introducing the word "choice" in a conversation, so too can people who very badly want to believe that their side is justified, cannot help but try to introduce the word "slave" into every conversation on the subject.

[rockrr]

I didn’t invent the term, numbnutz:

Plantocracy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A plantocracy, also known as a slavocracy,[1] is a ruling class, political order or government composed of (or dominated by) plantation owners.

A number of early European colonies in the New World were largely plantocracies, usually consisting of a small European settler population relying on a predominantly West African chattel slave population (as well as smaller numbers of indentured servants, both European and non-European in origin), and later, freed Black and poor white sharecroppers for labour. These plantocracies proved to be a decisive force in the anti-abolitionist movement.

So are you now going to complain that plantocracies means plants ruling the world?!

[DiogenesLamp]

I didn’t invent the term, numbnutz:

Doesn't mean it wasn't invented. And incorrect at it's inception.

[rockrr]

BTW: your source legitimizes the term Slavocracy too (note the date):

slavocracy (n.)

also slaveocracy, in U.S. history, “the political dominance of slave-owners,” 1840, formed irregularly from slave (n.) + -cracy “rule or government by.” Related: Slavocrat.

[DiogenesLamp]

Yes, it notes it was formed "irregularly", around 1840. It was no doubt created by Northern abolitionists as a derogatory directed at the South, for the same reasons I mentioned above; So that they can introduce the word "slave" into the conversation.

Same pursuit of political advantage, different century.

[rockrr]

It’s a legitimate term that has been a part of the discussion for almost 180 years. Get over it.

[DiogenesLamp]

It’s a legitimate term that has been a part of the discussion for almost 180 years. Get over it.

As legitimate as "anti-choice", which has been part of the discussion since 1973.

[DoodleDawg]

Encouraging him further off the ledge I see.

Something I will no doubt live to regret.

[rockrr]

In the scheme of things he’s like a mosquito bite on an elephants ass. What else can one expect from a guy who probably thinks that plutocracies only occur on Pluto?

[Polynikes]

The Revolution almost touched off in Salem in February of ‘75. The British backed down for time being but a Miss Sarah Tarrant almost got it going again with her mouth after a trooper pointed a musket at her. Paraphrasing now in modern parlance “You don't scare us MF’er pull the trigger if you got the balls which you don't “

Cooler heads prevailed and the Brits withdrew. http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2009/04/sarah-tarrant.html
https://historicipswich.org/2014/07/05/leslies-retreat-or-how-the-revolutionary-war-almost-began-in-salem/

[rockrr]

Interesting chronicle!

[DiogenesLamp]

Something I will no doubt live to regret.

I wouldn't enjoy getting my @$$ handed to me in a debate either. Fortunately it is not something I have had to worry about.

[DoodleDawg]

I wouldn't enjoy getting my @$$ handed to me in a debate either.

LOL! Fortunately I don't have to worry about that with you.

[DiogenesLamp]

LOL! Fortunately I don't have to worry about that with you.

So long as you stay in your "safe space" of denial. :)

[jmacusa]

Nice to always have your own version of history, isn’t it? And reality.

[DiogenesLamp]

Nice to always have your own version of history, isn’t it? And reality.

You are mistaken. That is an example of *your* version of Civil War history applied to the founders. It focuses on and emphasizes all the wrong things about the conflict.

[DiogenesLamp]

What else can one expect from a guy who probably thinks that plutocracies only occur on Pluto?

Hey, you notice this thing about the word "Plutocrat"? It isn't "irregular." Meaning it is put together in the correct manner, unlike your "slaveocracy" which was invented as a piece of political propaganda.

[rockrr]

Now that I see how much it gets your panties in a bunch I pledge to use it more often.

Slaveocracy!