|
Posted on 01/29/2005 9:46:14 PM PST by snippy_about_it
|
|
 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
|
 Of course regular Foxhole readers probably know it all. ;-) What follows are a few little known facts about the American Revolutionary War era. Most Americans think they know all about the Revolution simply because they are Americans. In fact, the real story -- not the one in most textbooks -- is crammed with little known facts. Information has been drawn from multiple sources for this report. The main source being information compiled by Mr. Thomas Fleming, a noted historian. The Americans of 1776 had the highest standard of living and the lowest taxes in the Western World! Farmers, lawyers and business owners in the Colonies were thriving, with some plantation owners and merchants making the equivalent of $500,000 a year. Times were good for many others too. The British wanted a slice of the cash flow and tried to tax the Colonists. They resisted violently, convinced that their prosperity and their liberty were at stake. Virginia's Patrick Henry summed up their stance with his cry: "Give me liberty or give me death!" There were two Boston tea parties! Everyone knows how 50 or 60 "Sons of Liberty," disguised as Mohawks, protested the 3 cents per pound British tax on tea by dumping chests of the popular drink into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. Fewer know that the improper Bostonians repeated the performance on March 7, 1774. The two tea parties cost the British around $3 million in modern money. Benjamin Franklin wrote the first Declaration of Independence! In 1775, Franklin, disgusted with the arrogance of the British and appalled by the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, wrote a Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was enthusiastic. But, he noted, many other delegates to the Continental Congress were "revolted at it." It would take another year of bitter conflict to persuade the Congress to vote for the Declaration of Independence written by Jefferson -- with some astute editorial suggestions by Franklin. John Adams defended the British Soldiers after the Boston Massacre! Captain Thomas Preston led some British Soldiers to aid another British Soldier who was having things thrown at him and was also hit several times with a board. After their arrival, the people continued to pelt the soldiers and finally shots were fired and the infamous "Boston Massacre" was over. Captain Thomas Preston and eight soldiers were charged with murder. Future President John Adams took up the defense of the soldiers. He, along with Joshua Quincy, was able to get all but two acquitted by a local jury. Those two were found guilty of manslaughter, but claimed benefit of clergy. This means that they were allowed to make penance instead of being executed. To insure that they never could use benefit of clergy again they were both branded on the thumbs. History's first submarine attack took place in New York Harbor in 1776! The Connecticut inventor David Bushnell called his submarine the Turtle because it resembled two large tortoise shells of equal size joined together. The watertight hull was made of 6-inch-thick oak timbers coated with tar. On September 6, 1776, the Turtle targeted the HMS Eagle, flagship of the British fleet. The submarine was supposed to secure a cask of gunpowder to the hull of the Eagle and sneak away before it exploded. Unfortunately, the Turtle got entangled with the Eagle's rudder bar, lost ballast and surfaced before the gunpowder could be planted. Benedict Arnold was the best general in the Continental Army! "Without Benedict Arnold in the first three years of the war," says the historian George Neumann, "we would probably have lost the Revolution." In 1775, the future traitor came within a whisker of conquering Canada. In 1776, he built a fleet and fought a bigger British fleet to a standstill on Lake Champlain. At Saratoga in 1777, his brilliant battlefield leadership forced the British army to surrender. The victory persuaded the French to join the war on the American side. Ironically, Arnold switched sides in 1780 partly because he disapproved of the French alliance. By 1779, as many as one in seven Americans in Washington's army was black! At first Washington was hesitant about enlisting blacks. But when he heard they had fought well at Bunker Hill, he changed his mind. The all-black First Rhode Island Regiment -- composed of 33 freedmen and 92 slaves who were promised freedom if they served until the end of the war -- distinguished itself in the Battle of Newport. Later, they were all but wiped out in a British attack. There were women in the Continental Army, even a few who saw combat! Probably the best known is Mary Ludwig Hays, nicknamed "Molly Pitcher." She replaced her wounded husband at his cannon during the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. Another wife of an artilleryman, Margaret Corbin, was badly wounded serving in her husband's gun crew at the Battle of Harlem Heights in 1776. Thousands of other women served in Washington's army as cooks and nurses. George Washington was the best spymaster in American History! He ran dozens of espionage rings in British-held New York and Philadelphia, and the man who supposedly could not tell a lie was a genius at disinformation. He constantly befuddled the British by leaking, through double agents, inflated reports on the strength of his army. By 1779, there were more Americans fighting with the British than with Washington! There were no less than 21 regiments (estimated to total 6,500 to 8,000 men) of loyalists in the British army. Washington reported a field army of 3,468. About a third of Americans opposed the Revolution. At Yorktown, the victory that won the war, Frenchman outnumbered Americans almost three to one! Washington had 11,000 men engaged in the battle, while the French had at least 29,000 soldiers and sailors. The 37 French ships-of-the-line played a crucial role in trapping the 8,700 strong British army and winning the engagement. King George almost abdicated the throne when the British lost! After Yorktown, George III vowed to keep fighting. When parliament demurred, the King wrote a letter of abdication -- then withdrew it. He tried to console himself with the thought that Washington would become a dictator and make the Americans long for royal rule. When he was told that Washington planned to resign his commission, the monarch gasped: "If he does that, sir, he will be the greatest man in the world."      |
Morning E.G.C.
Morning GailA. You can have our rain. ;-)
Just in time to surrender the German 6th Army at Stalingrad.
Morning Mayor.
Been busy bumping items from last night. Farmfriend's been sending a whole bunch of items the last several days.
OU lost to Iowa State yesterday. We'll see if OSU can do better today.
It's cloudy an cold today. Rain and snow in the forecast.
YES it is!
hammorabi
http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/
The New Democratic Iraq Born!
No more 99.99 % in Iraq!
This is the figure of the Arabs' dictators except Saddam!
He used to get 100%!
Surprisingly those who voted for the master of the mass graves are abstaining now!
Our voting is:
No to the terrorists!
No to the dictatorships!
No to hate and racism!
No to the fascists!
No to the Nazis!
No to the mentally retarded tyrants!
No to the ossified, narrow-minded and intolerants!
The Iraqis are voting in few hours time for the new Iraq.
We are going to create our future by ourselves not by dictators.
We are going to say:
Yes for the freedom and democracy!
Yes for the civilized Iraq!
Yes for peace and prosperity!
Yes for coexistence!
Yes for the New Iraq!
Let them bomb and kill us. It will not deter us!
Let them send their dogs to suck our bones. We care not!
Let them bark. It will not frighten us.
Let them see how civilised to be free and democratic!
Let them die by our vote tomorrow! It is the magic bullet which will kill them!
Welcome New Iraq.
Welcome freedom and democracy.
Welcome peace and prosperity for all nations with out exception but terrorists!
posted by hammorabi @ 1/29/2005 11:59:37 AM
Praise the Lord!!
Freedom rings through the land
of despot kings of darkness and
death a new voice sings
and the bells of joy peal out
and ring freedom for all
The lines of people waiting to vote are exciting to watch.
BIG smilles here.
I have been watching the President's foreign policy very closely since I finally (slow cuss, that I am) saw how it worked in September 2002. This election is timed beautifully, and the whole affair is running nicely.
The business is not over yet, not by a long shot. Already, though, there are very important changes in the international scene. Last summer the Chinese went suddenly from calling George W. Bush the greatest American statesman since Ronald Reagan to screaming about whatever the American liberals were screaming about that day - panties worn as a hat and similar "torture", etc. The Chinese had finally figured out that this Iraq - Middle East affair is also aimed at THEM. The Russians have long since seen what it means for them, they saw it right away, smart cookies. The French are going to get the drubbing they deserve. China will have to cooperate over North Korea, stop making anything but verbal threats over Taiwan, and a a bunch of other stuff.
Some of the steps coming up won't be liked by some folks here at the Foxhole, particularly changes in relations with Russia. The Russians are about angry enough with the French and Germans to hold their noses and cooperate with the United States. This will make "negotiation" with China bloodless, I hope.
Very cool map, actual Russian from 1941 of the Stalingrad area. Worth the download for me on my telephone connection. Railroads are two parallel lines, the symbol we use for a secondary road. Notice the lines are straight with wide radius turns - railroads.
"My FRiends!!"
(To be sung to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "My Friends")
My FRiends, I'm quite impressed...
Yer zeal's unquestioned!!
FReepin' excellence...
Uprise!! 'Cuz TRUTH is on our side!!
Reject Left's swill...you know I will!!
Hanoi John's got it rough...
Left's gettin' desperate!!
Willie's Prison-bound...
MUD wants...to give Slick many years...
Fer TREAS'NOUS Acts!!
I love all of you...
Who're Right and Bold!!
Fight hard, demanding TRUTH!!
RATS!! Y'all don't know yerself!!
My FRiends are FReedom-blessed...
Let's FReep the World!!
Ignore the LeftWing Press...
They forge...TRUTH, RATS wanna suppress!!
Left must confess!!
I love all of you...
HOO're Right and Bold!!
Fight hard...demanding TRUTH!!
RATS!! Y'all don't know yerself!!
Imagine...dream...export Liberty!!
Bein' FRee is "peace"!!
I hurt fer Lib-uhh-rulls...
'Cuz Left is DEAD!!
Each tyrant's bound to fall...
Muslims...yer trust is what we want...
As FRiends, we'll live!!
I love all of you...
HOO're Right and Bold!!
Life's hard...Demand the Truth!!
RATS!! Y'all don't know yerself!!
Mudboy Slim (09/18/2004)
free dixie hugs,duckie/sw
free dixie HUGS,duckie/sw
2005 Iraqis vote in the first ever FREE elections.
Elections were better than I expected.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
