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The FReeper Foxhole Enjoys a Lazy Sunday - January 30th, 2005
http://www.state.de.us/facts/ushist/revfacts.htm ^

Posted on 01/29/2005 9:46:14 PM PST by snippy_about_it



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.



...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
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.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

Little Known Facts about the American Revolutionary War




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."



FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links




TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: culperring; freeperfoxhole; georgewashington; history; lazysunday; revolutionarywar; samsdayoff; theframers; thegeneral; therevolution; veterans
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To: snippy_about_it; bentfeather; Samwise; msdrby
Good afternoon ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

I've been watching "PATTON" again this morning. Gotta go pick up a gun cabinet at Msdrby's mom's place now.


41 posted on 01/30/2005 11:56:36 AM PST by Professional Engineer (Caution this poster contains 39 Transistors, 78 diodes, and 1776 blown capacitors.)
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Comment #42 Removed by Moderator

To: Professional Engineer
Gotta go pick up a gun cabinet at Msdrby's mom's place now.

Msdrby's mom has a gun shop?

43 posted on 01/30/2005 1:24:00 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: ms_68

Hi ms_68.


44 posted on 01/30/2005 1:24:25 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: Iris7

Good afternoon Iris7.


45 posted on 01/30/2005 1:26:09 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: ms_68
I hope that at least the effort and sacrifice of the Polish soldiers won't be diminished or forgotten...

It won't be forgotten at the Foxhole. ;-)

46 posted on 01/30/2005 3:51:11 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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Comment #47 Removed by Moderator

To: bentfeather

Evening Feather.


48 posted on 01/30/2005 6:04:26 PM PST by SAMWolf (Never make the same mistake twice. There are too many new ones to try)
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To: Iris7

Most of the spies who turned on us were done using cash, ideology is usually not relevant.


49 posted on 01/30/2005 6:06:37 PM PST by SAMWolf (Never make the same mistake twice. There are too many new ones to try)
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To: Iris7

The Germans had to cross the river and cut it off. Instead it came down to a pissing contest between Hilter and Stalin fighting for "his" city. The Soldiers on both sided paid the price.


50 posted on 01/30/2005 6:08:52 PM PST by SAMWolf (Never make the same mistake twice. There are too many new ones to try)
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To: ms_68

Thanks ms_68.

Poland has learned a thing or two about Free Elections. :-)


51 posted on 01/30/2005 6:09:58 PM PST by SAMWolf (Never make the same mistake twice. There are too many new ones to try)
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To: Mudboy Slim

Evening Mud.


52 posted on 01/30/2005 6:10:19 PM PST by SAMWolf (Never make the same mistake twice. There are too many new ones to try)
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To: Professional Engineer

Evening PE.


53 posted on 01/30/2005 6:11:06 PM PST by SAMWolf (Never make the same mistake twice. There are too many new ones to try)
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To: SAMWolf

Evening, Sam.


54 posted on 01/30/2005 6:12:06 PM PST by Soaring Feather
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To: stand watie

Whoa, sw, just saw this.


Evening!!

free dixie!! bf


55 posted on 01/30/2005 6:15:22 PM PST by Soaring Feather
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To: SAMWolf

We ended up getting no rain, but it was damp and gloomy all day.


56 posted on 01/30/2005 6:17:43 PM PST by GailA (Glory be to GOD and his only son Jesus.)
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To: bentfeather

Hi miss Feather.


57 posted on 01/30/2005 6:45:53 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Caution this poster contains 39 Transistors, 78 diodes, and 1776 blown capacitors.)
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To: snippy_about_it; msdrby
Msdrby's mom has a gun shop?

I wish. Msdrby's dad used to do gunsmithing on the side. When he was doing ENGINEERING for Bell Helicopter, that is. ;-)

Over the last six years, her mom and brother have been slowly paring down the number of shootin' irons in the house to barely fit in two gunsafes, so this cabinet was surplus. Works for me, it was made in July 1969, out of good ole solid 'Marican wood.

I've shown this before. This pistol was made especially for Msdrby, and is the last firearm her dad made.

58 posted on 01/30/2005 7:18:14 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Caution this poster contains 39 Transistors, 78 diodes, and 1776 blown capacitors.)
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To: Iris7

Wow, this is an excellent map. I am going to have to save this one.


59 posted on 01/30/2005 7:22:17 PM PST by msdrby (Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen and defended by its citizens.)
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To: snippy_about_it

err, well it was my dad's. This particluar case my dad got around 1970.


60 posted on 01/30/2005 7:24:51 PM PST by msdrby (Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen and defended by its citizens.)
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