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Posted on 02/02/2005 2:03:08 AM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| 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.
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In the 1840s, westward expansion proceeded at a rapid pace. Promises of wide-open spaces and inexpensive land with rich soil enticed many people in the East to pack up their possessions and head West. As the population of Americans on the West Coast increased, so too did the nation's desire to actually own the land that these Americans were settling. The phrase "Manifest Destiny" was coined to describe the philosophy shared by many that the United States had a divine right to become a transcontinental nation. To that end, the 1840s became a decade of rapid territorial acquisition and expansion.  Dragoon soldiers from Fort Scott participated in many activities that contributed to westward expansion. They provided armed escorts for parties on the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails, surveyed unmapped country, and maintained contact with Plains Indians. Each summer, from 1843-45, several companies of dragoons, including Company A, 1st U.S. Dragoons, from Fort Scott, participated in military expeditions along the overland trails. The purpose of these expeditions was to protect travel and trade along the trails and to keep the Plains Indians at peace. The first of these expeditions took place along the Santa Fe Trail - a trade route between Missouri and Santa Fe - then part of Mexico. The United States Dragoons, organized in 1833, had been charged with protecting the traders along the trail from Indian attacks.  In 1843, trouble erupted along the Santa Fe Trail, not from Indian attacks but from Texans. Ill will existed between Texas and Mexico even before the Texan Revolution of 1836. Prejudice and hatred on both sides, border squabbles and violence continued into the 1840s. In 1843, Texas "freebooters" began attacking Mexican caravans along the trail. One group of Texans murdered Antonio Chavez, a Mexican trader, on American soil. The army apprehended and punished the killers but traders were fearful of further attacks and asked the War Department to furnish a military escort that year from Missouri to Santa Fe. Captain Philip St. George Cooke led five companies of dragoons along the Santa Fe Trail to protect the trade. In route, the dragoons encountered Jacob Snively, who held a commission from Texas to raid Mexican caravans on Mexican soil. Two days prior to their meeting with Cooke, Snively's men had attacked Mexican soldiers, killing several of them and taking their weapons.  Upon their initial encounter, Snively's men and the dragoons were across the Arkansas River from each other. The land north of the river clearly belonged to the United States, but south of the river, U.S. territory only extended west to the 100th meridian. Snively claimed that he was forty miles west of the boundary, but Cooke contended that Snively was on American soil. Therefore, he ordered Fort Scott's dragoons under Captain Terrett, to cross the river and disarm the freebooters. The dragoons left the freebooters only ten guns for defense on their way back to Texas. A rumor persists that the Texans had hidden their own guns and surrendered the previously confiscated Mexican weapons to the dragoons.  The 1843 expedition earned Captain Cooke the undying hatred of the Texans but was successful because it discouraged any further attacks along the Santa Fe Trail that year.
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Hi Samwise.
I see the actor who played Samwise is gonna be on some SciFi time travel flick.
Morning Mayor.
We escaped with rain here in our area. Temps were quite cold enough for it to turn to snow. There was a power outage last night. A trnasformer blow in the are Form Gore Blvd. to Cache Road on 38th Streein Lawton Oklahoma caused some parts for Lawton to be without power. It was later restored a few hours later.
How's it going, Snippy?
Morning Sam
Early start for you these days..
Do you know the name of Sean Astin's movie?
Can't sleep. :-(
I love time travel stories. What if....
But according to the trailer, he keeps making things worse. That would be my luck.
From a ZOT! thread. Strangle and Smoke the trolls!
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on February 02:
1502 Damiao de Góis Portuguese humanist scholar
1649 Benedict XIII [Pierfrancesco Orsini], Italy, 245th pope (1724-30)
1748 Christian Gottfried Thomas composer
1754 Charles-Maurice duke of Talleyrand-Périgord French bishop/premier (1815)
1803 Albert Sidney Johnston General (Confederate Army), mortally wounded at Shiloh in 1862
1815 Nathaniel Collins McLean Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1905
1817 John Glover, English chemist (sulfuric acid), was born
1827 Abner Monroe Perrin Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1864
1861 Solomon R Guggenheim philanthropist (died aboard the Titanic)
1861 Mehmed VI Vahideddin last sultan of Ottoman Empire (1918-22)
1882 James Joyce Ireland, novelist/poet (Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnigan's Wake)
1895 George S Halas [Papa Bear], end/coach (Bears), co-founder NFL
1905 Ayn Rand writer (Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead)
1906 Gale Gordon Los Angeles CA, actor (Here's Lucy, Our Miss Brooks)
1920 A. Wang, founder of Wang Labs and Wang Computers, was born
1923 Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith Ft Worth TX, gossip columnist (New York Daily News, NBC-TV)
1923 James Dickey Atlanta GA, author/poet/actor (Deliverance)
1926 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing President of France (1974-81)
1927 Stan Getz Philadelphia PA, jazz tenor saxophonist (Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey)
1937 Tom Smothers New York NY, comedian (Smother Brother Show)
1942 Bo Hopkins Greenville SC, actor (Dynasty, The Wild Bunch, Rockford Files)
1942 Graham Nash rocker (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-Southern Cross, Hollies)
1947 Mary Farrah Leni Fawcett Corpus Christi TX, actress (Charlie's Angels, Burning Bed)
1948 Jessica Savitch Kennett Square PA, news anchor (NBC)
1954 Christie Brinkley [Ex-Mrs Billy Joel], model/actress (Sports Illustrated, Vacation)
1963 Pebbles Flintstone fictional character on "The Flintstones"
2338 Data android character on Star Trek Next Generation
The Santa Fe Trail map shows a "Cimmaron Route" that looks just like the route of old Route 66 through that area.
I think the Dragoons avoided the Apache areas to the west. While driving through the area using secondary roads I found a spot where a US Dragoon expedition had been destroyed in battle with Apache tribesmen in about 1840. Pretty place, with good water and farmland. Might have been on the road to Alpine from New Mexico.
Years ago, forget exactly where it was.
I grew up near Fort Scott and my mother went through nusing school there. When I was little the old fort was pretty much a crumbling collection of old abandoned buildings that were often occupied by hobos jumping the nearby rail line. I'm a National Park Service volunteer at the Fort Scott events. Usually I'm part of the artillary demonstration. The fort will be 100% restored by August. They've been working on it a long time and have done a very exact and beautiful job. When we go there to participate the fort provides us with everything. Food, barracks lodging, uniforms and weapons. They currently keep a dozen or so horses for the Dragoons. The old style uniforms are pretty uncomfortable with high stiff collars, itchy wool trowsers and often ill fitting 'wheel hats' or in the case of officers a tall plumed shako. The fort never had walls but instead relied upon emplaced cannon and earthen berms that functioned as defensive rifle pits. The buildings are large and spacious. The parade ground is kept in better condition than most lawns. Do a google on Fort Scott and take a look. It's really something.
free dixie,sw
Thought my tagline would fit in here.
LOL. Before I asked the silly question, I went looking and found this same essay.
I had dinner with JimRob last June, but it was Dutch treat.
Was he dead first? Inquiring minds want to know.
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