Posted on 08/07/2005 9:55:41 PM PDT 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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Last Stand of the Last Knight Major General J.E.B. Stuart posted his horsemen at Yellow Tavern -- between Union attackers and Richmond -- and waited for the collision. It would come with a deadliness he could never have imagined. The legendary plumed hat and longish hair and whiskers helped turn J.E.B. Stuart into the dashing cavalier of legend. But there was plenty of substance beneath the style. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's overland campaign had ground to a halt. In two days of bitter but inconclusive fighting in the Virginia wilderness -- that forbidding expanse of second-growth pine and tangled thicket below the Rapidan River -- Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had fought the larger and better-equipped Army of the Potomac to a standstill. The daring and aggressive Lee had foiled his enemy's attempt to slice through the Wilderness and march on to Richmond, the Confederate capital. Aided by the great profusion of natural cover, Lee had parried the thrusts of Major General George Gordon Meade, the Union army's commander, and had blunted the broad strategy imparted to Meade by Grant, who was accompanying the Army of the Potomac in his role as general in chief of all U.S. armies. By the evening of May 7, 1864, the massive Union host sat stalled along the forest's southern rim. Lee gave much credit for his success to his cavalry, especially its leader, Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart. Throughout the fighting that had just ended, the 31-year-old native of Patrick County, Virginia, had made inspired use of his 9,000 horsemen. As on numerous fields the previous fall, this most celebrated mounted leader of the war took the measure of his 12,000 opponents in the Union cavalry, currently led by a newcomer to the Virginia theater, the diminutive and feisty Major General Philip H. Sheridan. On the first day of fighting in the Wilderness, Stuart's savvy veterans cut off and pummeled Sheridan's advance echelon. On the second day they put heavy pressure on other elements of Sheridan's command, not only slowing their advance and that of the infantrymen in their rear, but also denying Meade critical intelligence on Lee's dispositions. To cap their performance, on May 7 Stuart's riders frustrated Sheridan's attempt to penetrate south of Todd's Tavern and open a way for Grant and Meade to exit the Wilderness in the direction of Spotsylva-nia Court House. While Lee and Stuart worked closely and cordially in tandem, the same could not be said of Meade and Sheridan. Grant had brought Sheridan from Tennessee to command the Army of the Potomac's cavalry without asking for Meade's consent. Both Meade and Sheridan were highly competent officers, but Meade had a temper as volatile as Sheridan's. The two cooperated well enough during their first 24 hours below the Rapidan, but a clash of wills and temperaments seemed inevitable. By the evening of May 7, it was on the horizon. The trouble began in earnest on the afternoon of the 6th, when Meade received an erroneous report that Confederate infantry had gotten between Sheridan and the army's infantry, threatening to encircle the cavalry. Against Sheridan's protests, Meade ordered the cavalry to withdraw from Todd's Tavern. The next morning, as Sheridan had foreseen, Grant ordered the cavalry back to spearhead the army's march south to Spotsylvania. By then, however, one of Stuart's divisions, under Major General Fitzhugh Lee, occupied the very works around the tavern that the Federals had just vacated. It took an all-day slugging match to evict the newcomers, saddling Sheridan with a casualty list he blamed on Meade's overreaction to bad news. Robert E. Lee relied on J.E.B. Stuart for everything from crack reconnaissance to timely raids. He would do the same in early May 1864 in Virginias Wilderness, with Stuart matching wits and spirit with Philip Sheridan (top), who had recently taken over cavalry command in the Army of the Potomac, under commander George G. Meade (bottom). Sheridan's anger and frustration were still simmering when the next provocation came. Late on the 7th, after the fighting had died down, Meade went forward with his staff to inspect his positions below Todd's Tavern. Visiting the bivouacs of two of Sheridan's three divisions, he learned that the commanders -- Brigadier Generals Wesley Merritt and David McMurtrie Gregg -- had received no marching orders for the next morning. Without immediately informing Sheridan, he issued orders of his own. He sent Merritt's men to secure the Brock Road, the most direct route to Spotsylvania from the north, and he directed Gregg to head southwest along the Catharpin Road to guard Corbin's Bridge over the Po River, a logical avenue of enemy pursuit. Meade did not communicate with Sheridan's third division, under Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson, which already had orders to seize Spotsylvania early the next morning and hold it until the infantry arrived. When Sheridan learned of Meade's intervention, he was incensed. He later claimed he intended for Merritt and Gregg to secure not only Corbin's Bridge, but also two other spans over the meandering Po -- Snell's Bridge and the so-called Block House Bridge, both of which offered the enemy alternate routes to Spotsylvania. Meade's orders placed Merritt's command a mile or more from Block House Bridge and left Snell's completely unguarded. Because Sheridan never issued orders of his own, it is difficult to validate his claim that he was more farsighted than Meade. As he had proved on previous occasions, he was not averse to bending the truth to win an argument. Hindsight, however, placed Meade's decisions in a bad light. Early on the morning of the 8th, Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson, temporarily commanding Lee's First Corps, led 12,000 Confederate infantry and artillery along the Shady Grove Church Road, across the Po at Block House Bridge, and into Spotsylvania. Supported by elements of Stuart's cavalry, Anderson drove out Wilson's troopers, who had arrived not much earlier. Although it would take two weeks of fighting to establish the fact beyond doubt, Lee had thwarted Grant's first attempt to pass around his south flank on the road to Richmond. The events of May 7 were enough to cause a rift between Meade and his cavalry leader, but the breach widened after 3:00 the next morning, when the army's infantry vanguard, the V Corps of Major General G. K. Warren, began its march toward Spotsylvania. At about the same time, Merritt's troopers set out to clear the Brock Road, as Meade had ordered. But, as Lieutenant George B. Sanford of the 1st U.S. Cavalry observed, "We had certainly not advanced a mile and daylight had scarcely broken, when we were again as heavily engaged as on the previous evening. For perhaps an hour or more we managed to make some slight progress, but then by the increasing weight of the fire it became evident that Stuart had been reinforced by the Confederate infantry, and our advance came practically to a standstill." Soon, Warren's infantrymen found their path blocked by Union troopers, horses, and wagons, and it became clear they would not reach Spotsylvania in time to evict Anderson. Warren, whose temper rivaled Meade's and Sheridan's, complained loudly about the foul-up, which he blamed on the cavalry in his front. Upon hearing the criticism, Sheridan reacted just as angrily. Arriving on the site of the traffic jam about 5:00 a.m., he pulled Merritt's men off the road, cursing Meade's interference. When the V Corps at last went forward around 6:00, some of Warren's subordinates unleashed invective of their own. Brigadier General John C. Robinson, the bushy-whiskered commander of Warren's advance division, was heard to shout, "Oh, get your double damned cavalry out of the way, there is nothing ahead but a little cavalry, we will soon clear them out!" One cavalryman who overheard this outburst thought to himself, "Old man, you will find something more than a little cavalry on ahead; but on he went and in less than fifteen minutes afterwards I saw them carry my General Robinson back on a stretcher with a leg shot off." Sheridan at Yellow Tavern Shortly before noon, as the V Corps continued to make glacial progress against Fitz Lee and Anderson, Sheridan caught up with Meade. Then erupted one of the loudest, bitterest shouting matches ever overheard by the Army of the Potomac headquarters staff. Meade echoed Warren's criticism that the cavalry should have cleared the Brock Road long before the infantry reached it. Sheridan retorted that Meade's unwarranted meddling in the cavalry's operations had caused the foul-up. As Sheridan admitted, "One word brought on another, until, finally, I told him that I could whip Stuart if he [Meade] would only let me, but since he insisted on giving the cavalry directions without consulting or even notifying me, he could henceforth command the Cavalry Corps himself -- that I would not give it another order." Sheridan stalked off in a huff. Such flagrant insubordination could not go unpunished. Meade went directly to Grant's headquarters, where he recounted the episode, epithet for epithet. No doubt he expected Grant to take his side in the quarrel, so he must have been shocked when Grant appeared to act otherwise. But when he related Sheridan's boast that he could defeat Stuart if given a free hand, Grant is said to have replied, "Did he say so? Then let him go out and do it." Major General Fitzhugh Lee Meade must have been shocked. Instead of disciplining Sheridan, he was forced to send him on the mission of his dreams. By 1:00 p.m. that day, he had written an order directing Sheridan to concentrate his command, stockpile three days' rations and an appropriate amount of forage, cut loose from the army, detour eastward around Spotsylvania, and head for Haxall's Landing. At that supply base, 50-some miles to the south, Sheridan was to link with Major General Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James, which was operating directly against Richmond. There, the cavalry would refit prior to rejoining its own command. The operation, which the enemy undoubtedly would interpret as a raid on Richmond, was principally an effort to draw Stuart's men into the open for a finish fight.
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Good morning ALL
Years ago I heard about an elderly gentleman who was suffering from the first stages of dementia. He lamented the fact that he often forgot about God. "Don't you worry," said a good friend, "He will never forget you." Growing old is perhaps the hardest task we have to face in this life. As the saying goes, "Getting old is not for sissies." Mainly, growing old is about losses. We devote most of our early life to acquiring things, but they are merely things we will lose as we age. We lose our strength, our looks, our friends, our job. We may lose our wealth, our home, our health, our spouse, our independence, and perhaps the greatest loss of all, our sense of dignity and self-worth. But there is one thing that you and I will never losethe love of God. "Even to your old age, I am He," God said to the prophet, "and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you" (Isaiah 46:4). "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree," wrote the songwriter (Psalm 92:12). "Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age" (vv.13-14). David Roper
Though my hair is white as snow; Though my sight is growing dim, Still He bids me trust in Him. Warner God's love never grows old.
Finishing Well How Has God Loved Us? |
PHOTO CREDIT: NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. Kennedy Space Center employees on the solid rocket booster recovery ship Freedom Star acknowledge photographers awaiting their arrival at Port Canaveral. The ship, with a spent solid rocket booster (SRB) from the STS-114 launch on July 26 in tow, is headed for Hangar AF on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The SRBs are the largest solid propellant motors ever flown and the first designed for reuse. After a Shuttle is launched, the SRBs are jettisoned at two minutes, seven seconds into the flight. At six minutes and 44 seconds after liftoff, the spent SRBs, weighing about 165,000 lb., have slowed their descent speed to about 62 mph and splashdown takes place in a predetermined area. They are retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean by special recovery vessels and returned for refurbishment and eventual reuse on future Shuttle flights. Once at Hangar AF, the SRBs are unloaded onto a hoisting slip and mobile gantry cranes lift them onto tracked dollies where they are safed and undergo their first washing.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on August 08:
1763 Charles Bulfinch Boston Mass, 1st US pro architect (Mass State House)
1857 Henry Osborn Conn, paleontologist/author (52 Years of Research)
1879 Emiliano Zapata Mexican revolutionary, peasant leader
1884 Sara Teasdale US, poet (1st Pulitzer Prize-1918-"Love Songs")
1887 Malcolm Keen Bristol England, actor (Uncle Chris-Mama)
1896 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Wash DC, writer (The Yearling)
1900 Victor Young Chic Ill, orch leader (Milton Berle Show, In Old Calif)
1901 Dr Ernest O Lawrence Canton SC, inventor (Cyclotron-Nobel 1939)
1902 Paul A.M. Dirac England, theoretical physicist (Nobel 1933)
1907 Benny Carter NYC, musician/composer (Easy Money, King Carter)
1908 Arthur J Goldberg Ill, UN ambassador/Supreme Court justice (1962-65)
1910 Francisco Brochado Da Rocha PM of Brazil (1962)
1910 Sylvia Sidney Bronx NY, actress (WKRP, Sabotage, Beetlejuice)
1913 Axel Stordahl Staten Island NY, orch leader (Frank Sinatra Show)
1918 Rory Calhoun LA Calif, actor (Capitol, Motel Hell, Bill-Texan)
1919 Dino DeLaurentis producer (King Kong)
1922 Rudi Gernreich designed 1st women's topless swimsuit, miniskirt
1923 Esther Williams Inglewood Cal, actress/swimmer (Dangerous when Wet)
1926 Richard Anderson Long Beach NJ, actor (Oscar Goldman-6 Million $ Man)
1926 Webb Pierce West Monroe La, country singer (Ozark Jubilee)
1929 Josef Suk Prague Czechoslovakia, violinist (Artist of Merit-1977)
1930 Andy Warhol artist/movie producer (Frankenstein, Bad)
1930 Joan Mondale wife of former VP Walter F Mondale
1930 Nita Talbot NYC NY, actress (Supertrain, Here We Go Again)
1932 Mel Tillis country singer (Stateside) /songwriter (Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town)
1933 Joe Tex singer/songwriter (Hold What You've Got)
1936 Don Bowden US, 1st American to run a sub 4 min mile
1936 Frank Howard baseball player (NL Rookie of the Year 1960)
1936 Keith Barron Mexborough England, actor (At the Earth's Core)
1937 Dustin Hoffman LA, actor (The Graduate, Tootsie, Rainman, Ishtar)
1938 Connie Stevens Bkln, singer/actress (Hawaiian Eye, Back to Beach)
1939 Phil Balsley Va, country singer (Statler Bros-Flowers on the Wall)
1947 Jose Cruz leftfielder (St Louis Cards, Houston Astros)
1947 Larry Wilcox SD Calif, actor (Lassie, CHiPs)
1948 Svetlana Y Savitskaya 2nd woman in space (Soyuz T-7, T-12)
1949 Keith Carradine San Mateo Calif, actor (Young Guns, Pretty Baby)
1953 "Sweet" Lou Dunbar basketball player (Harlem Globetrotters)
1953 Donny Most Bkln NY, actor (Ralph Malph-Happy Days)
1954 Nigel Mansell formula-1 racer (Portugal Grand Prix-1990)
1958 Deborah Norville TV host (Today)
1958 Harry Crosby LA Calif, actor (Friday the 13th)
1959 Rikki Rockett rocker (Poison-Every Rose Has a Thorn)
1962 Suzee Pai Toledo Ohio, actress (Big Trouble in Little China)
1967 Lorraine Pearson rocker (5 Star-Silk & Steel)
1988 Beatrice Princess of England
Folks, Im'm about to post some comments on a news item. Be sure to click on my screename and then "In Forum" to read those comments.
Hi kids! I wanted to stop by and say hello and thanks to all of our military veterans out there. I realize y'all are discussing the Civil War today- but I wanted to remind people about one of my favorite revolutionary war heroes: Henry Knox. I just finished reading 1776 and I was reminded,in the book, of his contributions to our freedom. The story of his cannons have always inspired me.
Here is a good general link:
I hope everyone has a bright day!
The problem with a monarchy is it's based on the ridiculous notion that because your grandfather was a good ruler you'll be one.
"Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time".
Winston Churchill
JEB Stuart bids farewell to his wife, Flora, in Dundee Plantation house, near Hanover Courthouse, Virginia.
Been guilty of reading things before I had my coffee myself. ;-)
Monday Morning Bump for the denizens of the Freeper Foxhole
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Outstanding thread today, I've always been moved by the deep affection Lee held for Stuart. The follow up commentary by "the usual suspects" is both informative and enlightening.
[Hi sweets! No not you Sam.]
Ooops! Forgot the biggest "suspect" of all! ;^)
Thanks for your as usual insightful and well-informed comments.
This just elevates my already high opinion of Gen. Grant. If I had to choose between Meade and Sheridan, I'd choose Little Phil too.
bttt
Given the ilk (I don't want to type their names) that uses these terms interchangeably there is no question they are antithetical. When I hear certain liberals (another meaningless word) speak about "taking back America", the dilemma then becomes how do they take back something they hate?
OBSEQUIES OF STUART
(May 12, 1864)
By John Reuben Thompson
(1823-1873)
We could not pause, while yet the noontide air
Shook with the cannonade's incessant pealing,
The funeral pageant fitly to prepare--
A nation's great revealing.
The smoke, above the glimmering woodland wide
That skirts our southward border in its beauty,
Marked where our heroes stood and fought and died
For love and faith and duty.
And still, what time the doubtful strife went on,
We might not find expression for our sorrow;
We could but lay our dear dumb warrior down
And gird us for the morrow.
One weary year agone, when came a lull
With victory in the conflict's stormy closes.
When the glad Spring, all flushed and beautiful,
First mocked us with her roses,
With dirge and bell and minute-gun, we paid
Some few poor rites--an inexpressive token
Of a great people's pain--to Jackson's shade,
In agony unspoken.
No wailing trumpet and no tolling bell,
No cannon, save the battle's boom receding,
When Stuart to the grave we bore, might tell,
With hearts all crushed and bleeding.
The crisis suited not with pomp, and she
Whose anguish bears the seal of consecration
Had wished his Christian obsequies should be
Thus void of ostentation.
Only the maidens came, sweet flowers to twine
Above his form so still and cold and painless,
Whose deeds upon our brightest records shine,
Whose life and sword were stainless.
They well remembered how he loved to dash
Into the fight, festooned from summer bowers;
How like a fountain's spray his sabre's flash
Leaped from a mass of flowers.
And so we carried to his place of rest
All that of our great Paladin was mortal:
The cross, amd not the sabre, on his breast,
That opes the heavenly portal.
No more of tribute might to us remain:
But there will still come a time when Freedom's martyrs
A richer guerdon of reknown shall gain
Than gleams in stars and garters.
I hear from out that sunlit land which lies
Beyond these clouds that gather darkly o'er us,
The happy sounds of industry arise
In swelling peaceful chorus.
And mingling with these sounds, the glad acclaim
Of millions undisturbed by war's afflictions,
Crowning each martyr's never-dying name
With grateful benedictions.
In some fair future garden of delights,
Where flowers shall bloom and song-birds sweetly warble,
Art shall erect the statues of our knights
In living bronze and marble.
And none of all that bright heroic throng
Shall wear to far-off time a semblance grander,
Shall still be decked with fresher wreaths of song,
Than this beloved commander.
The Spanish legend tells us of the Cid,
That after death he rode, erect, desately,
Along his lines, even as in life he did,
In presence yet more stately;
And thus our Stuart, at this moment, seems
To ride out of our dark and troubled story
Into the region of romace and dreams,
A realm of light and glory;
And sometimes, when the silver bugles blow,
That ghostly form, in battle reappearing,
Shall lead his horsemen headlong on the foe,
In victory careering!
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