The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Battle of Antietam(Sharpsburg) (9/17/1862) - Sep. 17th, 2003

www.texasrifles.com ^ | July 30, 1995 | Peter Carlson

[manna]

Present!

[Valin]

If I only had a brain...)

Well you are in luck! Allow me to introduce myself Honest Al of Honest Al's used brain emporium. I just happen to have a good low mileage one owner brain. The previous owner(Dennis Kucinich) hardly ever used it. I guarantee that all synapses and neurons are in A-1 condition!

Tell you what I'm gonna do, because I'd REALLY like to see you in this fine brain I'm gonna throw in(at no extra charge)..(Don't tell my manager I'll get in trouble) a small sub-compact brain previously owned by Sheila Jackson Lee(just the thing when all you need is the autonomic system.)

So what do you say? Can we do business? Remember at Honest Al's we only handle the best.

[Prof Engineer]

I've got at least one ancestor who fought in this battle. Thanks.

[Prof Engineer]

0642 Arabs conquer Alexandria, great library destroyed

The more things change...

[Valin]

I recall reading that when the library at Alexandria burned it set man kind back 500 years.

[Valin]

The Mysterious Fate of the Great Library of Alexandria

Introduction
What happened to the Royal Library of Alexandria? We can be certain it was there once, founded by Ptolomy II Soter, and we can be equally certain it is not there now. It formed part of the Museum which was located in the Bruchion or palace quarter of the city of Alexandria. This great ancient city, occupying a spit of land on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, had been founded by Alexander the Great in his flying visit to Egypt and became the capital of the last dynasty of Pharaohs descended from Alexander's general Ptolemy. The Great or more properly Royal Library formed a part of the Museum but whether or not it was a separate building is unclear.

Stories about its demise have been circulating for centuries and date back to at least the first century AD. These stories continue to be told and embellished today by those who wish to make a moral attack against the alleged vandals. We find that three parties are blamed for the destruction and they correspond to the three occupying powers that ruled Alexandria after it had been lost by the Greeks. Let me first tell those stories as we hear them today - without references, largely inaccurate and used as polemic. Then I will try and establish what, if anything we can know before finally and rather indulgently making my own suggestions.

The suspects respectively are a Roman, a Christian and a Moslem - Julius Caesar, Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria and Caliph Omar of Damascus. It is clear that the Royal Library could not have been burnt down or otherwise destroyed by all three of these characters and so we find we have too many sources for the event of the destruction rather than a paucity. As scholars of the Gospels will vouch, this too can be an embarrassment. How we decide to reconcile the stories will depend almost entirely on how we criticise the sources and which of them we choose to consider most reliable.

Archaeology can be a help with ancient history although it tends to be silent about the things in which we are most interested leading the more foolish archaeologists to claim they never happened. In the case of Alexandria a series of earthquakes and floods in the middle ages mean that the entire palace quarter in the North East of the city is now underwater and largely inaccessible. Recent work in underwater archaeology has revealed more but we will probably never be able to dig around in the foundations of the Museum. The Great Temple of Serapis, to which we will later return, was in the south-western quarter and parts of its foundations have been excavated.(snip)

Caliph Omar
First the legendary account:

The Moslems invaded Egypt during the seventh century as their fanaticism carried them on conquests that would take form an empire stretching from Spain to India. There was not much of a struggle in Egypt and the locals found the rule of the Caliph to be more tolerant than that of the Byzantines before them. However, when a Christian called John informed the local Arab general that there existed in Alexandria a great Library preserving all the knowledge in the world he was perturbed. Eventually he sent word to Damascus where Caliph Omar ordered that all the books in the library should be destroyed because, as he said "they will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous." Therefore, the books and scrolls were taken out of the library and distributed as fuel to the many bathhouses of the city. So enormous was the volume of literature that it took six months for it all to be burnt to ashes heating the saunas of the conquerors.

The leader of the Moslem forces that took Egypt in 640AD was called 'Amr and it was he who was supposed to have asked Omar what to do about the fabled library that he found himself in control of.

There are only a few sources that we need to examine. They are very late The first of the two late sources dates from the 12th century and is written by Abd al Latif (died 1231) who, in his Account of Egypt while describing Alexandria, mentions of the ruins of the Serapeum. The problems with this as historical evidence are enormous and insurmountable. He admits that the source of his information was rumour and the fantasy about Aristotle does not bode well for the veracity of the rest of the piece.

In the thirteenth century the great Jacobite Christian Bishop Gregory Bar Hebræus (died 1286), called Abû 'l Faraj in Arabic, fleshes the story out and includes the famous epigram about the Koran. Again there is no clue as to where he found the story but it seems to have been one doing the rounds among Christians living under the dominion of the Moslems. Gregory is happy to record plenty of far fetched tales about omens and monstrosities so we must treat this story with the greatest suspicion. As it is not even included in the original version of his history but only in the Arabic version that he translated and abridged himself very late in life, he may not have known the story when he first put pen to parchment. In The Vanished Library, Canfora mentions a Syriac manuscript published in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century by François Nau. It was written by a Christian monk in the ninth century and details the conversation between John and Caliph Omar. After help from email correspondents, I have finally been able to find this elusive document in its French translation and ascertained that it makes no mention of any library and appears to be an example of a theological dialogue between two representative individuals. In other words it is not historical and has no pretensions to be.

The verdict on Omar
The errors in the sources are obvious and the story itself is almost wholly incredible. In the first place, Gregory Bar Hebræus represents the Christian in his story as being one John of Byzantium and that John was certainly dead by the time of the Moslem invasion of Egypt. Also, the prospect of the library talking six months to burn is simply fantastic and just the sort of exaggeration one might expect to find in Arab legends such as the Arabian Nights. However Alfred Butler's famous observation that the books of the library were made of vellum which does not burn is not true. The very late dates of the source material are also suspect as there is no hint of this atrocity in any early literature - even in the Coptic Christian chronicle of John of Nikiou (died after 640AD) who detailed the Arab invasion. Finally, the story comes from the hand of a Christian intellectual who would have been more than happy to show the religion of his rulers in a bad light. Agreeing with Gibbon this time, we can dismiss it as a legend.

http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm

[Johnny Gage]

Wow. What a great read. As a young teen, our family visited the Chattanooga/Chickamauga battlefields on a family trip through parts of the southern east coast.

I think Antietam should be on our family's list of places to stop at when we go out east.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Quagmire!!

[snippy_about_it]

I pilfered the tag-line shamelessly from carton253

LOL. I hope no taglines are copyrighted!

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning manna!

[snippy_about_it]

If I only had a brain...)

LOL. I'd rather have none that a piece of those brains!

[snippy_about_it]

I've got at least one ancestor who fought in this battle.

That's interesting Prof Engineer, can you tell us anything about him?

[snopercod]

After a little reflection, the tagline seems disrespectful of our troops in Iraq. I'm changing it.

We're over past Asheville, and in no danger from the hurricane.

[snippy_about_it]

My goodness SAM.

A long but worthwhile read. There is so much material to comment on I don't know where to start. For now I'll sum up my thoughts with Ranger Holsworth words to his parting tour group:

"How do we thank those people who we'll never meet, who did these things 130 years ago?" he asks. "The answer is: We can come here and remember. We make them immortal when we remember."

Thanks SAM this was wonderful!

[w_over_w]

Morning Glory Snip and Sam~

Just a quick hello . . . back to reading. Damn! Ya'll did your homework today.

[snippy_about_it]

I understand though I know that wasn't what you thought and wasn't what I thought when I read it. ;)

Glad you are west of the hills.

[Johnny Gage]

Air Power
B-2 "Spirit"

The B-2 Spirit is a multi-role bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions. Along with the B-52 and B-1B, the B-2 provides the penetrating flexibility and effectiveness inherent in manned bombers. Its low-observable, or "stealth," characteristics give it the unique ability to penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued, and heavily defended, targets. Its capability to penetrate air defenses and threaten effective retaliation provide an effective deterrent and combat force well into the 21st century.

The blending of low-observable technologies with high aerodynamic efficiency and large payload gives the B-2 important advantages over existing bombers. Its low-observability provides it greater freedom of action at high altitudes, thus increasing its range and a better field of view for the aircraft's sensors.

Four General Electric F118-GE-100 non-afterburning turbofan engines (each delivering approximately 19,000 lbs. of thrust) drive the airplane to a maximum speed described as "high subsonic," and to altitudes near 50,000 ft. They also provide an unrefueled range of approximately 6,000 nautical miles. A single aerial refueling extends this to some 10,000 miles and multiple visits to air tankers stretches the range indefinitely.

The B-2's low observability is derived from a combination of reduced infrared, acoustic, electromagnetic, visual and radar signatures. These signatures make it difficult for the sophisticated defensive systems to detect, track and engage the B-2. Many aspects of the low-observability process remain classified; however, the B-2's composite materials, special coatings and flying-wing design all contribute to its "stealthiness."

The B-2 has a crew of two pilots, an aircraft commander in the left seat and mission commander in the right, compared to the B-1B's crew of four and the B-52's crew of five.

The B-2 is intended to deliver gravity nuclear and conventional weapons, including precision-guided standoff weapons. An interim, precision-guided bomb capability called Global Positioning System (GPS) Aided Targeting System/GPS Aided Munition (GATS/GAM) is being tested and evaluated. Future configurations are planned for the B-2 to be capable of carrying and delivering the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile.

B-2s, in a conventional role, staging from Whiteman AFB, MO; Diego Garcia; and Guam can cover the entire world with just one refueling. Six B-2s could execute an operation similar to the 1986 Libya raid but launch from the continental U.S. rather than Europe with a much smaller, more lethal, and more survivable force. Using the rotary launcher assembly, all B-2s are capable of employing 16 Mk 84 JDAMs, 16 JSOWs, or 8 GBU-37/BLU-113s (to be replaced by EGBU-28).

---

Specifications:
Primary function: Multi-role heavy bomber.
Primary Contractor: Northrop Grumman Corp.
Power Plant: Four General Electric F-118-GE-100 engines - Thrust: 17,300 pounds each engine
Crew: Two pilots
Unit cost: Approximately $2.1 billion [average]
Date Deployed: December 1993
Inventory: Active force: 21 (planned operational aircraft)

Dimensions:
Length: 69 feet (20.9 meters)
Height: 17 feet (5.1 meters)
Wingspan: 172 feet (52.12 meters)

Performance :
Speed: High subsonic
Ceiling: 50,000 feet (15,152 meters)
Takeoff Weight (Typical): 336,500 pounds (152,635 kilograms)
Range: Intercontinental, unrefueled
Payload: 40,000 pounds (18,000 kilograms)

Armaments:

NUCLEAR 16 - B61 16 - B83 16 - AGM-129 ACM 16 - AGM-131 SRAM 2

CONVENTIONAL 80 - MK82 [500lb] 16 - MK84 [2000lb] 34 to 36 - CBU87 34 to 36 - CBU89 34 to 36 - CBU97

PRECISION 80 - GBU 30 JDAM [500lb] 16 - GBU 32 JDAM [2000lb] 8 - GBU 27 8 - EGBU 28 8 - GBU 36 8 - GBU 37 8 to 16 - AGM-154 JSOW 8 to 16 - AGM-137 TSSAM

---

---

All photos Copyright of Global Security.Org

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy.

[SAMWolf]

I envy you. I've never been to Gettysburg or Antietam.

This article sure gives you a different perspective onthe battle.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Snopercod. Nice "new generation" tagline.