Winston Churchill Born

Winston S. Churchill
(1874-1965)

Sir Winston Spencer Churchill was born on November 30, 1874 at Blenheim Palace, the home built for his famous ancestor the 1st Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill, who led an allied victory against the French at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. As the future Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill would lead his nation to win even greater battles, first in the Battle of Britain and later in the ultimate defeat of Germany and Japan in World War II.

Winston Churchill was a soldier, journalist, writer, politician, historian and even an artist. A brilliant orator and a man of genius, he made many grave mistakes in his career but he was instrumental in keeping Great Britain and its Empire in the fight against Hitler's Germany in the early years of the Second World War when a Nazi victory seemed certain. When the United States finally declared war against the Axis powers (Germany, Japan, Italy) in December of 1941 Churchill knew that although the fighting was far from over, the war was all but won.

Throughout his life Churchill was a fervent supporter of the British Empire. As a soldier and a journalist he fought on the North-West frontier of India and took part in the Sudan expedition that culminated in the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. He was taken prisoner in the Boer War and escaped to write about his exploits. During the First World War he fought again as an officer on the Western Front.

Following in his fathers footsteps, Lord Randolph Churchill, he became a member of Parliament. He was First Lord of the Admiralty in both World Wars before becoming Prime Minister in 1940. He served as Prime Minister from 1940-1945 and again in 1951-1955.

Upon his death in 1965, Sir Winston S. Churchill was given an official state funeral, an honor generally reserved for royalty in Great Britain.

Battle of Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo

This is the 195th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. On Sunday 18 June 1815, near the town of Waterloo, in what is now Belgium, a coalition of British, Dutch and German forces under British commander Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington and his ally Marshall Blucher commanding a Prussian army, combined together to defeat the Emperor Napoleon and his French Imperial Army.

The Battle of Waterloo, along with the Battle of Gettysburg from the American Civil War, are perhaps the two most debated and written about battles in world history. As the Duke of Wellington aptly described the battle, it was "a near run thing".

The allied army was able to hold against severe French assaults throughout a long day giving time for the Prussian forces to join them in the late afternoon. The order for an army-wide advance was then given and the ranks of the French Grande Armee collapsed and either surrendered or fled from the field, only to be chased by vengeful Prussian soldiers and cavalry. The exception to this general rout was Napoleon's Old Guard which stubbornly retired from (and died on) the field with honor.

Napoleon surrendered to his enemies and spent his last days in captivity on the island of St. Helena. He died in 1821. The "Iron Duke" was showered with honors, ultimately serving as both the Prime Minister of England and at the time of his death in 1852 was Commander-in-Chief of the British Army.

The War of the Roses

The War of the Roses (1445-1485) was a bitter civil war fought between the House's (noble families) of Lancaster and of York, who were each contending to place their own heirs on the throne of England. Supporters of the House of Lancaster wore red roses on their livery, while the House of York wore white roses.

On 22 August 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth Field King Richard III of the House of York was killed, effectively ending the War of the Roses. (This event was the inspiration of Shakespeare's famous lines from Richard III, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"). The victor of the battle Henry Tudor was crowned Henry VII, King of England. The Tudor dynasty took as its symbol a red rose with a white center. The Tudors, which included King Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, ruled England for 118 years and set the nation on the path to become a great naval and world power.

Battle of Bunker Hill

Battle of Bunker Hill
Charlestown, Mass.

Today is the 224th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major battle of the American Revolution. Although
the British won the battle, it was a very costly victory that gave hope to the American cause, as it showed Colonial troops could stand against Britain's best soldiers. The battle is also significant, I believe, for what might have happened to the new Rebellion if events had turned out just a little bit differently.

The initial plan was for the Colonial militia to fortify Bunker Hill, which is a higher promontory and is closer to the mainland than Breeds Hill on the Charlestown peninsula. For reasons unknown today it was decided to build a redoubt on Breeds Hill and this is where most of the actual fighting on that day took place. This placed the militia in a (potentially) very precarious position. It would have quite easy for the British Army, under the cover of the British Navy, to have made its amphibious landings behind the redoubt and attacked the fortification from the rear. This plan was advanced by General Clinton, but he was overruled.

The actual landings on the peninsula were made in front of the redoubt. The British troops were sent in a broad frontal attack, carrying full backpacks, that failed miserably. An attempt was made to turn the flank of the militia, but due to the timely arrival of Col. Stark and his men from New Hampshire, this also failed. It wasn't until a final third assault was made that the British finally succeeded in sending the militia fleeing to the rear. British forces had removed the threat to their position in Boston, but at a great cost.

What was a Pyrrhic victory for the British could easily have been a major disaster for the Colonial militia. If the assault had been made in a more timely matter and if a landing closer to the land bridge to the peninsula had been made, then the American forces would have found themselves trapped. They would have been forced to surrender in total or have been killed. A defeat of this size and nature, at this early date, may have been fatal to the American colonies fight for independence.

British Soldiers Graves Found in Charlestown?

Bunker Hill Monument
43 Monument Sq.
Charlestown, Mass.

A recent article in the Boston Globe relates the story of the work being done by two men in surveying the layout of present day Charlestown and its relationship to the same landscape during the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. Local Charlestown historian Chris Anderson and Erik Goldstein, a curator at Colonial Williamsburg, have located what they believe to be the gravesites of British soldiers killed during the fighting in the backyards of several Charlestown residents. The British soldiers were buried in the aftermath of the battle in a massgrave in some of the trenches constructed by the Colonial militia. J.L. Bell does his usual excellent work discussing this story in his blog Boston 1775.

Battle Reenactment Canceled Due To Protests

The Death of General Wolfe
Benjamin West (1770)

It was announced yesterday by the Canadian National Battlefields Commission that the 250th anniversary re-enactment of the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham planned to take place this summer in the city of Quebec, Canada has been canceled due to safety concerns. Radical French-separatists in the city and province had vehemently opposed the commemoration of this important battle that led to the defeat of French forces and gave Great Britain final control over Canada. The threat of protests and even violence against anyone taking part in the re-enactment led the Commission to their decision. The story is more fully told here.

As this is a non-political blog, I won't comment on what I think about this situation in Quebec.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers

Battle of Agincourt

On 25 October 1415, St. Crispen's Day, Henry V of England won an overwhelming victory against the French at the battle of Agincourt. Henry V was attempting to pursue his claim - by force of arms - to the title of the Duchy of Normandy and the throne of France by virtue of his descent from William of Normandy, the conqueror of England in 1066.

Henry's army of 6,000, consisting mostly of archers armed with longbows, faced an French army of between 20,000 - 30,000 men. Among the ranks of the French army were many aristocrats and knights - the so-called "flower of France".

Due to the constraints of a small battlefield and the muddy soil, the French were unable to make proper use of their heavy cavalry to overcome the enemy ranks. The deadly fire from the highly trained English archers led to a further break down in the ranks of the French army.

Sustaining heavy casualties and unable to mount a proper attack the French surrendered. Henry's desperate "band of brothers" had won the day. Fearing the possibility of another attack and having captured more of the enemy than he had men of his own, Henry V ordered the slaughter of French prisoners. How many were actually killed is unknown, but it is estimated that more died in the aftermath of the battle than in the actual battle. As was the custom of the day, those prisoners who survived and belonged to the aristocracy were held until a ransom was paid for their release.

Almost two hundred years later William Shakespeare wrote his play Henry V. In these memorable words from the Bard, here is Henry V speaking to his men on the eve of St. Crispens Day:

"This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day"

This Hallowed Ground - Gettysburg, Penn.

Statue of the 1st.
Penn. Cavalry
at Gettysburg

George Will writes again here in the Washington Post about the Battle of Gettysburg and the important role it played in U.S. and World History. It was here on this "hallowed ground" that the Union was saved and the Confederacy reached its "high-water mark", with Pickett's charge.

Wills article gives well-deserved credit to Bob Kinsley and the Gettysburg Foundation for the work they have done in building a new Museum and Visitor Center. Kinsley, who is from nearby York, Penn., was the founder of the Gettysburg Foundation. Kinsley hired Bob Wilburn, formerly of Colonial Williamsburg, who raised the funds necessary to build a new center - $103 million of private monies. Having just visited Gettysburg in 2006 I can testify that a new visitor center was badly needed.

The Museum and Vistor Center includes a theater, where a film narrated by actor Morgan Freeman can be seen and a new and proper setting for the Cyclorama, the 1884 circular painting of Pickett's charge. The Gettysburg Foundation has also purchased the 80-acre Spangler farm , that served as a hospital during the battle. The foundation is working to preserve more battle sites for future generations.

This is not new ground for George Will. Ten years ago he devoted another column to this topic. It has been reposted here.

On November 19, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln gave this short speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. If simple words can begin to give justice to the sacrifices made on those three days of battle in July of 1863, perhaps Lincoln's can:

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that government of the people. . . by the people. . . for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth.

The Battle of Tours

Charles Martel
Battle of Tours

A posting about the anniversary of the Battle of Tours by the BBC reminded me of an old line of poetry that I heard years ago: "In 732 at the Battle of Tours, Charles Martel defeated the Moors." As the battle is largely forgotten today, it is most likely due to this mnemonic device that I can even recall this famous battle that took place so long ago in France. (The actual fighting took place somewhere between the cities of Tours and Poitiers - the battle is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Poitiers).

In October of 732 a large Saracen army, under the command of Abd-er Rahman, crossed the Pyrenees from Spain into the land of the Franks seeking plunder and conquest. First defeating Count Eudo at the Battle of Bordeaux the Moors continued out into the French countryside. Count Eudo then made peace with his rival Charles Martel and combined their forces under Martel's command.

By then marching against the Moors and threatening their rear guard, Charles Martel forced Abd-er Rahman to retire from his attempt to take Tours and meet the new threat. Martel wisely dismounted his cavalry and formed a "wall" of armor to combat the enemy. It is estimated that the Moorish army was some 50,000 strong and made up mostly of cavalry. The Frankish army was of an unknown number, but usually is considered to have been a similar sized force made up of both cavalry and infantry.

Once the battle lines were formed, the Moorish cavalry made a series of attacks against the Franks. The Franks were able to hold their ground and even gained an advantage, threatening their camp. The Muslim army fell back from the attack with their leader killed. The next day the Moors began their retreat back south of the Pyrenees. Charles Martel had won the day and had earned his name the "Hammer".

Charles Martel and his victory at the Battle of Tours is credited with turning back the tide of Islam from Europe and saving Christendom for another day. He then founded a dynasty that included his even more famous grandson, Charlemagne (Charles the Great). Having saved the "western world" and then founding the Frankish Empire, it is no wonder that Charles Martel was the subject of poetry.

Siege of Yorktown

Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown
by John Trumball (1797)

On September 28, 1781 an allied army made up of American and French soldiers began the siege of British forces under the command of Lt. General Cornwallis in Yorktown, Virginia. Cornwallis' command of some 6,000 soldiers were divided between the towns of Yorktown and Gloucester on opposite sides of the banks of the York River.

Prior to his advance into Virginia, Cornwallis had been campaigning in the Carolina's. Without authorization from his superior in New York, Gen. Clinton, Cornwallis decided to invade Virginia in the hope of having greater success in that state. Gen. Lafayette, commanding militia, followed Cornwallis and his small army into Virginia and sent word to Gen. Washington in New York of Cornwallis' location.

Gen. Washington and his French counterpart, Gen. Comte de Rochambeau, together devised a plan to trap Cornwallis. Taking advantage of (temporary) French naval superiority, a French fleet under Admiral de Grasse was dispatched to the Chesapeake to prevent British reinforcement or escape by sea. Washington and Rochambeau, along with some 7,000 soldiers, quickly marched south to Virginia. Upon arrival the army quickly surrounded Yorktown and began conducting siege operations. With the addition of some 3,000 from Admiral de Grasse's fleet, Lafayette's militia and other allied forces, the British were now outnumbered by more than two-to-one.

Trenches were built closer and closer to the British lines. As soon as they were able the allied force began a heavy artillery bombardment of Yorktown and the British positions. The British attempts to break through the enemy lines failed and with the loss of two important redoubts, #9 and #10, the situation was rapidly becoming untenable. Finally with supplies running low and receiving word of the delay of the arrival of a relief force from New York, on October 17 Gen. Cornwallis sent word that he would surrender his forces unconditionally.

The surrender documents were signed on October 19. Marching out in regimental formation, British and Hessian soldiers surrendered their colors and laid down their arms in front of the massed columns of American and French soldiers. Claiming illness, Gen. Cornwallis sent his second in command to formally surrender his sword to the victors. Gen. Washington sent his senior commander, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, to accept the surrender. According to tradition, British musicians played "The World Turned Upside Down" during the ceremonies.

News of the loss of yet another major British command (Gen. Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga brought the French openly into the war) was devastating to the British government. Once a new government was formed (in 1782) serious peace negotiations were begun. Although it would be two years before the Treaty of Paris was signed, the victory at Yorktown effectively ended the major fighting in America's War for Independence.

Great Battlefield Tour

Virginia Monument
Gettysburg Battlefield
Gettysburg, Penn.

An article on MSNBC.com yesterday titled Great Battlefield Tours by Joe Yogerst of Forbes Traveler was almost certainly written with an eye towards students of military history as well as travelers looking for new destinations. In a short but well-written piece Joe Yogerst gives a brief overview of some of the worlds great battles. A slide show accompanying the article lists several more famous battles. This has always been an interest of mine - traveling to view important battlefields, as well as visiting old forts and castles.

The article begins with a description of the Battles of Saratoga from the American Revolution. From there the list goes on to the Battle of Hastings, Waterloo, the battle to conquer the capital of the Aztec Empire by Cortes, two battles at Poitiers, France and the greatest battle ever fought on U.S. soil - Gettysburg. All good choices for such a short list.

The slide show covers these battles and goes on to list the Battle for Normandy (France), the attack on Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Culloden (Scotland) and out of the ancient world, the city of Troy in Turkey. This particular list appears to be more for the tourist and world traveler than just exclusively for the history buff. But given the natural beauty of those locations, I have no objection at all to visiting any of them. In future posts I will discuss many of these battles and provide my own list for a great battlefield tour.

British Surrender at Saratoga

Surrender at Saratoga
by John Trumball

Next Wednesday (October 17) marks the 230th anniversary of the surrender of British forces under General Burgoyne near Saratoga, New York. This defeat is considered a major turning point in the war and led to the French openly siding with the American colonists in their rebellion against the Crown.