Happy St. Patricks Day!

St. Patrick

Today is St. Patrick's Day, not only a state holiday in Ireland but also a popular holiday in the U.S. and Great Britain due to the diaspora of the Irish from Ireland in the 19th century. St. Patrick's Day is also the anniversary of the British Army and Navy beginning the evacuation of occupied Boston in 1776 during the American Revolution. This is celebrated as Evacuation Day in Massachusetts and is considered a state holiday in Suffolk County and for many state employees.

The importance of St. Patrick's Day and the juxtaposition of Evacuation Day in the city of Boston and its environs today is somewhat ironic in that during the time of the Revolution, Catholicism was very unpopular. There were many reasons for this, to include King Henry VIII's bitter break with the Roman Catholic Church, the constant threat of attack from the French-Catholic settlements in Canada (a threat which ended at the conclusion of the French and Indian War) and most importantly the founding of Boston by the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

For many years Bostonians celebrated Popes Day on November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day in England). The day was marked by bonfires and the dragging around of a stuffed dummy that represented the Catholic Pope. Anti-Catholic feeling was to continue for many years in Boston and even led to street riots and attacks upon our French allies during America's War for Independence on the occasion of military set-backs during the war.

The old ways changed along with the demographics of Boston and many of America's city's when the Irish began to emigrate to the New World in large numbers. This was to have a great affect on America and especially its politics. The effects were most pronounced in the nations big city's and eventually led to the election of two Presidents of Irish-American descent. The influx of Irish immigrants also was to greatly aid the Union Army during America's Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln Born

Abraham Lincoln

On this date in 1809 Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky. Although largely self-taught, Lincoln became a lawyer, legislator and Representative from the state of Illinois. In 1860 he was elected as the first Republican President of the United States.

Viewed as a strident abolitionist, his election led to a declaration of secession first by the state of South Carolina and then by several other southern slave states. This was the beginning of a bitter four year long civil war.

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Fords theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth a famous stage actor and southern sympathizer. This was just five days after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. He died the next day as a result of his wounds.

Lincoln Shot on Good Friday

Tonight at 9:00 p.m. on PBS Channel 2 in Boston, Bill Moyer hosts a special on Abraham Lincoln on his show, Bill Moyer's Journal. This special event program, Lincoln's Legend and Legacy, has been created and is being brought to television through the efforts of actor Sam Waterson and historian Harold Holzer.

Today being Good Friday is an anniversary of sorts as Abraham Lincoln was shot on Good Friday, April 14, 1865 at Fords Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was seated in his private balcony box watching a performance of "Our American Cousin" when the stage actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth fired a single shot into his head. Booth escaped from the theatre and was later caught and killed after a massive manhunt.

President Abraham Lincoln died from his wound on April 15, 1865, just six days after Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern of Virginia at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

Abraham Lincolns Birthday

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. Upon his election to office in 1860 the long simmering differences between the north and the south over the issue of slavery quickly turned into an open conflict. Even before Lincoln was sworn into office, state legislatures in the south began to pass legislation calling for secession from the Union.

On April 12, 1861 with the firing on Ft. Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina President Lincoln issued an executive order to the states to call out their volunteer militias t0 put down this rebellion. This caused the last holdovers in the south to choose sides and many chose to defend their home states against this "aggression" from the North.

Most famously U.S. Army Col. Robert E. Lee of Virginia, who had been offered command of the Federal forces, assumed command of the Northern Army of Virginia in 1862 and fought for the Confederate States of America. His divided loyalties was just one example of many and a bloody civil war of brother against brother ensued. The American Civil War, or the War between the States, lasted for four years and the fighting cost the lives of over 600,000 Americans on the battlefield.

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 Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The Celebrated Jumping Frog
by Mark Twain

I recently met a former California native who is now living in the Boston area and is an avid Red Sox fan. During our conversation the discussion turned back to California and Calaveras County was mentioned - had I ever heard of it? I remembered the title of the famous Mark Twain story, so I said I did. This led to talk of the Calaveras County Fair, which continues to this day and present day life in California. I try to avoid mentioning today's politics in this blog, so I won't go down that road. But a look at Mark Twain, one of my favorite authors, is certainly called for.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri. He is of course most famous for his years growing up in Hannibal, Missouri, years that he immortalized in his own writings. Living on the banks of the Mississippi, before the outbreak of the Civil War, was paradise for such an imaginative youth. Growing up on the river, playing at being Pirates with his friends or dreaming of becoming that god-like creature, a riverboat pilot, gave Samuel Clemens all of the inspiration he needed to complete his most important works. (Ray Bradbury is another great author that comes to mind who received so much of his inspiration from his childhood).

After first working as a typesetter/printer and a sometime newspaper reporter, Sam Clemens did achieve his dream of becoming a riverboat pilot. Serving his apprenticeship under Horace Bixby, he memorized some 2,000 miles of the Mississippi River, along with all of its twists, turns, snags and sandbars - both upstream and downstream. This amazing feat of memory was required of all riverboat pilots, for which they were well-paid. Unfortunately for Clemens the coming of war in 1861 disrupted river traffic and put him out of a job. It did, however, provide the inspiration for his pen name Mark Twain. (Mark Twain was the term used to denote two fathoms (12 feet) of water under the keel of a riverboat).

Samuel Clemens missed serving in the Civil War by going west with his brother Orion. Orion had been appointed Secretary of the territory of Nevada and Sam took the opportunity to join him. Clemens again picked up his writing career in the boomtown of Virginia City, Nevada by writing for local newspapers. (He also tried his hand at mining, at which he failed).

For a time he wrote for a newspaper in San Francisco and it was while he was in California that he experienced life in the gold mining camps. A story he heard in the camp of Angel, California led to his writing the short story that launched his literary career - The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. (The frog jumping tradition continues at the annual Calaveras County fair).

Some of Clemens happiest and most prolific years (1874-1891) were spent in the house he and his wife Olivia had built in Hartford, Connecticut. His two most famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, were completed while living here. The novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered his greatest work.

Samuel Clemens later years were unhappy years due to the premature deaths of two of his three daughters and by the death of his beloved wife Livy in 1904. Samuel Clemens died in 1910, while Halley's Comet was visible in the night sky - just as it was upon his birth in 1835.

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.

American Presidents and the military

President Washington

It is a conflict as old as mankind: humanities desire for peace versus a recognition of what also appears to be a part of man's make-up - an urge and a genius for making war on his fellow man. Democratic nations feel this conflict most keenly as recognizing the rights of the individual is the cornerstone principle of their governments. Autocratic and authoritarian governments will usually put the perceived needs of the state before the needs of individuals.

A reluctance to create a permanent standing Army and Navy was very much a part of the make-up of this country's Founding Generation. They felt that creating such a force would be a threat to their newly won freedoms. But being pragmatists, the Constitution that they created does layout the framework for our national defense. The American President is the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, giving a civilian the ultimate authority. Congress is granted the powers of the purse and the power to declare wars.

A slim majority of U.S. Presidents have served in the military, either on active duty or with the militia or National Guard. A surprising number of them held very high rank in the military. Beginning with our first President, General George Washington, Commander of the Continental Army, three U.S. Presidents held the rank of General of the Armies. The other two were U.S. Grant in the Civil War and Dwight Eisenhower in World War Two.

Andrew Jackson the "Hero of New Orleans" and William Henry Harrison both reached the rank of General in the War of 1812. Zachary Taylor fought in the War of 1812 and served as a Brigadier General in the Mexican-American War. Franklin Pierce, Rutherford B. Hayes and James Garfield all held the rank of General in the U.S. Army in the Civil War.

Several other U.S Presidents were also decorated soldiers and war heroes. William Mckinley was wounded in the Civil War. Theodore Roosevelt served as a Colonel with the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War and was recommended for the Medal of Honor. Harry Truman was a artillery Captain in the First World War. John F. Kennedy was captain of a P.T. Boat and George H. W. Bush was a navy pilot, both in World War II.

At many points in our history having served in the military was a prerequisite for seeking political office. This was especially true after the two major all-inclusive wars of U.S. history - the Civil War and World War Two. Beginning with Harry Truman becoming President in 1945, every U.S. President, except William Clinton, has worn the uniform of the U.S. military. With the ending of conscription (the Draft) in 1973, that run of veterans (1945-1993) in the White House will most likely never be matched again.