In reply to p_bubel

p_bubel said:

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The Great Raft was an enormous log jam or series of "rafts" that clogged the Red and Atchafalaya rivers from perhaps the 12th century until its removal in the 1830s. It was unique in North America in terms of its scale.

The raft raised the banks of the river, creating bayous and several lakes. Called the Great Raft Lakes, these included Caddo and Cross Lakes, along the lower reaches of the Red River's tributaries. Ports developed along these lakes, and Jefferson, Texas, became the second-largest inland port in the United States during this period. The city thrived and was considered a major gateway to East Texas. It was important for shipping out area commodity crops, such as cotton.

When the log jams were removed, the water level in Caddo Lake and others dropped dramatically, reducing their navigability for riverboats. The ports declined, and riverboats ceased to travel in Caddo Lake.

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Captain Shreve was thr CoE engineer responsible for clearing the Great Raft. Shreveport is named for him.

Twenty inches of snow fell on Houston on Valentine's Day 1895. Galveston eight inches.

In reply to BQ78

BQ78 said:

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After the Battle of Gettysburg approximately 24,000 loaded muskets were picked up off the battlefield. Of these, about half had multiple loads in them. This is at a battle fought by two veteran armies at this point. It hints at what many of the soldiers said in their letters home, that it took more courage to kill for your country, than to die for it.

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There was one found that had 13 rounds loaded.....

It wasn't so much "misfires" as it was picking up a rifle from dead or wounded and then loading it before checking to see if it was loaded or not. Its not hard to figure that out when you ram home the ball and it stops and you have 4 to 6 inches of ramrod sticking out the muzzle. You certainly don't shot it but you do throw it down and find another , hopefully unloaded one. There is not time to "pull the ball".

Reasons for throwing your rifle away and picking up another? It could be damaged by enemy fire or a hammer spring could break.

90% of the time it was because it got so fouled that you couldn't ram the ball home.

I read a great book last year by one of my favorite authors, Bill Bryson: "One Summer: America, 1927".

That summer encompassed several historic events - Lindberg's flight, the Yankee's greatest season ever, the Dempsy-Tunney long count fight, the supreme court ruling that revenue from bootlegging could be taxed which led to Capone's downfall and there's more. But I wasn't aware that the greatest flood in American history also occurred late that spring.

The lower Mississippi ran out of its banks and killed over 500 people. Flood waters over 30 ft in depth were measured and millions of people were displaced. It was a major factor in the flight of many black farmers to the cities. Herbert Hoover who was mentioned earlier in this thread for his relief effort in the early days of the Soviet Union was Sect.of Commerce at the time and also led the flood relief effort.

Lindberg had just picked up The Spirit of St. Louis from where it was built in San Diego and had to fly across the floodlands to get to New York in a frantic race against a couple of other teams trying to be first to fly across the Atlantic. There had been an unsuccessful attempt just a few weeks earlier. The airplane and crew of that flight, which was flying east to west, disappeared and were never found.

The story of Lindberg's flight alone is amazing. It's a really good book.

That there was a breed of dog that was bred specifically to run in a wheel that was attached by belts to the spit in front of the fireplace. They also used them as foot warmers around the house and in church. They were so common that nobody cared to write much about them and once technology progressed they went extinct.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_dog

In reply to 1988PA-Aggie

1988PA-Aggie said:

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Bregxit said:

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DOG XO 84 said:

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Bregxit said:

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Thanks for posting this!,,, highly recommended viewing. I was somewhat familiar with the story but this guy narrating it almost made me pee my pants laughing from the way he told it . Very clever

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You should check out all his videos. He does history and other military all in the same style. He his hilarious but educational!

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Fat Electrician is incredible! Found him about a month ago. Blew through almost all of his videos in just a few days. On my third listening of some of the stories. Highly recommend.

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Warheads on foreheads.

In the under represented stories that surprised me category,
The Navy had more casualties at both Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima than the Marine Corps.

In reply to CT'97

CT'97 said:

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In the under represented stories that surprised me category,
The Navy had more casualties at both Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima than the Marine Corps.

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On a related note, the Army did more amphibious landings in WWII than the Marines.

In reply to Aggie12B My dad, who spent 2 years in the Marines during WW 2, and then 18 in the Army after later graduating from A&M, liked to point out that the Army captured significantly more territory in the Pacific while suffering dramatically fewer casualties than the Marines.

The only advantage he was willing to concede to the Marines over the Army was their PR machine.

In reply to ReloadAg

ReloadAg said:

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Which book do you recommend on Lindbergh's flight?

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The one by Bill Bryson, "One Summer: America, 1927". It covers other events but spent more time on Lindberg than anything else.

There were other teams trying to fly the Atlantic, with co-pilots, navigators, etc. But he flew 33 hours by himself. He did calculations on his lap. Consider how far off course just a small crosswind would have sent him without the right corrections.

His plane was spotted over Ireland so Paris had advanced warning of his approach. He was confused by all the lighting he saw at the airport, had no idea of the crowd that was waiting for him.

In reply to Jabin

Jabin said:

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My dad, who spent 2 years in the Marines during WW 2, and then 18 in the Army after later graduating from A&M, liked to point out that the Army captured significantly more territory in the Pacific while suffering dramatically fewer casualties than the Marines.

The only advantage he was willing to concede to the Marines over the Army was their PR machine.

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I had read somewhere that MacArthur was disgusted by the island by island strategy employed by the Naval command in the Pacific. He thought the casualties at places like Tarawa were unnecessary and he told Roosevelt as much whenever he could.

If this is fact true, I can only imagine this was just self-serving. He certainly didn't show much regard for unnecessary casualties later on at the Yalu River in 1950.

In the war between the US and Japan, the first shots fired, and first blood drawn, were by the Americans.

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, a miniature Japanese submarine was spotted trying to enter Pearl Harbor before the aerial attack. It was sunk by the USS Ward, a destroyer left over from WWI. Both Japanese crew members were killed. The Ward was commanded by Capt. William Outerbridge.

In 1944 the Ward was damaged by kamikazes during the battle of Leyte Gulf. It was decided that it wasn't practical to repair her so she was scuttled by gunfire from the USS O'Brien on Dec. 7th, three years to the day after Pearl Harbor. And the commander of the O'Brien was none other than the Ward's previous commander, William Outerbridge.

In reply to McInnis

McInnis said:

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In the war between the US and Japan, the first shots fired, and first blood drawn, were by the Americans.

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, a miniature Japanese submarine was spotted trying to enter Pearl Harbor before the aerial attack. It was sunk by the USS Ward, a destroyer left over from WWI. Both Japanese crew members were killed. The Ward was commanded by Capt. William Outerbridge.

In 1944 the Ward was damaged by kamikazes during the battle of Leyte Gulf. It was decided that it wasn't practical to repair her so she was scuttled by gunfire from the USS O'Brien on Dec. 7th, three years to the day after Pearl Harbor. And the commander of the O'Brien was none other than the Ward's previous commander, William Outerbridge.

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While reading this, I was thinking that first paragraph was not exactly an unknown fact. Then you got me on the second. Did not know that detail.

Sorry, this is a short as I could condense this.

"Champagne Charlie" is credited with popularizing Champagne in the United States. The merchant was already famous for riding into Moscow on a white stallion in 1811 just ahead of Napoleon's advancing army. Heidsieck arrived with cases of his Champagne and his order book, ready to celebrate with whichever side would win the coming battle.

In 1852, Charles Heidsieck first visited the United States and toured the New England area and New York State. He quickly saw the potential for the American market and retained an agent to facilitate his import sales. The mass import of Champagne was met with roaring success and record sales. When Heidsieck returned five years later, he was greeted in New York City with pomp and celebration with massive newspaper coverage and banquet receptions held in his honor.

In 1861, Charles Heidsieck received news of the conflict breaking out in the United States Civil War. With more than half of his company's assets tied into unpaid accounts in the US, Heidsieck quickly left Reims and set sail for the US. Upon his arrival, he was informed by his sales agent that a new law passed by Congress aimed at absolving Northerners from having to give payment for cotton purchased from the South, also absolved the agent from having to pay his debt to Heidsieck

With no other recourse, Charles Heidsieck set out for New Orleans seeking repayment directly from the merchants that received the Champagne. With the conflict of war, Heidsieck had to travel in secrecy into the South. This meant going as far out of the way as Kansas

By this time, all routes to the North were completely sealed so Heidsieck went to New Orleans and attempted to charter a boat to Mexico or Cuba in hopes of making it back to Europe. To facilitate his passage, the French consul in Mobile gave him a diplomatic pouch with a request to deliver some documents to the consulate in New Orleans. Arriving in New Orleans on 5 May 1862, he found that the city had fallen to Union forces and was immediately seized upon his arrival by General Benjamin F. Butler. Within the diplomatic pouch that was given to Heidsieck by the Mobile consulate were documents from French textile manufacturers about supplying the Confederate armies with their uniforms. Despite Heidsieck's pleas of innocence and ignorance about the documents, he was charged with spying and imprisoned in Fort Jackson, Louisiana.

Charles Heidsieck's imprisonment caused a diplomatic incident between the French and US government in what became known as the Heidsieck Incident

In early 1863, Charles Heidsieck was approached by an American missionary with a packet of papers and a letter from the United States. The letter was from the brother of Heidsieck's former agent in New York. The man was ashamed of how his brother cheated Heidsieck out of his obligations and offered him a stack of deeds to land in Colorado as a means of repayment.

It turned out that the deeds were of land that accounted for a third of Denver, then a small village which he later sold and started his own Champagne House.

The first deaths of a Federal and Confederate soldier (even prior to Ft. Sumter) happened in the same way, when two officers fell off a boat gangplank and drowned.

The first was a Confederate chaplain, Leslie De Votie, who fell off a gangplank in Mobile disembarking from the steamer Dick Keys on a windy and dark early evening on February 12, 1861. He struck his head on the way down and was knocked unconscious as the current carried him away.

36 days later, 1st Lt. James B. Witherell, who had been surrendered in Texas by David Twiggs in February, was in the process of being repatriated with several other soldiers to the Federals. At the mouth of the Rio Grande, the Confederates were transferring the prisoners from the steamboat Mustang to a coastal steamer the Arizona. Witherell was near sighted, while traversing the gangplank between the boats, he fell overboard and drowned.

Don Gullett (MLB pitcher) passed away today, at age 73.

Lifetime record was 109-50, ERA 3.11

Injury shortened his career. In 9 seasons, he played on 6 World Series Teams, including 4 straight Champions (Reds and Yankees).

He was the pitcher for Willie Mays 660th HR. He was the pitcher for Hank Aaron's 660th HR.

British rationing remained in effect until the early 1950s. Meat was the last item to be derationed and rationing ended completely in 1954, nine years after the war ended. The UK was the last country involved in the war to stop rationing food.