In reply to oragator By a small margin the 1st Texas suffered the most casualties in a single battle. They suffered 82.3% casualties in Millers Cornfield at Antietam. Also lost were their colors as everyone carrying them or attempting to reduce them was killed.

Being the nerd I am and dressing up weird clothes and all I participated in a program at Gettysburg a few years ago where man to man we revealed the charge of the 1 Minnesota on July 2 over the same ground at the same time of day, 159 years later.

Top is a painting of 1 Minnesota charging Wilcox's Alabamians and bottom is the group I was with advancing towards Plum Run.

In reply to JABQ04 Company H of The 9th Alabama Infantry was part of Wicox's Brigade at Gettysburg & was commanded by Capt. Gaines C. Smith a school teacher from Limestone County. He had previously served as a volunteer in the Seminole War in Florida and in the Mexican War.

On that day:
"Captain Gaines C. Smith, 9th Alabama Regiment, was severely wounded through the body while leading a charge in an open field." (entitled to the promotion of Lieutenant-Colonel) report signed by C. M. Wilcox"

He was captured and imprisoned at Fort Delaware, he was later paroled and served in the Alabama legislature after reconstruction.

Gaines Chism Smith was my Great-great-great Grandfather.

In reply to 87Flyfisher Same painting just labeled with regiments. I also had Alabama relatives there. 2nd cousin twice removed (I think is the correct label) was Col William C Oates of the 15th Alabama and his brother John killed on Little round Top

Maryland was the only state with regimental units that fought for both the Union and the Confederacy at Gettysburg, and Culp's Hill is where they confronted each other. The 1st Maryland Battalion Infantry of the Confederate Army attacked within 30 yards of the Union's 1st Maryland, Potomac Home Brigade.

The maryland monument at Gettysburg pays tribute to this fact, with two wounded soldiers helping each other: one union and one confederate.



I can't find it confirmed by the sculptor, but the faces of the two soldiers are very similar, so it may be an implicit recognition of the brother-against-brother nature of those regiments at Gettysburg:

In reply to 87Flyfisher Cool. Really is. But, what did your other 15 great great great grandfathers do?

In reply to jwoodmd Apparently a couple of them had fairly successful moonshine whiskey making operations in north Georgia.

In reply to 87Flyfisher

87Flyfisher said:

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Apparently a couple of them had fairly successful moonshine whiskey making operations in north Georgia.

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Yes, now we're fully getting to where people get to when pulling on a thread of our family history tapestry

In reply to p_bubel

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In the summer of 1970, a couple of masked bandits pulled off the last known train heist in Texas at Brackenridge Park.

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Would have been a perfect story, had they been midgets.

The aqueduct that fed Constantinople was over 250km's.

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The "longest water supply line from the ancient world" was that made for Constantinople - "at least 2.5x the length of the longest recorded Roman aqueducts." Constantinople was strategically perfectly located, but water was lacking & required engineering solutions

It is an under-noticed Roman achievement: "At over 250km it is the longest water supply line known from the ancient world & it remains one of the greatest achievements of hydraulic engineering. It has however been largely ignored in all standard accounts of Roman hydraulic engineering. The principle reason for this is that for much of their length, the water channels run through dense and inhospitable forest, thereby effectively deterring archaeological investigations until recently."

"More than 30 stone bridges/many kilometers of underground tunnels carried the water over mountain and plain from the plentiful springs of the Istranja mountain range near Vize directly to the heart of the city (Constantinople). Such was the magnificence of the undertaking that it even appears to have received its own popular mythology so that medieval writers claimed that its source was the great Danube River."

"The known system is at least two and a half times the length of the longest recorded Roman aqueducts at Carthage and Cologne, but more significantly it represents one of the most outstanding surveying achievements of any pre-industrial society."

Arguably this water system "inaugurated and confirmed the city as the new capital of the Roman world, the New Rome. Not only was it built to fulfill the daily needs of the growing population, but it also supplied the great bathing establishments and monumental fountains expected in any classical metropolis. To the resident emperors, the water supply was not simply a functional requirement for sustenance, it was a symbol of wealth, power, and continuity." It also fed agricultural projects in some of the more open areas of the City.

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The water system was not just a few arches in a city, it was a sprawling network which was masterfully engineered - the crowning achievement of Rome’s aqueduct engineering. pic.twitter.com/vEg3fC4Oj9

— ShadowsOfConstantinople (@RomeInTheEast) November 29, 2023

More somewhat forgotten (much later) history;

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An interesting moment in history is when the Venetians and Genoese saved the survivors of the Ottoman army after the battle of Ankara (1402). This had big implications for the future of the Romans.

"Some of the Genoese profited from the Turks predicament, others flouted the agreement and helped Bayezid's fleeing troops escape. The Venetians too gave Turkish refugees asylum on the island of Samos."

But why did they help the Ottomans, enemies of Christendom? Two reasons. The first is simple, economic opportunism. The second is strategic: "Possibly the Italians, wary of Timur and reluctant to assist in the total elimination of a more familiar enemy (the Ottomans), aimed to preserve a balance of power." One group who possibly paid the price for this were Roman citizens of Smyrna, which was ruled by Crusaders. It is possible Timur went there out of revenge for the Latins helping the Ottomans escape his wrath. (A thread on that linked below).

However, once the Italians ferried the Ottoman army into Europe, this meant the Romans had no choice but to make peace with the Ottomans who had a large bastion in Europe. This also allowed the Ottomans to regroup and survive this crisis better than they may otherwise have done.

Source - From Genghis Khan to Tamerlane: The Reawakening of Mongol Asia by Peter Jackson

Where did the Romans stand in all this? "In August 1401 Timur despatched to Constantinople two envoys, the Dominican Friar Francis and a Muslim, to deter the Byzantine government and western colonists from making peace with Bayezid…This was probably the occasion on which the Byzantines, along with the Genoese at Pera, wrote to Timur promising to prevent Ottoman forces in the Balkans from crossing the straits to aid Bayezid." I don't see how the Romans had any power to stop it though.

However, once the Italians ferried the Ottoman army into Europe, this meant the Romans had no choice but to make peace with the Ottomans who had a large bastion in Europe. This also allowed the Ottomans to regroup and survive this crisis better than they may otherwise have done.

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An interesting moment in history is when the Venetians and Genoese saved the survivors of the Ottoman army after the battle of Ankara (1402). This had big implications for the future of the Romans.

“Some of the Genoese profited from the Turks predicament, others flouted the… pic.twitter.com/N0iPvaw6hl

— ShadowsOfConstantinople (@RomeInTheEast) April 15, 2024

On 9/13/2001 Queen Elizabeth II broke with centuries-old tradition, directing the Coldstream Guards to play the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

In reply to p_bubel

p_bubel said:

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On 9/13/2001 Queen Elizabeth II broke with centuries-old tradition, directing the Coldstream Guards to play the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

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Not enough Blue Stars can be given.....

In reply to Rabid Cougar apparently she also had them do it on the 20th anniversary of 9/11

https://www.fox23.com/news/trending/queen-elizabeth-ii-broke-600-year-old-tradition-after-9-11-attacks-to-show-solidarity/article_94b1233a-00a1-58fb-8591-d263c72f4452.html

The Mongols under Gengis Khan had an advantage over their European counterparts. Their horse-backed soldiers could last for days on end on their own by drinking a mixture of their Mare's milk and blood drawn by making small wounds on their horses that healed quickly. Therefore they weren't beholden to long drawn out supply lines, could advance or retreat/scatter faster because of it.

The 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky tells the story of Napoleon's invasion of Russian in 1812, and uses La Marseillaise to represent the French Army and God Save the Czar to represent the Russian army/peasants. the irony being that while La Marseillaise was chosen as the French National Anthem in 1795, it was banned by Napoleon in 1805. And God Save the Czar wasn't written until 1833.

Tchaikovsky also used God Save the Czar as a melody in "March Slav"

In reply to Rongagin71

In reply to JABQ04 because this isn't a meme thread, I stared at this for way too long with skepticism before facepalming. My face was that smiley, then the facepalm smiley, then the lololol smiley.

An odd bit of Texas cultural history

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

When future Tejano music queen Selena Quintanilla aka Selena was born in Lake Jackson, Texas in 1971, the attending obstetrician was Dr. Ron Paul, future U.S. congressman and presidential candidate.

Shown here: Ron Paul in 2007. pic.twitter.com/4kjKo6aG4e

— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) April 20, 2024

In reply to swimmerbabe11 I know it's not a meme thread but I have a ton of history memes saved and if I see a chance to jam one in so where where someone would appreciate them I do. Sorry, not sorry.

From the 1860s until the late 1930s, one of the primary amusements of both visitors and locals was the food and entertainment offered in the plazas of San Antonio by the Chili Queens.

These women served chili con carne and other Mexican American delicacies from dusk until dawn at various San Antonio plazas over the years -- setting up tables and benches and bringing pots of food to cook or reheat over their flickering mesquite fires and to serve by the light of their oil lanterns. As morning came, their families helped them cart everything away. Wandering musicians and singers provided a festive air to the unique proceedingsunique, that is, outside Mexico. In Mexico, the open-air plaza restaurants were not celebrated for their charming food-servers. Only San Antonio had Chili Queensand while they liked to joke, banter, and flirt with customers, they were well chaperoned by family members who guarded their virtue.

Visiting writers such as Stephen Crane, author of Red Badge of Courage, were charmed by the Chili Queens. He recalled in 1895 that "upon one of the plazas, Mexican vendors with open-air stands sell food that tastes exactly like pounded fire-brick from Hades -- chili con carne, tamales, enchiladas, chili verde, frijoles." Crane depicted a romantic scene: "In the soft atmosphere of the southern night, the cheap glass bottles upon the stands shine like crystal and lamps glow with a tender radiance. A hum of conversation ascends from the strolling visitors who are at their social shrine."

O. Henry, who visited San Antonio in the 1880s and 1890s, wrote in his short story, "The Enchanted Kiss", that "the nightly encampments upon the historic Alamo Plaza, in the heart of the city, had been a carnival, a saturnalia that was renowned throughout the land." Then the caterers numbered hundreds, the patrons thousands. "Drawn by the coquettish senoritas, the music of the weird Spanish minstrels, and the strange piquant Mexican dishes served at a hundred competing tables, crowds thronged the Alamo Plaza all night."

In 1893, the city of San Antonio had a chili stand at the Chicago World's Fair. This inclusion is said to have introduced chili to the Midwest.

The chili stands were closed by the City Council at various times over the years for sanitary reasons, but public outcry would soon cause them to reopen. Slowly, the number of Chili Queens dwindled, and finally, in the early 1940s, the City Health Department closed their stands permanently because they deemed the dishwashing methods unsanitary.

GENEROSITY OF AMERICANS AFTER WWII

Millions of Americans were driven with compassion and were instrumental in the welfare of European countries post World War II. Americans opened their hearts and wallets to pay for $10 CARE packages of food to be sent to impoverished and hungry Europeans after WWII. In today's terms that would be $130. Hundreds of millions CARE packages were sent to Europe. The tonnage was probably in the millions.

Some families had perhaps a loaf of bread to eat for a week and those food, thus the packages were a godsend. It was said a German family was in dire need for food when they received their first food package. They were reluctant to open the box because we were their enemy. Eventually they opened the package much to their elation. It was like Christmas.

Systems were in place for families to get the packages on a regular basis. School children received smaller care packages of food on a regular basis at schools. Sometimes girls would get a doll in their package. I can't imagine the goodwill we created. It speaks volumes of Americans after WWII.

These are some of the items in the care packages. The program is a testament to the generosity of Americans and often influenced how Europeans thought of us.

one pound (450 g) of beef in broth
one pound (450 g) of steak and kidneys
8 ounces (230 g) of liver loaf
8 ounces (230 g) of corned beef
12 ounces (340 g) of luncheon loaf (like Spam)
8 ounces (230 g) of bacon
two pounds (910 g) of margarine
one pound (450 g) of lard
one pound (450 g) of fruit preserves
one pound (450 g) of honey
one pound (450 g) of raisins
one pound (450 g) of chocolate
two pounds (910 g) of sugar
8 ounces (230 g) of powdered eggs
two pounds (910 g) of whole-milk powder
two pounds (910 g) of coffee

Sending Hope to Europe: The First CARE Packages Arrive in 1946 | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans (nationalww2museum.org)