Category: History

Brief narratives about people and events in the American past.

More Little Bighorn

From Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians:

Nor does this picture change. Whether Custer is portrayed as a hero, as Errol Flynn did it in the World War II-era They Died with Their Boots On, or as a genocidal nut, as in the Vietnam-era Little Big Man, he is still the center of attention. The recent miniseries Son of the Morning Star depicted Custer as a naughty, hot-blooded, fratboy type-but he is still the character that the cameras follow, the man whose death has always been the point of telling the story. No matter that in fact his famous hairline was beginning to recede, that his remaining hair was cut short, and that it was too hot to wear buckskin that summer day. Or that the Lakotas and the Cheyennes had no idea who had attacked them or which particular army commander they were fighting. More than a century after his death, Custer has the kind of name recognition that would make any aspirant for national political office jealous.

But if you switch the focus, the story becomes infinitely richer. Late on a cold November night, with the wind howling outside his trailer on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Johnson Holy Rock began talking to us about Crazy Horse. Nearly eighty, Johnson is a former tribal chairman whose father was a young boy in Crazy Horse’s camp at the Little Bighorn. “Traditional history tells us that Crazy Horse could ride in front of a line of soldiers and they could all take a potshot at him and no bullet could touch him,” Johnson said, moving his arms back and forth for emphasis. “He’d make three passes, and after the third pass, then his followers were encouraged to make the charge. ‘See, I haven’t been wounded. I’m not shot.’ We would charge.”

I was intrigued, not by Crazy Horse’s ability to ward off bullets in the story, but by Holy Rock’s use of the term “traditional history.” Traditional history according to whom? Not the folks who wrote the history textbooks I read at Glen Rock Junior/Senior High School back in northern New Jersey. Amid George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and even George Custer, figures like Crazy Horse-and, in fact, centuries of Native Americans-rated barely a mention. Traditional history.

The battle at Little Bighorn

Little Bighorn … was 133 years ago today. This report is from The New York Times a few days later:

Custer.jpg

On June 25 Gen. Custer’s command came upon the main camp of Sitting Bull, and at once attacked it, charging the thickest part of it with five companies, Major Reno, with seven companies attacking on the other side. The soldiers were repulsed and a wholesale slaughter ensued. Gen. Custer, his brother, his nephew, and his brother-in-law were killed, and not one of his detachment escaped. The Indians surrounded Major Reno’s command and held them in the hills during a whole day, but Gibbon’s command came up and the Indians left. The number of killed is stated at 300 and the wounded at 31. Two hundred and seven men are said to have been buried in one place. The list of killed includes seventeen commissioned officers.

It is the opinion of Army officers in Chicago, Washington, and Philadelphia, including Gens. Sherman and Sheridan, that Gen. Custer was rashly imprudent to attack such a large number of Indians, Sitting Bull’s force being 4,000 strong.

Custer, often a reckless but previously a lucky commander, was to have his reputation rescued by what became the life-long work of Mrs. Custer.

The best book about Custer is Evan S. Connell’s Son of the Morning Star: Custer and The Little Bighorn.

“Son of the Morning Star makes good reading—its prose is elegant, its tone the voice of dry wit, its meandering narrative skillfully crafted. Mr. Connell is above all a storyteller, and the story he tells is vastly more complicated than who did what to whom on June 25, 1876.” Page Stegner

This book is generally considered one of the half-dozen best written about the American west.

The best book attempting to tell the vastly more important Indian side of the story is James Welch’s Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians.

Landscape photo credit: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Custer marker photo: NewMexiKen 1995.

New Mexico gave him a belly-ache

If Zachary Taylor hadn’t gotten gastroenteritis, New Mexico could have become a state 62 years sooner.

On June 20, 1850, New Mexicans ratified a free-state constitution by a vote of 8,371 to 39.

Taylor immediately called for New Mexico’s admission along with California’s; southern outrage flared to new heights; and the state of Texas vowed to secure its claims to all of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande, by force if necessary. Taylor ordered the federal garrison at Santa Fe to prepare for combat. By early July, it looked as if civil war might break out, pitting the United States against southern volunteers determined to secure greater Texas for slavery. (The Rise of American Democracy)

Taylor died July 9. Fillmore became president and defused the situation by laying aside New Mexico’s application for statehood.

Where will you meet your Waterloo?

Napoleon met his Waterloo at the Belgian village of Waterloo on this date in 1815.

The BBC has a concise history of the battle beginning with this introduction:

The Battle of Waterloo was fought thirteen kilometres south of Brussels between the French, under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Allied armies commanded by the Duke of Wellington from Britain and General Blücher from Prussia. The French defeat at Waterloo drew to a close 23 years of war beginning with the French Revolutionary wars in 1792 and continuing with the Napoleonic Wars from 1803. There was a brief eleven-month respite when Napoleon was forced to abdicate, exiled to the island of Elba. However, the unpopularity of Louis XVIII and the economic and social instability of France motivated him to return to Paris in March 1815. The Allies soon declared war once again. Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo marked the end of the Emperor’s final bid for power, the so-called ‘100 Days’, and the final chapter in his remarkable career.

Defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon’s reign. He was exiled to the island of St. Helena where he died in 1821 at age 51.

Arkansaw or Arkansas

… was admitted to the Union as the 25th state on this date in 1836.

At the time of the early French exploration, a tribe of Indians, the Quapaws, lived West of the Mississippi and north of the Arkansas River. The Quapaws, or OO-GAQ-PA, were also known as the downstream people, or UGAKHOPAG. The Algonkian-speaking Indians of the Ohio Valley called them the Arkansas, or “south wind.”

The state’s name has been spelled several ways throughout history. In Marquette and Joliet’s “Journal of 1673”, the Indian name is spelled AKANSEA. In LaSalle’s map a few years later, it’s spelled ACANSA. A map based on the journey of La Harpe in 1718-1722 refers to the river as the ARKANSAS and to the Indians as LES AKANSAS. In about 1811, Captain Zebulon Pike, a noted explorer, spelled it ARKANSAW.

During the early days of statehood, Arkansas’ two U.S. Senators were divided on the spelling and pronunciation. One was always introduced as the senator from “ARkanSAW” and the other as the senator from “Ar-KANSAS.” In 1881, the state’s General Assembly passed a resolution declaring that the state’s name should be spelled “Arkansas” but pronounced “Arkansaw.”

The pronunciation preserves the memory of the Indians who were the original inhabitants of our state, while the spelling clearly dictates the nationality of the French adventurers who first explored this area.

Arkansas Secretary of State

Factoid of the day

The percentage of Americans of African descent was greater in 1776 than it is today.

About one person in five of those listed in the first census (1790) had African ancestry. It’s around 13.5% now.

A day late perhaps

…but let’s talk about Betsy Ross.

According to James W. Loewen in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, Professor Michael Frisch at SUNY Buffalo asks his first-year college students to list “the first ten names that you think of” in American History before the Civil War. (He excludes presidents, generals, etc.) Betsy Ross led the list seven years out of eight.

Here’s reality according to Loewen: Betsy Ross played no part in the actual creation of the first American flag. As he puts it, “Ross came to prominence around 1876, when some of her descendants, seeking to create a tourist attraction in Phildadelphia, largely invented the myth of the first flag.”

Flag Day (June 14) commemorates the date in 1777 when the Continental Congress approved the design for a national flag.

However, according to my very own official younger daughter Emily, who—with her sister—has written about Betsy Ross, “She may have just had good PR, but my recent research did seem to lead me to believe that Betsy Ross did standardize the five-pointed star for use on the American flag. Until she made her flags, the stars were sometimes six pointed. Ross used the five points because she could cut it out quickly by folding the material and only making one cut. After her flags, the five-pointed star was used on other American flags.”

5-Pointed Star in One Snip

Best line published on this date, so far

Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival. … To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.

Supreme Court of the United States, Loving v. Virginia, June 12, 1967. (Unanimous opinion written by Chief Justice Warren.)

At the time the case was decided 42 years ago, Virginia was one of 16 states that still had laws prohibiting interracial marriage.

May 30th

Jeanne d’Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen on May 30, 1431. She was 19.

The Writer’s Almanac has the story.

Manny Ramirez is 37 today.

Keir Dullea is 73. Michael Pollard is 70. Gayle Sayers is 66. Wynonna Judd is 45.

Benny Goodman and Mel Blanc were born on May 30. See earlier posts for them.

The first Indianapolis 500 was 98 years ago today.

The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated on May 30th in 1922.

Tenzing Norgay

… of Nepal and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand become the first ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest (29,035 feet/8,850 meters) 56 years ago today. The mountain is called Chomolungma (“goddess mother of the world”) in Tibet and Sagarmatha (“goddess of the sky”) in Nepal. It’s growing/moving about 6 cm a year.

George Everest (1790-1866) was the British Surveyor General of India (1830-1843). (He pronounced his name E-ver-est, not Ev-er-est as we know it.) Everest’s successor named the mountain for the surveyor.

‘The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire.’

George Washington engaged in his first military action 255 years ago today.

Washington arrived at the Great Meadows, as the Fort Necessity area was than called, on May 24. Although the meadow was nearly all marsh, he believed it “a charming field for an encounter” and ordered his men to set up an encampment. Three days later, after hearing that a group of French soldiers had been spotted about seven miles away on Chestnut Ridge, Washington and 40 men set out to find them. At dawn on May 28, the Virginians reached the camp of Tanacharison, a friendly Seneca chief known as the Half King. His scouts then led them to the ravine about two miles to the north where the French were encamped.

The French, commanded by Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville, were taken by surprise. Ten were killed, including Jumonville, one was wounded, and 21 were made prisoner. One man escaped to carry the news back to Fort Duquesne. Washington’s command suffered only one man killed and two wounded.

Fearing “we might be attacked by considerable forces,” Washington undertook to fortify his position at the Great Meadows. During the last two days of May and the first three days of June, he built a circular palisaded fort, which he called Fort Necessity.

Source: Fort Necessity National Battlefield

The action at what came to be called Jumonville Glen sparked the world war that we know as the French and Indian War.

For his part, Washington loved it: “I fortunately escaped without any wound, for the right wing, where I stood, was exposed to and received all the enemy’s fire, and it was the part where the man was killed, and the rest wounded. I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me there is something charming in the sound.”

The title to the post is a quotation from Horace Walpole.

Sink the Bismarck

The largest warship afloat when commissioned, the German battleship Bismarck was sunk by the British Navy on this date in 1941.

Design for the Bismarck began in 1934, her keel was laid down in 1936, she was launched in 1939 and commissioned in August 1940. The Bismarck embarked on her maiden combat voyage on May 18, 1941. Nine days later she went to the bottom. Of her crew of 2,300, only 110 survived.

The Hood found the Bismark and on that fatal day
The Bismark started firin’ fifteen miles away
We gotta sink the Bismark was the battle sound
But when the smoke had cleared away
The mighty Hood went down
For six long days and weary nights
They tried to find her trail
Churchill told the people put ev’ry ship a-sail
‘Cause somewhere on that ocean
I know she’s gotta be
We gotta sink the Bismark to the bottom of the sea

We’ll find that German battleship
That’s makin’ such a fuss
We gotta sink the Bismark
‘Cause the world depends on us
Hit the decks a-runnin’ boys
And spin those guns around
When we find the Bismark we gotta cut her down

From “Sink the Bismarck” written by Johnny Horton and Tilman Franks

Decoration Day

In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade. …

In 1971, federal law changed the observance of the holiday to the last Monday in May and extended it to honor all soldiers who died in American wars. A few states continue to celebrate Memorial Day on May 30.

Library of Congress

Smackdown in the Senate

American Heritage has an essay on the assault on Senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston Brooks 153 years ago today. The essay details the events leading up to the attack — an inflammatory speech by Sumner — and the aftermath. Here’s what they say about the acutal assault:

Brooks avoided the potential difficulty of a fair fight by entering the Senate chamber after that body had adjourned. He waited chivalrously for all the ladies to leave, then approached Sumner’s desk, where the senator was franking copies of his speech to be sent to supporters. Brooks spoke a few words explaining his presence, then began whacking Sumner over the head with his cane. When the senator raised his hands, Brooks became excited and, he recalled, felt “compelled to strike him harder” than he had intended.

Sumner managed to get up and stagger down the aisle, pursued by Brooks, as a pair of congressmen tried to separate the two men and several others argued over whether to get involved. Sen. Stephen Douglas, who had been another target of Sumner’s abuse, was called to the scene but chose not to interfere, worrying that, in view of the state of relations between him and Sumner, “my motives would be misconstrued.”

Brooks recalled that by the time his cane finally shattered, less than a minute after he first confronted the senator, he had dealt Sumner “about 30 first rate stripes. Towards the last he bellowed like a calf. I wore my cane out completely but saved the Head which is gold.”

The first significant law restricting immigration into the United States

… was approved on on this date in 1882. It was The Chinese Exclusion Act.

Whereas in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof: Therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That … the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended; and during such suspension it shall not be lawful for any Chinese laborer to come, or having so come after the expiration of said ninety days to remain within the United States.

The National Archives, which has a full transcript and images of the Act, notes that: “The 1882 exclusion act also placed new requirements on Chinese who had already entered the country. If they left the United States, they had to obtain certifications to re-enter. Congress, moreover, refused State and Federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident aliens, although these courts could still deport them.”

The exclusion of Chinese remained in effect in one form or another until 1943.

Oh, the humanity

The Hindenburg was about as big as the Titanic. It traveled at eighty miles per hour, so the trip between Frankfurt, Germany, and Lakehurst, New Jersey, took two and a half days, half the time needed by the fastest ocean liner of the era. Passengers on the Hindenburg paid $400 for a one-way trip. They had sleeping compartments, sitting and dining areas, as well as a 200-foot promenade deck with a spectacular view of the ocean passing below. Passengers were free to roam about, to eat meals at a table on the best china, and to sample the best wines from France and Germany. The passengers could even dance to the music of a lightweight, aluminum grand piano, probably the only grand piano ever to provide entertainment for people in a flying machine.

The Hindenburg wasn’t the first airship to crash. There had been more than five crashes already. But the Hindenburg was the highest-profile crash, in part because the destruction was caught on camera.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media (2006)

Herb Morrison reporting, 72 years ago today.

Thirty-six were killed — 13 of the 36 passengers, 22 of the 61 crew, and one ground crew member.

The Hindenburg did not explode because it was filled with hydrogen as long thought. The outer skin of the big German aircraft — longer than three 747s — was painted with an iron oxide, powdered aluminum compound to reflect sunlight (to minimize heat build up). The powdered aluminum was highly flammable and was ignited by an electrostatic charge in the imperfectly grounded zeppelin.

How flammable is iron oxide and aluminum? It’s the fuel used to launch the Shuttle.

Another day, another national holiday gone missing

It’s Willie Nelson’s birthday. He’s 76.

He is an American icon; his voice as comforting as the American landscape, his songs as familiar as the color of the sky, his face as worn as the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps that’s why Dan Rather suggested, “We should add his face to the cliffs of Mt. Rushmore and be done with it.”

He’s recorded 250 albums, written 2,500 songs, and for half a century played countless concerts across America and around the world. He’s been instrumental in shaping both country and pop music, yet his appeal crosses all social and economic lines. Sometimes he’s called an outlaw, though from Farm Aid to the aftermath of September 11, from the resurrection of a burned-out courthouse in his own hometown to fanning the flame of the Olympics, it is Willie Nelson who brings us together.

Perhaps Emmylou Harris said it best: “If America could sing with one voice, it would be Willie’s.”

American Masters

Not only that, but Cloris Leachman is 83 and Kirsten Dunst is 27.

All that and you are at work, why?

Furthermore . . .

Casey Jones wrecked his train on April 30th in 1900.

John Luther Jones from Cayce (pronounced Cay-see), Kentucky, famous to us through song as a brave engineer who romantically died trying to make up time. In truth, he crashed his locomotive at high speed into a freight train that was attempting to get out of the way on a siding. According to reports he failed to heed warning signals that were out. The accident took place early in the morning of April 30, 1900. Jones was the only fatality.

Jones was known for his affability and his skill in blowing a train whistle. His engine wiper, Wallace Saunders, reportedly idolized the engineer. Saunders wrote the original song. All you might want to know can be found in this 1928 article.

George Washington took office as the first president of the U.S. on this date in 1789. His term had begun on March 4th, but he’d booked flights on JetBlue and didn’t get from Virginia to New York City—then the capital—until the end of April.

Louisiana entered the union as the 18th state on this date in 1812.