Gettysburg: The battle begins

The largest and arguably most significant military engagement in North American history began in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on this date in 1863.

In a daring venture, Confederate general Robert E. Lee moved his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in June, hoping for a decisive victory on Union soil. Trying to catch up, the Union Army of the Potomac, under new commander George Meade, moved north and west toward the Confederates, who were widely dispersed. Learning the Union Army was on the move, Lee began to consolidate his forces.

On June 30, Union cavalry led by John Buford skirmished with a small Confederate contingent just west of Gettysburg. Buford, realizing that the field provided good defensive ground, determined to hold the Confederates until the main body of the army came up.

Gettysburg Day OneOn July 1, a larger Confederate force moved east toward Gettysburg and met resistance from Buford’s dismounted cavalry, soon joined by the First Corps. The battle ebbed and flowed during the day as troops from both sides moved to the action. Ultimately, Confederate forces arriving from the north were able to flank the Union troops and force them through the town. The Confederates failed to keep the initiative, however, and the Union was able to dig in on the ridge south and east — Cemetery Ridge.

Fifteen thousand Americans were casualties that day.

Map: National Park Service

Gettysburg, Day 2
The Third Day

Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, which won the Pulitzer Prize and is regarded by many as the best Civil War novel, is an excellent way to learn about Gettysburg.

Oh, Canada

Today is Canada Day, a holiday in that country celebrating its formation independent from Britain on this date in 1867. The holiday was called Dominion Day until 1982 (in Quebec Le Jour de la Confédération). Three British colonies were joined to form Canada — Canada (which included Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Be careful out there

I read several years ago that traffic fatalities were not particularly more significant on holiday weekends than any other days. Safety advocates just had us all thinking they were with their public service advertising campaigns and police check points.

A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety mostly confirms this. For the period 1986 through 2002 there were an average of 117 traffic fatalities a day in the United States. And, while July 4 was the worst day of the year with an average of 161 fatalities, 158 people were killed on any given Saturday.

July 4 is the only date in the year less safe than any given Saturday.

The worst dates:
July 4 — 161
July 3 — 149
December 23 — 145
August 3 — 142
January 1 — 142

Days of the week:
Sunday — 132
Monday — 96
Tuesday — 95
Wednesday — 98
Thursday — 105
Friday — 133
Saturday — 158

Reposted from 2009 with minor edits.

Afghanistan, June, 2010

This month has been the deadliest month yet for foreign troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. Department of Defense now reports that one hundred coalition troops were killed this month. The death toll for 2010 to date now stands at 320. With soldiers and equipment still arriving in the country, peak troop strength is anticipated to reach 150,000 by August. And, with the removal of General Stanley McChrystal from command of Afghanistan following an embarrassing article in Rolling Stone magazine, a shift in leadership is underway with General David Petraeus attending confirmation hearings now. Efforts are now being made ot both weaken the Taliban and pressure them to reconcile with the Afghan government, but progress is slow, and many earlier gains are becoming unstable once more. Collected here are images of the country and conflict over the past month, part of an ongoing monthly series on Afghanistan. … (42 photos total)

The Big Picture – Boston.com

Impressive array. Many emotions.

‘Please Remove Your Shoes’

From Ask the Pilot, Patrick Smith’s review of “Please Remove Your Shoes.”

Still, though, my favorite line in the film is this one from FAA security agent Steve Elson: “They [TSA] focus on all kinds of minutiae and crap, rather than the items they need to.” Elson tells the story of the time a simulated bomb was run through an X-ray machine with a bottle of water placed on top of it. Guards caught the water, of course, but missed the bomb.

Best line of the day

“Anyone who wants to know why network television news hasn’t mattered since the seventies just needs to check out this appearance by Logan. Here’s CBS’s chief foreign correspondent saying out loud on TV that when the man running a war that’s killing thousands of young men and women every year steps on his own dick in front of a journalist, that journalist is supposed to eat the story so as not to embarrass the flag. And the part that really gets me is Logan bitching about how Hastings was dishonest to use human warmth and charm to build up enough of a rapport with his sources that they felt comfortable running their mouths off in front of him.”

Matt Taibbi — RollingStone.com

June 29th

Harmon Killebrew plaqueToday is the birthday

… of Harmon Killebrew, 74. Not only is Killebrew in the Hall of Fame, but his is the profile on the Major League Baseball logo.

… of best actor Oscar nominee Gary Busey. He’s 66. The nomination was for The Buddy Holly Story.

… of Football Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorf, 61.

… of Maria Conchita Alonso, 53.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born on June 29 in 1900. In January 2003, Outside Magazine listed its 25 essential books for the well-read explorer. At the top was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

Like his most famous creation, The Little Prince, that visitor from Asteroid B-612 who once saw 44 sunsets in a single day, Saint-Exupéry disappeared into the sky. Killed in World War II at age 44, “Saint Ex” was a pioneering pilot for Aéropostale in the 1920s, carrying mail over the deadly Sahara on the Toulouse-Dakar route, encountering cyclones, marauding Moors, and lonely nights: “So in the heart of the desert, on the naked rind of the planet, in an isolation like that of the beginnings of the world, we built a village of men. Sitting in the flickering light of the candles on this kerchief of sand, on this village square, we waited out the night.” Whatever his skills as a pilot—said to be extraordinary—as a writer he is effortlessly sublime. Wind, Sand and Stars is so humane, so poetic, you underline sentences: “It is another of the miraculous things about mankind that there is no pain nor passion that does not radiate to the ends of the earth. Let a man in a garret but burn with enough intensity and he will set fire to the world.” Saint-Exupéry did just that. No writer before or since has distilled the sheer spirit of adventure so beautifully. True, in his excitement he can be righteous, almost irksome—like someone who’s just gotten religion. But that youthful excess is part of his charm. Philosophical yet gritty, sincere yet never earnest, utterly devoid of the postmodern cop-outs of cynicism, sarcasm, and spite, Saint-Exupéry’s prose is a lot like the bracing gusts of fresh air that greet him in his open cockpit. He shows us what it’s like to be subject—and king—of infinite space.

Actress Jayne Mansfield, just 34, was killed 43 years ago today when her car struck a trailer truck near Slidell, Louisiana. The driver and Ms. Mansfield’s companion, Sam Brody, were also killed. Three of her children asleep in the backseat survived.

Those who have seen Field of Dreams or read the book on which it was based, Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, will remember the character “Moonlight” Graham, played by Burt Lancaster in the film. Archibald Wright Graham (1876-1965) was an actual player, and a doctor. Graham played in one game for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905 (in the movie it was the last game of the season in 1929). Graham played two innings in the field but never batted in the major leagues; he was on deck when his one game ended.

Olympic National Park (Washington)

… was renamed and redesignated on this date in 1938. It had been Mount Olympus National Monument since 1909.

Olympic National Park

Glacier capped mountains, wild Pacific coast and magnificent stands of old-growth forests, including temperate rain forests — at Olympic National Park, you can find all three. About 95% of the park is designated wilderness, which further protects these diverse and spectacular ecosystems.

Olympic is also known for its biological diversity. Isolated for eons by glacial ice, and later the waters of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Peninsula has developed its own distinct array of plants and animals. Eight kinds of plants and 15 kinds of animals are found on the peninsula but no where else on Earth.

Olympic National Park

Sampling American Pale Ales

In popular culture, the Fourth of July connotes hot dogs, hamburgers and cold beer. But the country has changed, and while burgers and hot dogs are still a distinct possibility, so are mofongo and arroz con pollo, or kimchi and kalbi. Cold beer, though, remains universal, and for that we might consider taking a moment to thank the founding fathers of the craft-beer revolution.

A mere 35 years ago, the domestic beer choices on Independence Day weekend were a dismal lot: bland, flavorless mega-brews, with perhaps a few equally uninspiring beers from dying regional breweries. Today, the American beer world is completely different, thanks to some farsighted brewers who envisioned a better future.

The panel tasted 20 American pale ales. …

1. FLYING DOG Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
2. LONG TRAIL
3. STOUDT’S
4. SLY FOX
5. OTTER CREEK
6. TWO BROTHERS
7. SAMUEL ADAMS
8. DOGFISH HEAD
9. OSKAR BLUES
10. LAGUNITAS

Beers of The Times has the details.

June 28th

Mel Brooks is 84, Kathy Bates 62, John Elway 50, and John Cusack and Mary Stuart Masterson 44.

Richard Rodgers was born on June 28th in 1902. This from his New York Times obituary in 1979.

“The Garrick Gaieties,” “A Connecticut Yankee,” “Babes in Arms,” “The Boys From Syracuse,” “Pal Joey,” “Oklahoma!” “Carousel,” “South Pacific,” “Flower Drum Song,” “The King and I,” “The Sound of Music.” What binds together these disparate musical comedies is a single phrase spanning 55 years of Broadway: “Music by Richard Rodgers.”

The phrase connoted the seemingly endless flow of wonderfully singable, danceable melodies that poured out of Mr. Rodgers. And coupled with the names of his two principal lyricists, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein 2d, the phrase also symbolized the evolution of American musical comedy into an art form of stature, in which plot, music and dancing were closely integrated and frequently employed to explore serious, even tragic, themes.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

… was assassinated in Sarajevo on this date in 1914, igniting what we know as World War I.

Franz Ferdinand was the nephew of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary. After the Emperor’s son had committed suicide and Ferdinand’s own father had died, Ferdinand was first in succession to the Emperor. He was considered likely to be a reformer, which upset Balkan nationalists.

In all, there were seven assassins along the route of the Archduke’s car, all Bosnian Serbs. The third of the seven, Nedelko Cabrinovic,

threw a bomb, but failed to see the car in time to aim well: he missed the heir’s car and hit the next one, injuring several people. Cabrinovic swallowed poison and jumped into a canal, but he was saved from suicide and arrested. He died of tuberculosis in prison in 1916.

The seventh was Gavrilo Princip.

Princip heard Cabrinovic’s bomb go off and assumed that the Archduke was dead. By the time he heard what had really happened, the cars had driven by. By bad luck, a little later the returning procession missed a turn and stopped to back up at a corner just as Princip happened to walk by. Princip fired two shots: one killed the archduke, the other his wife. Princip was arrested before he could swallow his poison capsule or shoot himself. Princip too was a minor under Austrian law, so he could not be executed. Instead he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and died of tuberculosis in 1916.

It was the Archduke and Sophie’s fourteenth wedding anniversary. The Archduke’s last words were, “Sophie dear, Sophie dear, don’t die! Stay alive for our children.”

In the aftermath of the assassination, diplomatic efforts failed, perhaps because both Austria and Serbia feared loss of national prestige. Austria declared war on Serbia. Germany sided with Austria; Russia supported Serbia as required by treaty. France was obligated to support Russia in any war with Germany or Austria-Hungary. Britain was obligated to support France in an any war with Germany.

Source for quotes and some background: The Balkan Causes of World War One.

The Treaty of Versailles

… at the end of World War I was signed on this date in 1919, five years to the day after the assassination that sparked the war.

The United States Senate never ratified the Treaty, as much for political as diplomatic reasons.

Redux post of the day

iPhone hype

The only way the iPhone can live up to the hype.

Click for larger version.

First posted here three years ago today. I guess the oil spill would make an updated version.

Fort Union National Monument (New Mexico)

… was created on this date in 1954, when President Eisenhower signed a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the site and remaining structures.

Fort Union

Fort Union was established in 1851 by Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner as a guardian and protector of the Santa Fe Trail. During it’s forty-year history, three different forts were constructed close together. The third and final Fort Union was the largest in the American Southwest, and functioned as a military garrison, territorial arsenal, and military supply depot for the southwest. Today, visitors use a self-guided tour path to visit the second fort and the large, impressive ruins of the third Fort Union. The largest visible network of Santa Fe Trail ruts can be seen here.

Fort Union National Monument

Today’s Photos

It was a delightfully cool day in Santa Fe Sunday (around 80) with sprinkles from time-to-time. A good day for walking around, seeing a site or too, and having lunch outside.

Across E. DeVargas Street from San Miguel Church is a building that is said to be the oldest house in the United States (circa 1646). How do we know this? Because it’s right next door to the Oldest House Shop, so it must be true.

Better yet, directly across Old Santa Fe Trail from San Miguel Church is this building, the Pink Adobe. (The woman on the bench resting has the right idea.)

Inside the Pink Adobe since 1944 is the Pink Adobe restaurant where, in the courtyard, we had some outrageously good chicken enchiladas with black beans and rice. The view from my place at the table.

First three photos taken by Donna with a Canon SD600. Last photo taken with my iPhone 3G. Click images for larger versions.

Today’s Photo

This is a portion of the San Jose Bell found in the San Miguel Church in Santa Fe. The full inscription reads: San Jose, Rogad por nosotros Agosto 9 de 1356 (Saint Joseph pray for us August 9 1356). Was the bell cast in 1356 and brought to Santa Fe in 1812 as some claim — or was it cast locally in 1836 or 1856 as others say?

San Miguel Church claims to be the oldest church in the United States, built between 1610 and 1628 over a kiva that dates from at least 1200. Mass is still said in the church, which has been rebuilt several times, most notably after the Spanish returned to New Mexico following the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, and currently.

Photo taken with an iPhone 3G today.

World Cup line of the day

If you’re mannerly, scared or a high-ranking FIFA official, you need to keep telling yourself that England and Mexico weren’t going anywhere, anyway, that even if Mr. Lampard’s goal had been allowed or Mr. Tévez’s had been denied, the complexion of the game wouldn’t have dramatically changed, and the outcome would have been identical.

Probably true—but totally lame. We’ve officially reached our limit with a balky game that continues to deny basic modernity.

The Couch – WSJ.com

Talking ’bout my generation

Roger Ebert attends his 50th high school reunion and has some interesting observations and insights, including this:

One of the most noble undertakings in the history of the cinema is Michael Apt’s “Up” series of documentaries, which begins with a group of British 7-year-olds, and revisits them every 7 years, most recently in 2005 when they were 49. These films are the proof of Wordsworth’s belief that “the child is father of the man.” Looking at my classmates, I wondered if perhaps the person we are at 18 is the person we will always be, despite everything else that comes our way. All that happens is that slowly we become more aware of what matters in life.

Do you agree?

‘The reality is, there is no reality.’

Some high-level satire from The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs . You definitely should read it all, but here’s an excerpt:

Ask any psychologist what happens to people when they get confused. Their heart rate goes up. Their skin temperature rises. Adrenaline starts to flow.

They feel desperate, and scared, as if they’ve fallen out of a boat and now they’re getting tossed by waves and they’re maybe going to drown.

Now all you have to do is reach out with some kind of certainty, and no matter how obviously untrue it might be, people will latch onto it.

Every religion in the world knows this, from the Catholics to the Scientologists. It’s the oldest trick in the book. You create some uncertainty, you put people at risk — you tell them they’re going to hell, or whatever — and then you hold out the answer.