Tank Museum

Josh and I took the opportunity to go to the American Armored Foundation tank museum in Danville on Run Day, which is when they have a couple of vehicles power up and drive around the display area. (One was an APC and the other was a self propelled gun, not true tanks, but we got the idea). Not as many WW2 tanks as I had hoped for, but they had a number of interesting things. Items of note:

• PzKpfw IV
• tiny Dingo II scout car
• slightly larger Ferret scout car
• M1917 Six Ton Special light tank
• Honest John missile, presumably without the 20kt nuclear warhead
• Mk 41 15cm Nebelwerfer (it werfs nebels!)

They also had a variety of uniforms, unit badges, posters, paintings, and other memorabilia. 

Civil War Battlefields

One of my goals for the year was to go and see some of the Civil War battlefields around Richmond, and as Diana was in Toronto this weekend, I went and saw. Drewry's Bluff, where a Confederate fort turned back an attack by Union ironclads including Monitor; Tredegar Ironworks, which made ordnance; and Cold Harbor, where Lee turned back an attack by Grant with what was described as the "highest casualties for that short a period".

I enjoyed Drewry's Bluff. You go down a side road to a little parking lot with space for perhaps ten cars, then walk about a mile through woods to the site of the fort. The earthworks are a little eroded, and some trees have grown up, but you can still see the gun emplacements and see the part of the river to the southeast, where the Federal vessels were. The bombroof and well and shot oven have collapsed with age, but you can tell where they were. There's an 8" gun sited on one of the platforms.

Tredegar felt more to me like a general ACW museum than one specifically for ordance. They did show some small arms, a few guns (i.e. cannon), and about two dozen different types of shot and shell--the flat-nosed cylinder for 6.4" Baker shot, for instance; on the other hand, I didn't see anything showing how the guns were produced. A second floor had displays showing the progress of Union forces over time, as they occupied Southern seaports, pushed up from New Orleans and down from Ohio to control the Mississippi, and then marched through Atlanta to South Carolina. I hadn't seen that sort of "area controlled over time" series of maps, and it was quite helpful.

I was a bit disappointed in Cold Harbor, but I think that's because the tour path is a loop, and I went counterclockwise. If I'd gone the other way, I'd have first seen well-defined trenches with fairly good lines of sight, and had a better feel for what was going on.  As it happened, my first view was of eroded trenches overgrown by woods, with no feel for the terrain. If I were doing it again, I'd want a map of the original battlefield, showing slopes and woods as they were at the time. The welcome center did have a good operational-level presentation, showing how Grant come down from the north, Less blocked his approach, and both lines jokeyed for position.

Ciboney

It turns out the Caribbean islands weren't just inhabited by Arawaks and Caribs; the Ciboney people lived in caves and rock shelters on the northwest coasts of Hispaniola and Cuba.

Hurricane

In October 1780, the Great Hurricane hit. The storm surge was over 25 feet; the wind, estimated to be over 200mph, stripped the bark off trees and threw cannon into the air. It destroyed every house and tree on Barbados, dropped a ship on top of a port town's hospital, sank or wrecked ships across the Caribbean, and killed 20,000 - 24,000 people.

Cosmic impact event

According to an article on Physics.org:

About 12,800 years ago when the Earth was warming and emerging from the last ice age, a dramatic and anomalous event occurred that abruptly reversed climatic conditions back to near-glacial state. According to James Kennett, UC Santa Barbara emeritus professor in earth sciences, this climate switch fundamentally –– and remarkably –– occurred in only one year, heralding the onset of the Younger Dryas cool episode. The cause of this cooling has been much debated, especially because it closely coincided with the abrupt extinction of the majority of the large animals then inhabiting the Americas, as well as the disappearance of the prehistoric Clovis culture, known for its big game hunting.

By examining microspherules in the geological strata of North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East, a research team has concluded that a catastrophic cosmic impact event caused continent-wide wildfires,and threw enough dust into the atmosphere to block significant amounts of sunlight, leading to the destruction of the American megafauna.

The impact that scooped out the Caribbean and killed the dinosaurs was 65 million years ago, but this impact was comparatively recent. One wonders what the odds are of it happening again.

Defenestration

On this day in 1618, the Second Defenestration of Prague took place, igniting the first phase of the Thirty Years War. The hardline Catholic Ferdinand,King of Bohemia and shortly to be Emperor, reversed concessions made to the Protestants by the previous two kings; when the Bohemian Estates objected, Ferdinand dissolved the assembly and sent representatives to the Estates with a letter declaring their leaders' lives and honor forfeit; the leaders responded by throwing the representatives out the window; they fell 70 feet but survived. When Ferdinand was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1619, the  Bohemian Estates deposed him as king and invited Frederick V, Elector Palatine, to the throne; Ferdinand, with the assistance of Bavaria, invaded Bohemia in 1620 and suppressed the rebellion.

Also, on May 23, 1829, the accordion was patented.

Magdeburg

The city of Magdeburg had survived a siege by Wallenstein's forces in 1629; however, it was besieged again in 1631 by Imperial forces under Tilly. On May 20, 1631, Tilly's troops stormed the city and sacked it, killing at least two thirds of the 30,000 inhabitants and burning the town.

Action of 6 May 1801

On this day in 1801, HM brig Speedy, under command of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, attacked and captured the 32 gun Spanish frigate El Gamo, despite the fact that the Spanish ship was four times the size, with six times the crew and weight of broadside. The Speedy approached under American colors until she got so close that the Spanish broadside passed over her, and returned fire with double-shotted guns. After exchanging fire and repelling several Spanish attempts to board, Cochrane sent over his entire crew, leaving only one man aboard the Speedy; he then told that one to "send over the rest of the men!" and tore down the Spanish colors, whereupon the El Gamo's crew surrendered. The British took 12 casualties, the Spanish 55 killed and wounded and 261 captured. 

Battle of Montgisard

Broke out GMT Games' Infidel, which I've had for a while, and put counters on the board for the Montgisard scenario. Historically, in 1177, a tiny Crusader force under the sixteen-year-old King of Jerusalem, Baldwin the Leper, came across a much larger invading Saracen force under Saladin. The Saracens were tired from marching and unprepared for battle. Although outnumbered by something like 6 to 1, the Crusaders merely paused for a quick prayer, then attacked. With the King leading the attack personally, they broke through the whole Saracen army, destroying 90% of it and nearly catching Saladin himself. The game AAR went pretty much the same way.

Declaration of Independence

An excerpt:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed;

that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

Battle of Trevilian Station

Dad is off to Africa again, and on the way to Dulles he stopped at Chris and Tabitha's place, so we drove to Palmyra VA to see him off, and also see the nieces and nephews.

On the way back, we went to Louisa where they were having a recreation of the Battle of Trevilian Station, which was the largest all-cavalry battle of the Civil War. The recreation had perhaps 100 horse, plus a cannon or two

and quite a crowd spectators and vendors.

May Day

Today is May Day, which is also celebrated throughout the world as the leftist / communist International Workers Day. So this would be a good time to remember the approximately 94 million people killed by Communist states, either directly (as in the Khmer Rouge killing fields or the Chinese Cultural Revolution) or indirectly (as in the artificial famines engineered by Stalin).

Ninety four million people killed. That's the equivalent of every man, woman and child in California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

Tuaregs

The Tuaregs of North Africa are famous as "the Blue Men"; their clothing was blue and they sometimes rubbed indigo dye into their skin as well. But they've been desert dwellers for at least 1500 years; if you're in the desert and you don't want white, you can get black wool or black goat hair, but where do you get indigo blue from? I'm sure you've been laying awake at night, pondering that very question. It turns out that they went south across the desert in caravans to the markets and dye pits of Kano, a city in northern Nigeria.

Battle of Gibraltar

At the Battle of Gibraltar, on April 25, 1697--a century before Aboukir Bay--a Dutch fleet surprised a Spanish fleet at anchor, doubled their line, and destroyed it. The Spanish didn't save a single ship. Nelson is famous for capturing or destroying 11 of 13 French ships at Aboukir Bay; nobody has heard van Heemskirk.

Lepanto

On 7 October 1571, Don John of Austria led the naval contingents of the Holy League, totaling 208 ships, against the Ottoman fleet of 251 ships. The result was the most decisive naval victory since Actium, over 1500 year before. It was celebrated by Gilbert Keith Chesterton in his poem Lepanto.

Kingdom of Mysore

I'm reading up on Indian history during the time of the East India Company and the Raj. Conveniently, it happens that today's Wiki front page article is on the political history of Mysore and Coorg. At one point, the Kingdom of Mysore covered about 62,000 square miles; compare that to 50,000 square miles for England.

Further links: Tipu Sultan, Sir Eyre Coote, the battle of Porto Novo, and the battle of Plassey.

Flashman

If you haven't heard of Sir Harry Flashman (VC, KCB, KCIE, coward, bully and all around scoundrel), and if you're interested in Victorian era history, you have something to look forward to. George MacDonald Fraser put his antihero through most of the interesting events between 1839 to 1894, including the First Anglo-Afghan War, the charge of the Light Brigade, the American Civil War, the Indian Mutiny--and lesser known events, such as a battle between the White Rajah of Sarawak and the Borneo pirates, or the British expedition against Theodore of Abyssinia. The footnotes are extensive, some of the most outlandish people were real, and many of the unbelievable events actually happened. I just finished Flashman's Lady and am halfway through Flashman in the Great Game.

Indian History

We don't hear much about Indian history before the Honorable East India Company took over, but I'm starting to read about the rise of the Maratha Empire, Anglo-Mysore wars, and the Anglo-Maratha wars.

Now what I need is a wargame that covers the period.