PzLdr History Facts

[PzLdr]

[Disclaimer: Although popular history sets the Plinian eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. on August 24-25 79 A.D., more current archaeological research has challenged that date. Studies of food remains found in Pompey, specifically dates and other fruits and nuts, which would not have been harvested until late September or in October militate for an eruption date in mid to late Autumn. But since the debate has not settled on when the eruption took place, I have gone with the commonly accepted date of the explosion].

The first rumblings of trouble occurred in 62 A.D., when a major earthquake severely damaged the Roman city of Pompeii. A city of some 20,000, and a major import-export terminus for Rome and Naples, its citizens had no clue as to what caused the earthquake, or what it portended, since they did not realize they were living in the shadow of mainland Europe's last active volcano. But, to their sorrow they would learn.

In early August, the natives of Pompeii, and nearby Herculaneum [a vacation site for Rome's elite]began to feel a series of minor quakes. None had the force of the 62 A.D. quake, but they still put Pompeii's citizens on edge, since they were still repairing damage from the earlier earthquake. And the Pompeiians had reason for concern. Vesuvius was clearing his throat. Some took the hint and left, as many more had in 62. But many stayed.

The eruption started with a deafening bang sometime around noon. The top of the mountain literally blew off, sending an ash column some twelve miles high in the sky. And for the rest of the afternoon, and into the evening, ash rained down on Pompeii, increasing in volume and in the size and weight of the individual pieces of pumice eventually a 70' layer of ash would cover Pompeii]. The worst was yet to come.

Sometime in the early hours of the next day, the mountain roared again, and a combination of ash and superheated gasses, called a pyroclastic flow, with heat exceeding 1,000 degrees, began to flow down the slope of the mountain at speeds of 100 mph, plus or minus. It hit Pompeii like a freight train, instantly killing anyone it touched. Shortly thereafter a second flow struck Herculaneum, which had escaped most of the ash due to wind direction, wiping out the town, and burying it as well.

Vesuvius ash cloud collapsed the next morning, and yet another flow [there may have been as many as five, and there were at least three], roared down the slope and out onto the Bay of Naples [this was recorded, as was much of we know about the eruption by Pliny the Younger. For years scientists refused to accept this observation because of the weight of the stone on water, until the saw the same phenomenon on the island of Monserrat].

Pliny's uncle, the famed naturalist and commander of the Roman fleet at Naples had crossed the bay to observe the eruption and aid people fleeing the volcano, got to close [and it wasn't that close] to Pompeii on the beach, and was killed by poisonous gasses accompanying the eruption.

Pompeii and Herculaneum were forgotten. Vesuvius lost maybe a third of her mass by the time the eruption ended on that second day. And so it stood until the 18th century when engineers, working on a pipeline broke through from above and found the ruins of Pompeii [Herculaneum was discovered later]. And despite looting over the next century, archaeology opened up the city to modern visitors. And the finds were spectacular. there were the famous figures of the dead created by ash surrounding the bodies and petrifying. there were mosaics and frescos on the buildings. More importantly, there was evidence on how the Romans lived in the first century A.D., a bakery, a Roman 'fast food' stand, baths, etc. And then Herculaneum gave archaeologists something beyond price, skeletons. Remains of people who had hidden in boat storage areas under the then sea wall, and who had been walled in by the pyroclastic flows , but unburnt. the find was significant because in the first century, A.D., the Romans still cremated their dead. the skeletal remains allowed scientists to study Romans for the frist time.

Subsequently skeletons were discovered in Pompeii, 54 of them, huddled in a barrel vaulted cellar that was sealed in by ash. Among the finds in the cellar that may change our understanding of history are the skeletons of twin young women, apparently slaves, because their remains show signs of syphilis, which would set the accepted theory that syphilis was brought back from the new world by Columbus on its ear.

Pompeii today is one of Italy's greatest tourist attractions [Herculaneum less so]. One can walk its streets and see vivid reminders of the people who lived there, and the approximately 2,000  who died there when Vesuvius erupted in August 79 AD [or didn't].

Vesuvius is still active [the last eruption took place in 1944], and all indications are the mountain will erupt again. Except this time, the destruction and death toll will be much higher, because many more people now live in close proximity to the mountain then did in 79 A.D.

[PzLdr]

1346 - The Battle of Crecy:

From William the conqueror on, the Norman Kings of England were Kings IN England. But in France, where the family came from, they were Dukes, AND vassals of the King of France. And through a very successful series of marriages, they held more French land than the king did. Result? The hundred Years War.

In 1346, Edward III of England launched an attack/raid from the Ducal holdings to the east/northeast, with some 12,000 men. He was met by King Louis, his allies and some 14,000 troops, comprised mainly of mounted knights and mercenary Genoese crossbowmen.

At the time of Crecy, European warfare was dominated by heavy cavalry, the chivalry of Europe. that had been the case since Adrianople, and Louis had no reason to think that would change. He should have.

The battle opened, interestingly enough, with the advance of the Genoese crossbowmen, apparently with the intent of 'softening up' the English for the usual heavy cavalry charge.

the crossbow was a  major weapon in the Middle Ages. It was easy to learn, did not take years of training, and within its range was lethal to armored personnel. It normally required a crew of two, the bowman, and a shield bearer to protect him. And the Genoese were some of the best crossbowmen in the world. But it had a major weakness - rate of fire. A crossbow required that the string be cranked back into firing position for every shot. the rate of fire was exceptionally slow

Unfortunately, the English force was 'heavy' in yeomen Longbow men, very heavy.

The English Kings had first run up against the Longbow in Wales. Some 6' long, typically made of yew, the longbow took years to master. But it was a formidable weapon [inferior only to the composite saddle bow] in the hands of an experienced bowman, and capable of a rate of fire measured in tens of shafts per minute. So England required all youths of the yeoman class to begin training on the longbow at an early age. and the result was that by adulthood, the bowmen had developed the strength, coordination and expertise with their weapon to be a lethal force on the battlefield [they carried several types of arrowhead, including one to penetrate, at close enough range, plate armor and chain mail]. And because of the training program, England had a large force of very competent archers.

The Genoese were taken under fire at a range they could not respond to. After suffering a large number of casualties, they withdrew, and the Knights fighting for France charged. It was a bloodbath. The arrow storm dropped horses and knights in droves. And while the King of France escaped with a wound, most of his allies were killed [those unhorsed were often killed by a longbow man armed with a hatchet or stiletto].

Crecy was one of three great longbow victories in the Hundred Years War [the others were Poitiers and Agincourt, where the Knights attacked on foot, and suffered the same result]. And it was the battle that re-established infantry as the dominant branch of land warfare, for the first time since the Legions of Rome.


1914-Tannenburg:

The last words Alfred Von Schlieffen, the former Chief of the German General Staff allegedly made on his death bed to the family clustered around him was "Make only the right wing strong!", a reference to his life's work, the German plan for war with France, with a hook through neutral Belgium, and a scythe like move first west, then south, and then turning behind Paris and heading east.

But Germany was not going to fight just France. If war came, she was going to potentially also face France's allies, Imperial Russia and Great Britain. So contingency plans were made, based on predicted troop mobilizations of not only the German Army, but the armies of France, and Russia. And those plans were fairly straight forward. Germany would defend and delay in the East, when the Russians eventually showed up, while launching the Schlieffen offensive in the West. But what looks good on paper doesn't always translate to good on the ground.

When WW I started, the chief of the German general staff was Moltke the Younger. But he was no chip off Moltke the Elder. He was more like sawdust. Lacking confidence, easily alarmed, he wasn't the man for the job. Neither was the commander of the German 8th Army in the East, Von Prittwitz, whose idea of 'delay and defend' was to fall back to the Vistula [Poland was divided into three parts, and had been since the early 1790s, between Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary].

And then there were the Russians. Apparently nobody told them their mobilization should be slow. In response for calls for help from the French, the Czar sent two armies, the 1st under Rennenkampf and the 2d, under Samsonov to invade East Prussia, the home of the Junkers, and birthplace of the Hohenzollern dynasty. And they did it much earlier than expected.

Rennenkampf scored an early victory, but the Operations officer of 8th Army, Col. Max Hoffmann had already begun pulling together a plan to defeat  Samsonov, moving up to join Rennekampf. Using the railroad system and called up reserve units [which were trained to a level almost comparable with the regulars, Hoffmann began to surround Samsonov on three sides. He was also aided by the  geography. the two Russian armies were separated by the Masurian Lakes, and unable to join. Additionally, Samsonov and Rennenkapf loathed each other, and kept communications to a minimum [and intercepted messages, in clear, told the Germans Samsonov's plans. It was a situation ripe for the picking. And Moltke, relieving Von Prittwitz, brought in a command team that would pick the Russians clean, Generals Paul von Hindenburg [off the retired list], and Erich Ludendorff, the hero of the siege of Liege.

Samsonov continued moving, deeper into the German ambush. When the Germans attacked, he compounded that error by continually underestimating the size of the force he was fighting, and failing to call on Rennenkampf for aid [which considering the terrain was doubtful], although he did ask higher headquarters to order Rennenkampf to help him. And after three days, Samsonov walked away from his headquarters group [his army had been destroyed] into the forest and shot himself.

Rennenkampf, ably screened and delayed by German cavalry never got closer to the battle than some 40 plus miles as the crow flies.

Tannenburg was one of the great victories of World War I. It was decisive [an entire Russian Army was taken out of the order of battle], and it stabilized the Eastern Front, allowing the Germans to concentrate on France.

But the Russian defeat had not been in vain. Moltke had pulled two Corps out of the wheeling line, and sent them East [they arrived too late for the battle], and as the Germans wheeled, a gap developed in their line between the 1st and 2d Armies, a gap exploited in French and British counterattacks that stopped the Germans before they reached Paris, i.e. the "Miracle of the Marne". the Germans were stopped, rolled back on the right, and the Western Front became a race to flank up to the Channel, and entrench when flanking failed. So in a sense, the Russian defeat at Tannenburg was an indirect cause of the eventual Allied vicory in WW I [by that time, Russia had been knocked out of the war].

[PzLdr]

The sound of the explosion was heard over 2,000 miles away. The ash sent into the stratosphere produced vivid sunsets in England in 1888. the island of Krakatau [Krakatoa] in the Sunda Strait in the Dutch East Indies [Indonesia] disappeared. And 36,000 people died.


Krakatau was an uninhabited island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, with forests, wildlife, and three volcano cones. In May, 1883, they showed signs of life. On August 26th and 27th, they came to life with a vengeance. in that two day period, the island blew itself apart, first sending out pyroclastic flows, and then on the 27th, tsunamis as high as 120' above sea level. Whole towns and villages were destroyed. Lighthouses were swept from their bases. A Dutch armored warship was swept over a mile inland. And the sound of the explosion [the loudest in recorded history, traveled well over 2,000 miles. But the extent of the catastrophe, because of its location, was unknown for weeks, if not months.

In 1929 [I believe], fishermen fishing the spot where Krakatau had been, witnessed the sea boiling, and then exploding. The volcano rising from the sea was called "Anak Krakatau" ["Son of Krakatau]. One of the world's most active volcanoes, it is now some 2,000 feet tall. And when, not if, it blows, a catastrophe that will dwarf 1883 will occur.

[PzLdr]

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was born in 1904 in Halle, Germany. His father had been an opera singer, and ran, along with his mother a very successful music conservatory. The family was upper middle class, and politically conservative.

Heydrich was a member of the Freikorps in the aftermath of world War I, and joined the Schutz und Trutzbund after his service.

Heydrich grew up in a musical milieu, and played the violin at near concert levels. He also excelled at fencing and other sports, and determined on a naval career, instead of following in his father's footsteps. Heydrich became a signals officer on the battleship SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. It was there he first met  [later Admiral] Wilhelm Canaris, who would go from mentor to intelligence collaborator to rival to enemy.

The course of Heydrich's life [and the world] were changed in 1931. Heydrich, a notorious womanizer became engaged to two women, the one he eventually married, Lina von Osten, and the daughter of someone with a great deal of influence in the German Navy. when Heydrich refused to break off his engagement with von Osten, the second woman had a nervous breakdown. the enraged father went to Admiral Raeder, who ordered a Court of Inquiry. Heydrich so badly impressed the Court that they recommended, and Raeder cashiered Heydrich.

Now with a wife, and no job prospects in Germany, Heydrich was at a loss for what to do. Enter Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfuehrer SS.

Himmler was looking to set up his own intelligence service [almost every branch of the Nazi Party had one. And he was looking for someone to lead it. At the same time, Frau Heydrich was urging her husband to consider Party work. And Heydrich's family had a friend who held high rank in the SS. An interview was arranged.

Heydrich ascertained fairly early in the interview that Himmler had mistaken his signals background as intelligence work. Nevertheless, Heydrich was able, in 20 minutes to cobble together an outline for an SS Security service [the SICHERHEITSDIENST or SD] that satifed Himmler. Heydrich was hired, and within a year was an SS Standartenfuehrer, and head of the SD, which was made, on Hitler's order, the sole party intelligence organization.

Heydrich was one of the main cogs in the plot to topple the SA on the Night of the Long Knives. By now [1934] Himmler had taken command of all of the police offices in Germany, and Heydrich had gone along as number 2, and usually, as commander of each Police force's political police. And that included Goering's Gestapo.

Himmler and Goering had a common goal in ridding the Reich of Ernst Roehm and the rest of the SA leadership. The SA was the last [and largest] group in the Party calling for a 'second' socialist revolution. And they made no bones about their plans to take over the German Army. The Army wanted their heads. Goering wanted their heads. Himmler wanted their heads. And somewhere aslong the way, Hitler wanted their heads too [the price for loyalty from the army].

Heydrich gathered, and when necessary falsified, evidence of an SA coup. He also prepared execution lists [which included not only SA leaders, but party rivals, political rivals, and others for whom the Nazi leadership had grudges, and sent out the 'hit squads' in Berlin. And by the time the "Night of the Long Knives" was over, not only Roehm and many of the SA had been killed, but so had the former Chancellor [Gen. Von Schleicher], former Nazi Leader of Northern Germany [ Gregor Strasser], former governor of Bavaria [Gustav von Karr [who stopped the 1923 putsch], and at least one hundred others.

Heydrich was busy in the '30s, with some successes and at least one spectacular failure. The successes included 'Salon Kitty', an SD run brothel, wired for sound and guaranteed to reveal all sorts of interesting intelligence, since the clientel was comprised of diplomats and Nazi functionaries; and a series of forged documents passed, via Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union, intimating collusion between Russian generals and the Nazis [which MAY have contributed to the Soviet purge of the Red Army High Command].

But Heydrich bungled badly in the matter of Col. Gen.Fritsch, the commander of the German Army. Heydrich's Gestapo [as of 1936, Heydrich commanded the SICHERHEITSPOLIZEI, an amalgam of the Gestapo, Kriminalpolitzei, and the SD] put together a dossier claiming Fritsch was a pracaticing homosexual [illegal in Germany since the Weimar Republic]. By the time the smoke cleared, Fritsch was exonerated by a Court of honor presided over by Goering, no less, when it became apparent that a different von Frisch [a Captain] was the homosexual in question.

But Heydrich rebounded in spectacular fashion. With the Anschluss of  Austria, Heydrich created two entities that served him well. the first, and more benign, but not by much, was the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, which put all the agencies necessary to process Jewish emigrants out of Austria in one building, streamlining the then official policy of forcing the Jews out of Europe expeditiously.

Heydrich's second, and far more sinister creation were the EINSATZGRUPPEN and EINSATZKOMMANDOS, task forces of security police, and other SS security forces for the establishment of control and terror. The Einsatzgruppen would have a far longer, bloodier and meaningful place in Nazi history that the Central Office.

In 1938 and 1939, the Einsatzgruppen were also sent into Czechoslavakia, both after the Munich Pact, and after the annexation of the rest of the country.

As war loomed, Hitler looked for a pretext [to avoid the 'war guilt' clause of the Versailles Treaty]. And Heydrich gave it to him. Heydrich had the SD fakle a Polish attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, complete with on air shots fired and Polish cursing. A concentration camp inmate, murdered by the Germans was left out front in a Polish uniform, supplied by Admiral Canaris.

And with the invasion of Poland, Heydrich's gloves [if they were ever on] came off. A total of five Einsatzgruppen were sent into Poland, with orders to kill the Polish ruling class, the clergy, any potential leadership left, and, of course, the Jews. Heydrich's men were so ruthless, the military governor wrote a scathing report to Hitler, which Hitler ignored, then scaked the military governor, and turned Poland over to German civil rule.

Heydrich was circumscribed in 1940 by both the German Army, and Hitler himself. No Einsatzgruppen were allowed into western Europe. It was to be a civilized war. And the Gestapo was not allowed to set up shop in Paris, nor anywhere else under German military government. Poland was biting Heydrich's buttocks.

So Heydrich took time to fly fighter planes for the Luftwaffe [he was a major]. Heydrich flew Me 110s in Norway, and Me 109s over the Channel [He would be shot down over Russia, and be forbidden to fly after his return to German lines, by which time he had flown over 100 missions]. But in 1941, Heydrich took stage, front and center in two interrelated areas, the invasion of the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust.

By 1941, with the anticipated addition of several million Russian Jews to their area of control, the German policy on the 'Jewish Question' hardened. So when, in 1941, Heydrich sent four Einsatzgruppen into Russia, they were tasked with killing Communist apparatchiks, Red Army Commissars, and all the Jewish men they came across [in August Himmler added Jewish women and children to the execution lists. And by June, 1942, the SS had killed over a million Russian, Baltic, and Ukrainian Jews.

But Heydrich anticipated that would not be enough. In July, 1931, he got a letter from Goering to come up with the final solution of the Jewish problem. Always known for anticipated Hitler and Himmler's wishes, Heydrich began planning the industrial scale murder of those the Reich found racially unacceptable.

He announced his plans on January 20th, 1942 at the Wannsee Conference. Heydrich brought together officials from all spheres of the German government. He explained that they would be assisting in the coordination of what was an SS operation, the transportation east, and death [by either overwork or murder] of the Jews of Europe.

Heydrich balanced this job with his others, including not only his police duties, but also his new appointment as Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia [Czechoslavakia]. Heydrich brought a combination of carrot and stick to Prague, although there was more of the latter than the former, leading to his newest sobriquet "The Butcher of Prague", which followed his others "The Young God of Death", "The Blonde Beast", and "Hitler's Hangman", to name a few.

On May 27th, 1942, an attempt was made on Heydrich's life with a grenade. It succeeded in large part because of his hubris. He died of secondary infection  on June 9th. His funeral provided his last nickname, bestowed on him by hitler himself, the "Man with the Iron Heart".

Reinhard Heydrich was one of the most brutal and evil men of the 20th century. He was the executor responsible for putting Nazi wishes into deeds. He was responsible for millions of deaths. Had he survived the war, he would have surely been hanged at Nuremburg. 

[apples]

For Apples:

At the close of the Civil War, the United states Army, largely composed of volunteer regiments was largely demobilized, in part because the Volunteers did not want to stay in service [see George Armstrong Custer's problems with his cavalry Division in Texas]. And so the Army was restructured.

One of the issues facing the leadership of the Army was black troops. Blacks had served with distinction in the Civil War. Although largely limited to menial duties, they had fought well when given the chance. For many ex-slaves, the military offered a respectable career. For the Army, they offered motivated, disciplined troops. And for the Republican Congress, which had many abolitionists, denying Blacks a chance to serve was anathema.

And so when the Army was re-formed, there were two Black infantry regiments [24th and 25th], and two black cavalry regiments [9th and 10th] on the TO&E, staffed with white officers. Of the Black regiments, the two that gained the most fame were the 9th and 10th Cavalry, the latter commanded by Col. Benjamin Grierson of Newton Station fame [Grierson was a committed supporter of both abolition and blacks in the military]. Grierson volunteered for the assignment. Other officers, notably Custer turned down command of black troops, even though it meant his rank post war was reduced to Lieutenant Colonel, instead of Colonel, and his assignment was as Executive Officer of a Cavalry regiment, instead of its commander.

The black troops were, as before, largely given menial jobs, at least the infantry was. They spent long periods of time road building, putting up installations, etc. But when allowed to soldier, they proved up to the task. That truth was more so for the Cavalry. The sobriquet "Buffalo Soldiers was allegedly bestowed upon them by the Indians. I have seen the tribe responsible named as Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne or others. But regardless of where the name came from, it stuck.

Perhaps the most memorable contribution made by Buffalo Soldiers during the Indian Wars was the 10th's contribution to defeating Victorio and his Chihenne Apaches. Victorio was probably the ablest tactician in all Apacheria. And when he finally went to war, he ran circles around the U.S. Army.

Victorio played the border between the U.S. and Mexico like a violin. He fought from ambush. And when he did, he always had a back way out. and when he wasn't ambushing he was raiding. and when he wasn't raiding, he nipped over the border for more of the same in Mexico.

It was Grierson who realized one of the keys to defeating Victorio was to deny him water, and since Grierson's bailiwick was western Texas, water was finite, both in availability and location.

Twice Grierson did battle with the Apache over water. the first time he got a draw [but denied the Indians the water]. The second time, he drove them off with heavy losses. Victorio was forced back over the border into Mexico, where he was killed in battle by the Mexicans at Tres Castillos.

By now, assignment to a black regiment of a white officer was not seen as a negative. The troops were disciplined, professional and motivated. The problems, often endemic in white regiments, such as desertion were almost non-existent. One officer who joined and stayed with Black cavalry was John Pershing. He spent such a long time with them, he was called "Black Jack" by fellow white officers. And it was not meant as a compliment.

Pershing and the Buffalo soldiers fought in the Spanish-American war, and subsequently, the Philippine Insurrection. They were at San Juan Hill, where they performed exceptionally well, as well as Pershing's Mexican Expedition. They served in WW I, but were restricted to rear duties or service with the French Army.

The Buffalo Soldiers fought in both WW II and Korea, but the units had different designations, and with President Truman's desegregation of the Army, the units existed for a while but lost their racial composition.

A monument to the Buffalo soldiers can be found at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the former training center back in the day for horse cavalry.

Thank you! Sorry it took so long for me to read this...I just haven't been online much these past few weeks. Thank you again!

[apples]

So do we tear down the monument to the Buffalo Soldiers because it is reminiscent of segregation in the Army?  I hope not!  This anarchy either ends soon, or America could well be destroyed as the country we once know. 

Remembering every facet of history is essential to moving forward as a nation.  To destroy our statues will set this country back and cause permanent damage to freedom in this country.

If there is one statue that should come down, it is the one of Lenin in Seattle.  This statue ended in America because it was removed from where it was installed initially.  Lenin was a monster who murdered over 10 million of his own people.  There should be no place for this monster, even on private land.

Bobby Bird statue too. It needs to go. I read today they have banned the movie Gone With The Wind someplace. I was kidding one day saying they will ban that movie. I guess next up will be the Turner Classic Movie channel. This sh1t must stop now!!!!

[apples]

[Disclaimer: Although popular history sets the Plinian eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. on August 24-25 79 A.D., more current archaeological research has challenged that date. Studies of food remains found in Pompey, specifically dates and other fruits and nuts, which would not have been harvested until late September or in October militate for an eruption date in mid to late Autumn. But since the debate has not settled on when the eruption took place, I have gone with the commonly accepted date of the explosion].

The first rumblings of trouble occurred in 62 A.D., when a major earthquake severely damaged the Roman city of Pompeii. A city of some 20,000, and a major import-export terminus for Rome and Naples, its citizens had no clue as to what caused the earthquake, or what it portended, since they did not realize they were living in the shadow of mainland Europe's last active volcano. But, to their sorrow they would learn.

In early August, the natives of Pompeii, and nearby Herculaneum [a vacation site for Rome's elite]began to feel a series of minor quakes. None had the force of the 62 A.D. quake, but they still put Pompeii's citizens on edge, since they were still repairing damage from the earlier earthquake. And the Pompeiians had reason for concern. Vesuvius was clearing his throat. Some took the hint and left, as many more had in 62. But many stayed.

The eruption started with a deafening bang sometime around noon. The top of the mountain literally blew off, sending an ash column some twelve miles high in the sky. And for the rest of the afternoon, and into the evening, ash rained down on Pompeii, increasing in volume and in the size and weight of the individual pieces of pumice eventually a 70' layer of ash would cover Pompeii]. The worst was yet to come.

Sometime in the early hours of the next day, the mountain roared again, and a combination of ash and superheated gasses, called a pyroclastic flow, with heat exceeding 1,000 degrees, began to flow down the slope of the mountain at speeds of 100 mph, plus or minus. It hit Pompeii like a freight train, instantly killing anyone it touched. Shortly thereafter a second flow struck Herculaneum, which had escaped most of the ash due to wind direction, wiping out the town, and burying it as well.

Vesuvius ash cloud collapsed the next morning, and yet another flow [there may have been as many as five, and there were at least three], roared down the slope and out onto the Bay of Naples [this was recorded, as was much of we know about the eruption by Pliny the Younger. For years scientists refused to accept this observation because of the weight of the stone on water, until the saw the same phenomenon on the island of Monserrat].

Pliny's uncle, the famed naturalist and commander of the Roman fleet at Naples had crossed the bay to observe the eruption and aid people fleeing the volcano, got to close [and it wasn't that close] to Pompeii on the beach, and was killed by poisonous gasses accompanying the eruption.

Pompeii and Herculaneum were forgotten. Vesuvius lost maybe a third of her mass by the time the eruption ended on that second day. And so it stood until the 18th century when engineers, working on a pipeline broke through from above and found the ruins of Pompeii [Herculaneum was discovered later]. And despite looting over the next century, archaeology opened up the city to modern visitors. And the finds were spectacular. there were the famous figures of the dead created by ash surrounding the bodies and petrifying. there were mosaics and frescos on the buildings. More importantly, there was evidence on how the Romans lived in the first century A.D., a bakery, a Roman 'fast food' stand, baths, etc. And then Herculaneum gave archaeologists something beyond price, skeletons. Remains of people who had hidden in boat storage areas under the then sea wall, and who had been walled in by the pyroclastic flows , but unburnt. the find was significant because in the first century, A.D., the Romans still cremated their dead. the skeletal remains allowed scientists to study Romans for the frist time.

Subsequently skeletons were discovered in Pompeii, 54 of them, huddled in a barrel vaulted cellar that was sealed in by ash. Among the finds in the cellar that may change our understanding of history are the skeletons of twin young women, apparently slaves, because their remains show signs of syphilis, which would set the accepted theory that syphilis was brought back from the new world by Columbus on its ear.

Pompeii today is one of Italy's greatest tourist attractions [Herculaneum less so]. One can walk its streets and see vivid reminders of the people who lived there, and the approximately 2,000  who died there when Vesuvius erupted in August 79 AD [or didn't].

Vesuvius is still active [the last eruption took place in 1944], and all indications are the mountain will erupt again. Except this time, the destruction and death toll will be much higher, because many more people now live in close proximity to the mountain then did in 79 A.D.

This subject fascinates my husband. Been able to watch TV shows on it.

[PzLdr]

They were the most powerful Indian Confederacy on the Continent. For well over a century they had dominated northern New York, Pennsylvania and the Ohio country. Composed of five tribes [Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, They later added a sixth that migrated from the Carolinas, the Tuscaroras], their lands stretched across the Mohawk Valley to the Great Lakes. They acted as intermediaries between the English colonists and other tribes, as well as middle men for the fur trade [They annihilated the Erie Indians in a war over the beaver trade]. Their relations with the French waxed and waned, inasmuch as the French were allied with their traditional enemies, the Algonquin and the Huron, although they never fully broke with the French, finding them a useful counterweight in their negotiations with the British.

The Iroquois allied with the British and the Colonists in the French and Indian War, and the British appointed a VERY able Indian agent to deal with them, Sir William Johnson, who lived among them in the Mohawk Valley, and 'married' one of them, Molly Brant.

Success in the French and Indian War was a two edged sword for the Iroquois. It gained them prestige, gifts and the favor of the English in the short term. but in the long term, it removed that counterweight so useful in Iroquois diplomacy, the French.

Still, [it appeared to the Iroquois] life continued to be good. And then came the American Revolution.

Both sides wooed the Confederacy to side with them. At first, the Iroquois tried to stay neutral, because the Confederacy itself was split. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras, under the influence of American preachers, leaned toward the Americans. The Seneca and Mohawk leaned strongly toward the British. the Cayuga, and Onondaga less so. But Molly Brant's brother, Joseph, who had been educated in the white Men's schools, been to Britain, where he visited the King and been given a British Army commission, became a leading proponent of war as a British ally. He carried the day, but split the Iroquois Confederacy [Seneca and Mohawk found themselves fighting Oneida at Oriskany].

In 1777 and 1778, Brant and his warriors, allied with Tory Rangers under Walter Butler and Guy Johnson brought fire and death to the Mohawk Valley as far east as Albany. By 1779, George Washington had had enough. He ordered Iroquoisa burned to the ground. and he sent Gen. John Sullivan to do the work.

Sullivan commanded an army that proceeded up the Susquehanna River into Iroquois lands from the southwest. At Chemung, Brant, a large war party and some British regulars and irregulars built some defenses and prepared to ambush the Americans. But the Colonials broke the defenses with artillery fire and then attacked, shattering the Royalist force. then, supported by a second column driving west, Sullivan proceeded to destroy over 40 Iroquois villages, burning their crops and longhouses, killing any livestock, and fighting any Indians that cared to engage them. they didn't.

With winter coming on, the Brant Iroquois were left destitute. Starving they were forced to retreat to the British forts near Buffalo. And eventually, as the United States tightened its grip, and won the war, they were forced to relocate to Canada, where they remain today.

How successful was Sullivan's campaign? The Mohawk Valley was pacified. The power and influence of the Iroquois was broken forever. And George Washington is still known by them as "Town Burner".

[PzLdr]

On August 31, 1888, a prostitute named Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols is found murdered in Buck's Row, Whitechapel, East London. Her throat had been slit, and the body suffered several stab wounds. Her killer would come down to us through history as "Jack the Ripper", the first serial killer of the modern age.

Nichols would be followed by four more women, Annie chapman [September 8th], Elizabeth 'Long Liz' Stride and Catherine Eddowes, both on September 30th [the 'double event'], and Mary Jane Kelly [November 9th, and the only one of the Ripper's victims to die indoors]. Each of the victims showed increasing signs of violence and mutilation as the killings went on, with Kelly being virtually butchered on the bed in her room [one of the first cases involving the taking of crime scene photos].

and after Kelly, the killings stopped.

The ripper has grown into a cottage industry, with dozens of books, magazines, movies and TV shows following the case. Suspects could fill a football stadium. And in 1888, to paraphrase one of those book titles, London walked in terror.

[PzLdr]

It was a battle of contradictions. One of Caesar's greatest generals, a leader of armies, sought to confront his enemies at sea. The fate of Rome was decided in Greece [and later Egypt]. And the result was the death of the already moribund Roman Republic, and the beginning of what would be the Roman Empire. By the conclusion of the battle of Philippi and its follow up, the two leading lights behind Caesar's assassination were dead, with the rest to soon follow [if they hadn't preceded them]. And the second triumvirate [Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus] became, for all extents and purposes, a two horse team, Octavian and Antony [Lepidus being shoved to the periphery, and obscurity].

And at that point, the smart money of who would succeed Caesar was on Antony. A successful field commander, companion of Caesar, and accomplished orator, Antony seemed to shine in all those areas of society romans admired [although Octavian was also noted for his oratory]. And while Octavian took over the western half of the Empire as his fief, Antony took the East, which was where most of the wealth was, including the granaries of Egypt.

But then the wheels began to fall off Antony's chariot, so to speak. An invasion of Parthia [wrapping himself in Caesar's unfinished business] was a massive, and embarrassing failure, which dimmed the luster of Antony's military reputation [ a campaign in Armenia went better, but didn't register with the Roman populace as much as the Parthian fiasco did]. And then there was Cleopatra, the ancient world's welcome wagon. Summoned by Antony to answer charges she had aided his enemies, she pulled the same move she did with Caesar [without the rug], and just as successfully. Eventually she bore Antony a pair of twins, a son and a daughter.

All of this did not go down well in Rome, a society that looked down on involvements with foreigners. So Antony, to mend fences, returned to the Eternal City, and married Octavia, Octavian Caesar's sister, a model of roman decorum, and a much loved figure in the City.

It didn't last. Antony left her for the East and Cleopatra, where he participated in a triumph in Alexandria, riding on golden thrones with Cleopatra, and accompanied by her children, who were hailed as royalty. And then he gave Cleopatra Roman territory in the East. It was too much for the Romans. Already angered by the shameful treatment Antony had meted out to Octavia, outraged by both the implied 'royal' status Antony and his children had assumed [Caesar had been killed for fears of less], and stoked by the adroit propaganda of Octavian, Rome declared war - on Cleopatra, and de facto Antony [although Octavian was clever enough not to declare war on a fellow Roman - the Romans were sick of that].

Both sides prepared, with opponents of each joining the forces of the other [Caesar's favorite legion, the Xth joined Antony]. And almost by unspoken mutual agreement, the war would be fought outside Italy, in Greece.

Each side had certain advantages. Antony had his military skill and experience. He also had the wealth of Cleopatra, her fleet, and many of Rome's more experienced  legions at his disposal. He also had a superior staging and defensive position at Actium. the harbor was flanked by two peninsulas of land. And both were fortified. The legions on the peninsulas protected the harbor [and the fleet at anchor]. the fleet protected the bay, and in turn protected the rear of the fortifications, leaving Octavian facing attacking frontally, against fortifications on a narrow front, with both flanks open to naval units on either or both peninsulas [most likely the northern one, more easily approached by land], or engaging an enemy fleet protected on both flanks by ballistae and onagers.

Octavian , on the other hand, had the Caesar name,money, troops, the support of the Roman Republic, a fleet of his own, and an ace in the hole, one Marcus Agrippa. Agrippa had been a friend of Octavian for years, and had served with him on campaigns in Italy and Spain. Agrippa was one of the great, unsung geniuses of the roman Empire, both as a soldier, and administrator. And at Actium, he commanded the Roman fleet.

All might have gone well for Antony if he had waited Octavian out, and stood pat. He didn't. He sallied out of the harbor, into a well laid trap. At first it seemed he might succeed. his ships were doing well. But then Cleopatra, for reasons unknown, broke away from the battle, and sailed at speed, for Alexandria. Antony abandoned his fleet, his men, and any hope of victory and followed her. Both escaped. Antony's fleet wasn't so lucky.

What wasn't sunk, surrendered [Octavian had a victory monument centered around the ramming  prows of Antony's ships built]. and Antony's land forces, now cut off and surrounded, followed a week later.

Octavian caught up with Antony in Egypt within a year. Antony's troops deserted. Believing Cleopatra dead the rumor was false], Antony attempted suicide. He died in her arms in the crypt she was hiding in. Cleopatra, having failed to pedal her by now well used wares on Octavian, and loath to be the centerpiece of his triumph, killed herself, supposedly with an asp. Her son by Caesar [allegedly] was killed on Octavian's orders. Her children by Antony were spared, and taken to Rome, where they were cared for by Octavia.

Rome was whole again. but it would never be the same. The Senate retained its form, but lost most of its power. Octavian, went through the motions of consulting them on the things they had decided in the past, but everyone was aware of where the power lay. Although he eschewed the title of 'king', and preferred to be referred to as 'primus inter pares', Octavian was THE power in Rome. And as Augustus, he was the first, and best of the Caesars [although several of the non-Julian Caesars came close]. Augustus ruled for over forty years. And by his death, there was no more Roman Republic, in form, or substance. His successors were all called "Caesar" which became shorthand for "Emperor". And variations of that title, "Kaiser", "Czar", lasted into the twentieth century.

[PzLdr]

He stands at the top of the list as "Most Prolific Killer" of the 20th Century. And unlike Hitler or Stalin, and much more like Pol Pot, the millions he killed were almost entirely his own people. His reign of terror lasted some five decades, and almost all his victims died to further his own warped platform, or to maintain him in power. He was Mao Zedung [or Mao Tse Tung], and China still lives in the shadow of his crimes.

Mao was born in 1893, the son of a well to do farmer [like Lenin, and Hitler, he was not a child of poverty]. But Mao refused to follow in his father's footsteps, preferring to read, and loaf about. But Mao's father sent him to school, and Mao became a librarian, and a Marxist.

Enrolled early in the communist Party [he was not a founder], Mao started his career as a writer, printer, and organizer for the Party, and enveigled his way into the local leadership. He soon began what would become his standard MO, disobeying directives that did not advance his interests, and scheming against others who stood in his way.

Mao wound up as commander of the nascent Red Army, but then marched it off from control of the local party. Recognized as a troublemaker, Mao wound up on the Long March by putting himself on the route to be taken. Claiming illness, Mao had himself and his books carried by porters [he also rode a horse, on the journey to Yenan. and once there, he began his merciless rise to the top, undermining comrades left [no pun intended] and right.

Mao had already shown a taste for sadism in the treatment of wealthier farmers by the troops under his command. At Yenan, he began requiring self criticism sessions for the cadres. And summary executions for many of them.

During WW II, Mao ostensibly allied with his enemy, Chiang Kai Shek against the Japanese. In reality, his troopsexpanded Red enclaves, and made unofficial truces and side deals with the invaders, while Chiang's troops did almost all of the fighting. And more and more people in the areas under Mao's control were killed.

With the end of the war, Mao squared off to fight Chiang. The area of operations was Manchuria, where the Soviet occupiers gave Mao vast caches of captured Japanese weapons. The battles were won by Peng Duhai and Lin Biao. the man who got the credit was Mao.

In 1949, Mao proclaimed the independence of Red China from the gates of Tianamen Square. By now, at least several million Chinese had been killed by the Communists.

And then, in the 1950s, Mao proclaimed his "Great Leap Forward", an economic program of such stupidity, it was a wonder no one raised objections. Mao decided he was going to surpass Great Britain in steel production in a short time. To do this, he ordered back yard smelters throughout China, where all matter of metal was melted down, including the woks the Chinese cooked on, and the implements they used to prepare their food. Unfortunately, Mao's steel was of such poor quality that it was useless. At the same time, to buy heavy machinery, Mao exported virtually all the foodstuffs, grain, etc. the peasants needed to live on. the result was a famine of biblical proportion, exascerbated by Mao's next brainstorm, digging canals and other water projects by hand [shades of the White Sea Canal]. And if one did not meet his quota, he wasn't fed.

By 1959, millions had died. It took a visit to their home villages by Peng Duhai and the President of the country, Liu Shou Chi, to convince the two that the Great Leap had to be stopped. and they did, at a politburo meeting. Mao was stopped, and stripped of much of his  autocratic power. He never forgot.

Mao struck back with the "Great Cultural Revolution, where he unleashed the youth of China on their elders. The short term results were chaos, killing and the deaths of both Peng and Liu [the latter in especially abominable conditions], and the return of Mao to power. And Mao clung to that power like a barnacle to a rock for the rewt of his life, although by the time of his death, much had been done to limit him. The long term result was the destruction of a whole generation.

First the Army reigned in the young red Guards Mao had unleashed. Then they, and the party under Deng Shou Ping began to ease away from Mao's beloved permanent revolution.

Mao died in 1976, having opened the way with the west [and denying Chou En Lai medical treatment for his cancer until it was too late to save Chou]. He was mourned as the father of his country's renaissance by millions of Chinese. And the government, involved in his crimes from Day 1 could not repudiate him without throwing themselves under the bus. the result is that Mao's portrait still hangs in Tianeman Square, and China still pays lip service to the 'Great Helmsman'.

Yet Mao is responsible from anywhere from 100 million to 200 million deaths of his countrymen. A butcher who wrote poetry, he should be despised, not honored, and remembered with revulsion.

[jafo2010]

The revulsion will come only once China is free.  Until that time, the people do not have the FREEDOM of thought, or the FREEDOM of action to arrive at the truth. 

It may well be true that his death toll was 100 to 200 million, but I consider it a smaller outcome when you consider the number eliminated as a percent of the population.  Stalin and Lenin murdered I believe somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 million Russians, with a population far smaller than China.  And even today, Stalin is still looked upon somewhat favorably.

He was in the same facility as Lenin, but Khrushchev had his body moved to where it lies now in the Kremlin wall.  Khrushchev knew all too well the genuine terror Stalin was while leader.  I dare say hardly a family in Russia was not adversely affected by the insanity of Joseph Stalin.

Stalin killed twice as many Russians compared to Hitler, and yet Russia still holds the victory over Hitler's Germany as one of their most important holidays.

It would be a pleasant notion to believe such men will no longer terrorize mankind, but I know better!

[PzLdr]

The revulsion will come only once China is free.  Until that time, the people do not have the FREEDOM of thought, or the FREEDOM of action to arrive at the truth. 

It may well be true that his death toll was 100 to 200 million, but I consider it a smaller outcome when you consider the number eliminated as a percent of the population.  Stalin and Lenin murdered I believe somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 million Russians, with a population far smaller than China.  And even today, Stalin is still looked upon somewhat favorably.

He was in the same facility as Lenin, but Khrushchev had his body moved to where it lies now in the Kremlin wall.  Khrushchev knew all too well the genuine terror Stalin was while leader.  I dare say hardly a family in Russia was not adversely affected by the insanity of Joseph Stalin.

Stalin killed twice as many Russians compared to Hitler, and yet Russia still holds the victory over Hitler's Germany as one of their most important holidays.

It would be a pleasant notion to believe such men will no longer terrorize mankind, but I know better!

If you want to go by percentage, Pol Pot 'wins', hands down.

[PzLdr]

It was the longest running war in American history. Started in 1860 by Cochise and Mangas Coloradus, it had continued in the 1870s under Victorio, Chihauha, Cuchillo Negro, Nana, Juh, Mangas, and Goyalthe ["He Who Yawns"], known to use as Geronimo.

Geronimo was a Bedenoke Chiricahua Apache. He was not a chief. Most Apaches would have termed him a man of 'power', an almost mystical ability. In Geronimo's case, power meant invulnerability to enemy bullets.

Geronimo earned his Spanish nom de guerre in Mexico. His family, consisting of his wife and children, were slaughtered by Mexican troops while the men were trading in a nearby Mexican town. Geronimo's hatred of all things Mexican was born there, and even surpassed his antipathy t Americans.

Geronimo fought in the warbands of both Cochise and Mangas Coloradus. Yet when both died, Geronimo succeeded neither as a war chief. He di attach himself, however, to Cochise's Chohokens, and with the death of Cochise's successor, his oldest son, Tazai, and the ascension of the younger son, Naiche [or Nachez], Geronimo gained in influence, and began to lead, ostensibly under Naiche's leadership, a series of raids throughout eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. He also continued to raid into Mexico, often riding with Juh, chief of the Nedni apache, and a relative by marriage.

Geronimo followed in the footsteps of Victorio, and, when things got too hot in the States, used Mexico in the same way the Viet Cing used Cambodia, as a hideout. And like Cambodia, Geronimo's sanctuary was eventually ignored by the U.S. Army, which began cross border operations in the mid 1870s.

Geronimo's cross border problem was also compounded by two other factors: first,  many Chiricahua Apaches were tired of war [at one point Geronimo rode onto the reservation and kidnapped a band of former allies who had thrown in the towel], which resulted in many signing up with the army to scout against him [formerly, Western Apaches, like the White mountain and Tontos, enemies of the Chiricahua, had done the job]. And second, one of the great Indian fighters in the Army [the battle of the Rosebud aside] was his opponent.

George Crook, known to the Apache as 'Nantan Lupan' had spent a good deal of his career fighting them. But he took the time to study them, the terrain and the operational requirements before he acted. And in the case of the Apache, Crook determined that traveling 'light' was the only way to get the job done. Crook eschewed wagon convoys and heavily loaded troopers. Supplies were carried by mule train [coincidentally, the Apache loved to eat mule], troopers carried ammo, weapons and light equipment. Armed thusly, they could go where the Apache went, and did. And the pressure paid off. Crook brought Geronimo back once, but then Geronimo, and the pliable Naiche bolted the reservation. Crook caught him a second time, but allowed Geronimo to follow him in [they were in Mexico]. Geronimo [and Naiche] again bolted. And this time it cost Crook his job.

Crook was replaced by Nelson Miles, a man of vast combat experience against Indians [he had fought the Comanche, the Siux and Cheyenne and the Nez Perce]. Miles was also a man of vast ego. So he decided to fight the Apache the same way he fought the Sioux. He disbanded the Apache Scouts, and began conducting large scale patrols and sweeps. the result? Nothing. At one point, some 5,000 troops, 1/4 of the Army were chasing six Apaches led by Ulzana, Chihuaha's brother. Three hundred stolen horses, and three states later, Ulzana was back in Mexico. The Army had never even seen him.

Miles smartly, but quietly went back to Crook's playbook. He also sent Lt. Charles Gatewood and two Apache scouts into the Sierra Madres to make contact. Tthey found Geronimo, Naiche and their less than 20 followers. Geronimo wanted to kill them, but his followers, and particularly Naiche, refused to allow it.

Gatewood brought them bad news. The Chiricahua were being sent, en masse to Florida. Geronimo and his men  would be sent there as well, to prison for two years. The news broke the hostiles. They agreed to meet with Miles at Skeleton Canyon, across the border in the United States to surrender to miles. and for once Geronimo kept his word.

There is a famous picture of Geronimo and his band sitting on a railroad embankment that would carry them east into exile. Geronimo is there. So is  Naiche. And one of the women is Lozen, Victorio's sister. And so they went. But so did all the Apache Scouts who had served so honorably against their own people [including the two who had accompanied Gatewood], and all the others who had taken no part in the breakouts or depredations.

Geronimo  remained in the east until 1894, when with the survivors of the Apache exile, he was transferred to Ft. sill, and the Comanche-Kiowa reservation. He became a farmer, an ostensible Christian, and an entrepreneur [he sold autographed photos and crafts he made. He rode with Joseph of the Nez Perce and Quanah Parker in Teddy Roosevelt's inauguration parade.

the one thing that never abandoned Geronimo was his power. No enemy bullet ever struck him. One night in February, 1909, he fell off his horse [probably in a drunken stupor] and spent the night on the cold ground [or in a puddle], before being found. He contracted pneumonia and died [in an end strangely similar to Juh's]. He is buried at Fort sill. And despite never having been a chief, and never winning any major battles, he is probably the most well known Inidian in America.

[PzLdr]

1847:

    Jesse Woodson James is born in Missouri. The son of an itinerant preacher, who will desert the family, and die in the California gold fields, James grows up in a slave holding, VERY Southern sympathizing family, led by his mother Zerelda.

With the advent of the civil War, Jesse's older brother, Frank, first joins the  uniformed confederate forces fighting to take the state for the confederacy. with their defeat, he and the James' cousin, Cole younger join the guerilla band of William Quantrill, riding with him for at least two years, and participating in the infamous Lawrence Raid. James and Younger may then have joined the confederate Army, but when Quantrill is killed in Kentucky in 1865, Frank James is with him.

Jesse, because of his youth, doesn't fight for 'the cause', until 1864, when he joins the band of "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Jesse James was reputed to be one of the assassins that killed 24 unarmed Union prisoners at Centralia. He finishes the war with the remnants of Anderson's band [Anderson having been killed], but is shot in the chest when trying to surrender [the bullet was found in his coffin when an exhumation was conducted in the 20th century to determine if the body in James' grave was his.

Shortly after the Civil War, the James brothers, their cousins,  the Youngers, and a variety of interchangeable associates began over a decade of bank and train robberies. They were, in a sense,  America's first successful crime family. But the gang was shattered after the attempted robbery of a bank in Northfield, Minnesota. The Youngers wound up in prison, the then associates were shot to pieces, and Frank went into semi-retirement. But Jesse James wouldn't or couldn't give it up, recruiting lesser and lesser men to replace those who were gone. And in 1882, in return for a huge reward, and a pardon, two of them, Bob and Charlie Ford murdered James in his home in St. Joseph, Missouri. He was 35 years old.

Jesse James has entered our history and mythology as one of the leading figures of the Old West. Dozens of books, and movies have been created about him. He is probably one of the best known Americans in the world. But he was a sociopathic killer and thief. And it all started on this date in 1847.

1877:

On this date in 1877, Tshunka Witko, Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux is killed while resisting arrest at the Ft. Robinson Indian Agency in Nebraska. He was approximately 37 years old.

Crazy Horse was born around 1840 in Nebraska. In his youth he was called Curly, because his hair was brownish and wavy [rumors, untrue, persisted for years he was half white]. As a child he was present when General Harney attacked a village his family was in. And after that he was at war with the whites for the rest of his life.

As an Oglala, Crazy Horse was intimately involved with Red Cloud's war. In point of fact, he led the decoys that lured William Judd Fettermann and his command to their doom. So respected was he, that the Lakota named his as one of the four 'shirt wearers', a council of leading men to advise and direct the tribe. It was a singular honor. but Crazy's love for another man's wife, and his taking her to his own teepee, led to the man shooting him in the face [he was scarred for life], and the shirt being taken from him [he lost the woman, too].

Crazy Horse spent the next few years fighting the Crow, and raiding the whites. He eventually married, and had a daughter, who died. But he remained a 'wild' Indian, and like Sitting Bull, refused to accept reservation life, preferring to stay out on the unceded lands provided for by the Treaty of 1868, and living a traditional life.

That life was not to last. In the late fall or winter of  1875, the U.S. government ordered all the Sioux and Cheyenne on the high plains onto the reservations by Spring of 1876. It was to be war.

In the coalition Sitting Bull had put together, he functioned as head of state and Holy Man. Crazy Horse served as Generalissimo and field commander. and in 1876, he excelled at the role.

First he attacked George Crook's column at the rosebud, and came within an inch of annihilating it [Crook was saved by his Crow and Shoshone scouts].  Then, along with his subordinates, Gaul, Crow King and Rain in the Face, Crazy horse defeated the 7th Cavalry at the Little Big horn, wiping out George Armstrong Custer and five troops of his cavalry, a inflicting major damage on the rest of the command. It was his last hurrah.

After the Little Big horn, the Indians moved away, breaking down into smaller and smaller bands. But there was no relief for them. The Army brought in Nelson Miles and Ranald Mackenzie. They harried the Indians incessantly, and into the winter. Mackenzie scored a major victory over the Cheyenne. Sitting Bull fled to Canada. And in the Spring of 1877, Crazy Horse brought his people into Ft. Robinson and surrendered.

And there it might have ended, but for two factors. First, there was the jealousy of, and fear of loss of power by older, settled chiefs, such as Red Cloud and Spotted Tail [they could see the Army's respect for the new captive]. and then there was the 'new' war, between the Army and the Nez Perce.

The Army wanted Crazy horse and his Lakota and Cheyenne to scout for them against the Nez Perce. And although he was reluctant to do so, he agreed. But the translator, misinterpreted his words into a refusal that damn near amounted to saying that Crazy horse would join the Nez Perce.

Ordered to confinement in the stockade, Crazy horse [who probably had no idea what was happening or why], resisted. And one of the army guards bayoneted him, once. It was enough. Crazy Horse expired later that day. the greatest war chief the Lakota ever fielded was dead.