PzLdr History Facts

[PzLdr]

See "PzLdr History Facts" Archive, p. 18

[PzLdr]

See "PzLdr History Facts" Archive, p. 18

[PzLdr]

Actually, the eruption occurred on 27 AUG 1883. hit the wrong key. My bad 

[PzLdr]

See "PzLdr History Facts" Archive, p. 18

[PzLdr]

There's a line in the Herman's Hermits song that goes "Second verse, same as the first". that line describes the goings on in Virginia in 1862.

McClellan's Peninsular Campaign had  failed, miserably, and McClellan was in the process of withdrawing from the Peninsula. Lincoln and Halleck decided to open a second front by creating the Army of Virginia under Major General John Pope, who had had some success in the West. That didn't sit well with McClellan. It also didn't sit wll with robert e. Lee.

So Lee sent Stonewall Jackson and his Infantry Corps. To keep tabs on Pope. and on August 27th, Hackson announced his presence with a cavalry attack on the union supply depot at Manassas - Bull Run, where the first major action of the war had taken place a year earlier.

Pope then spent two days marching and countermarching, looking for Jackson. But he couldn't find him [Jackson had hidden his entire Corps in the woods around Manassas].

By August 28th, Lee had come up with his other Infantry Corps [Longstreet's] secure in the knowledge that McClellan would do nothing while he [Lee], attacked Pope.

The dance opened when Jackson suddenly came out of the woods, and attacked one of Pope's divisions. Pope counterattacked, and he and Jackson fought each other to a standstill. Pope renewed his attack on the 29th, but a perfectly timed attack on his flank by Longstreet,destroyed his Army, and forced a retreat. To add insult to injury, McClellan refused to send one of his own Corps to Pope's aid when Pope asked for help.

Pope's Army was disbanded, and its units incorporated into the Army of the Potomac. Pope himself was relieved of command, and sent to Minnesota where he successfully put down the Santee Sioux uprising known as Little Crow's War.

Lincoln knew full well of McClellan's petulant perfidy, but was unable to relieve him, because Lee turned north and invaded Maryland, and Lincoln needed McClellan to lead the Army of the Potomac north to stop him. but McClellan being MClellan, he botched THE battle of that campaign, Antietam, and Lincoln cashiered him.

Jackson would be dead within a year at Chancellorsville. Stuart, the cavalry commander would fall in 1864 at Yellow Tavern. Both Longstreet and Lee would survive the war, with Longstreet made the scapegoat for Gettysburg by practitioners of the Lost Cause, and Lee sanctified into the Marble Man.

[apples]

Wow  White House was green? Did not know that. Then why did they call it the White House to begin with? Do you know? I had thought for some reason it had burnt all the way down.

[PzLdr]

Wow  White House was green? Did not know that. Then why did they call it the White House to begin with? Do you know? I had thought for some reason it had burnt all the way down.

It hadn't been called the White house before it was burned. the name attached after the repairs. Before that it was referred to, i believe, as the President's residence.

[PzLdr]

See "PzLdr History Facts" Archive, p. 18

[PzLdr]

It started with the relief of Joseph Johnston as Commander of the Army of Tennessee After he had retreated to the outskirts of Atlanta, and his replacement by John Bell Hood [as Lee said, "More Lion than Fox"].

It continued with three offensive battles Hood undertook against Sherman which resulted in the diminution of the Army of Tennessee's combat power with no damage to Sherman, and which allowed Sherman to hold his lines, and still swing first southwest, and then turn southeast in an efort to cut Atlanta's supply lines.

It ended at Jonesboro, when Hood sent Hardee's Corps against Union troops who had arrived first and dug in. Hardee was repulsed with heavy losses. And although when attacked the next day Hardee held off the Union advance, Sherman's troops were able to cut the railroad, and Atlanta's last supply line with it. Hood was forced to abandon Atlanta.

Sherman's victory ["fairly won"] was one of two shots in the arm Lincoln's re-election campaign needed to rally an increasingly war weary North [the other was Sheridan's campaign in the Shenandoah]. It is interesting to contemplate what might have happened in the 1864 election if Johnston, with his defensive tactics had been in command in front of Atlanta, instead of Hood.
 

[PzLdr]

{As with the piece I wrote on my Dad's birthday, this is not intended as a vanity piece. My apologies if it offends anyone]

My Mom was born to Italian immigrants in Forestville, Pennsylvania on 31 AUG 1913 [one of her sisters, my Aunt Angie was the family's first American citizen, being born on the U.S. ship transporting my Grandfather, Grandmother, and Aunt Clara to the new world].

As with many in those days, my Mom's education was limited to the 8th grade, so she could earn money to help her family. she worked 12 hours a day at a local hospital as a surgical nurse's aide. that meant she cleaned up operating rooms. All for $1.00 a day. She missed  being able to further her education for the rest of her life. So she made sure I got mine.

Eventually the mines where my grandpa worked played out, and the family moved to Yonkers, N.Y., where there was factory work. And it was in Yonkers that my mom became a dressmaker. A GREAT dressmaker. She did piece work, and was so fast, and so good, she got to set her own hours [so she could see me off to school, and be at the bus stop when I got home]. My Mom made everything from Army field jackets and raincoats, to a handmade wedding dress for a nun, as well as Halloween costumes for me.

The key was her imagination. It was something one had to see to believe. But as her son, I was happy to see a pot of gravy and meatballs [sauce to you Northern Europeans] twice a week. My Mom was the best cook, EVER. In Italian cuisine, Portuguese cuisine or American cuisine.

Mom met Pop after World War II [they had been writing during the war]. They were married for over 50 years. He was the practical joker, Mom told a never ending repertoire of   jokes and stories, many of the 'blue' [Grandma called her "Porca Theresa" - but she laughed anyway].

As the years went on, I noticed Mom's memory was fading. Then in 1996, Pop had a stroke,  and Mom was in mid term of the Alzheimer's that would kill her.

The true obscenity of dementia is that it robs its victims of their memories, which in many causes are the repository of joy for the aged. My Pop died in 2001. My Mom had forgotten him within a year. She forgot almost everyone by 2007. Everyone, that is, except her father and me.

And on Christmas Eve, 2007, she no longer remembered me. But then, the Mom I knew had walked out the door in 2001, and left a shell behind.

Lokking back on my Mom's life, she represented the best of her time. Hard working, ready to sacrifice her dream [to be a nurse] to her family's need. She never complained, was never bitter. she took what life dealt her, both good and bad, and marched on. My memories of her involve bangiong pots, a hearty laugh and ready smile. I can still smell the gravy, and taste the homemade ravioli and pasta. Mostly I remember the warmth and the love.

I visited her grave today. I miss her still, some ten years after she died. I always will.

[apples]

It hadn't been called the White house before it was burned. the name attached after the repairs. Before that it was referred to, i believe, as the President's residence.

Thank you!

[apples]

Actually, the eruption occurred on 27 AUG 1883. hit the wrong key. My bad 

    fixed it.

[apples]

{As with the piece I wrote on my Dad's birthday, this is not intended as a vanity piece. My apologies if it offends anyone]

My Mom was born to Italian immigrants in Forestville, Pennsylvania on 31 AUG 1913 [one of her sisters, my Aunt Angie was the family's first American citizen, being born on the U.S. ship transporting my Grandfather, Grandmother, and Aunt Clara to the new world].

As with many in those days, my Mom's education was limited to the 8th grade, so she could earn money to help her family. she worked 12 hours a day at a local hospital as a surgical nurse's aide. that meant she cleaned up operating rooms. All for $1.00 a day. She missed  being able to further her education for the rest of her life. So she made sure I got mine.

Eventually the mines where my grandpa worked played out, and the family moved to Yonkers, N.Y., where there was factory work. And it was in Yonkers that my mom became a dressmaker. A GREAT dressmaker. She did piece work, and was so fast, and so good, she got to set her own hours [so she could see me off to school, and be at the bus stop when I got home]. My Mom made everything from Army field jackets and raincoats, to a handmade wedding dress for a nun, as well as Halloween costumes for me.

The key was her imagination. It was something one had to see to believe. But as her son, I was happy to see a pot of gravy and meatballs [sauce to you Northern Europeans] twice a week. My Mom was the best cook, EVER. In Italian cuisine, Portuguese cuisine or American cuisine.

Mom met Pop after World War II [they had been writing during the war]. They were married for over 50 years. He was the practical joker, Mom told a never ending repertoire of   jokes and stories, many of the 'blue' [Grandma called her "Porca Theresa" - but she laughed anyway].

As the years went on, I noticed Mom's memory was fading. Then in 1996, Pop had a stroke,  and Mom was in mid term of the Alzheimer's that would kill her.

The true obscenity of dementia is that it robs its victims of their memories, which in many causes are the repository of joy for the aged. My Pop died in 2001. My Mom had forgotten him within a year. She forgot almost everyone by 2007. Everyone, that is, except her father and me.

And on Christmas Eve, 2007, she no longer remembered me. But then, the Mom I knew had walked out the door in 2001, and left a shell behind.

Lokking back on my Mom's life, she represented the best of her time. Hard working, ready to sacrifice her dream [to be a nurse] to her family's need. She never complained, was never bitter. she took what life dealt her, both good and bad, and marched on. My memories of her involve bangiong pots, a hearty laugh and ready smile. I can still smell the gravy, and taste the homemade ravioli and pasta. Mostly I remember the warmth and the love.

I visited her grave today. I miss her still, some ten years after she died. I always will.

Oh my, my screen is blurry. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING THAT. I bet you have some great Italian recipes!  I really enjoyed this read. Same as the one about your father.

[PzLdr]

See "PzLdr History Facts" Archive, p. 6

[PzLdr]

See "PzLdr History Facts" Archive, p. 6