American military slang from the late Sixties, which originally applied to a missile whose guidance system had malfunctioned – leaving the projectile in free flight and fall, at the mercy of the laws of ballistics.
The term shifted to mean those acting irrationally, who suddenly flew into a rage.
The picture above is the Virginia Governors Palace at Colonial Williamsburg. Construction on the original building started in 1705 and continued off and on until 1718. That year Governor Spotswood finally took up residence. It was not totally completed, however. Lack of funds and growing expenses dragged the construction out. A total of nine Governors would live in the “palace”. Including such men at Robert Dinwiddie, John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. In 1780 the capital moved to Richmond where it would stay.
The original palace burned down in 1781, and it pretty much stayed that way for a very long time. After the Revolution, the land was given over to the College of William & Mary and several instructional buildings took over the location. In 1928 The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation purchased the site and began an extensive archaeological survey of the site. During this survey, they were able to locate the original foundation and were able to get a good idea of the structure which for many had only ever existed in paintings of descriptions.
In 1929, armed with the results of the survey an extensive reconstruction of the original building started. In 1934 the restored building opened to the public and serves as a historic site and museum to this day.
Certainly one of the highlights of any trip to Williamsburg, there is no description that can possibly translate what it feels like to be standing on the top floor of that building and looking through the window, out over the town square and imagining what it was like in the days before the Revolution.
From the years 1778 to 1783 the American Revolution was a world war.
In 1777 after capturing an entire British army at Saratoga, NY the Americans were finally able to convince the rest of the world that they had a chance of winning. Up until that point France had been willing to provide a trickle of support to the Americans, unofficially of course., but they sought to avoid a war with the British. After Saratoga, however, they felt that they were ready to join the fight.
At first, their main support was money and supplies. With the American economy failing and the Congress inept both of these contributions were desperately needed. What was need more, however, was the French navy for the Americans would never be able to match the British on the oceans themselves. After several false starts and aborted expeditions, France provided ships and men to the Revolution culminating in the Siege of Yorktown and an American victory in the war.
The detail of their support is a fascinating story itself, and one that deserves more than just a few hundred words here. The plaque in the photo is located in the siege works of Yorktown and serves as a reminder that whatever we have today, we owe to the Frenchmen that gave their lives for our cause. Over 2,000 French sailors and soldiers paid the ultimate price for our freedom while fighting in direct support of America. Counting all French casualties during the period of an alliance, that number soars to almost fifteen thousand. This fantastic website details those losses, French Sacrifice.
We refused to pay back much of the money they loaned us. Instead, Congress claimed that it was a gift and not a loan. (Thank Arthur Lee for that.)
We refused to help support their own revolution. A revolution that was caused in part due to the financial impact of loaning us the money they did.
From 1798 to 1800 we actually fought our “allies” in an undeclared Quasi-War on the ocean.
Now of course none of those things as clear-cut as they sound, but those will be stories for another time.
The word patriot comes to us from the Middle French and Late Latin word, patriota, which means countryman. Dig a little further to the Greek and it means “from the same country” and ultimately to its root, patris which means “fatherland”.
The term “patriot” was first seen in the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) and according to the Oxford English dictionary, “patriotism ” began appearing in the 18th century.
The solid definition as to what makes a patriot is wide and varied. For the most part, it simply means someone who loves, supports and defends their country. People who are overzealous in this can sometimes be considered “jingoistic”. People that want to spread that love of country into other countries through various means can sometimes be considered “nationalistic”.
Happy Fourth of July and please be safe, have fun, and avoid the -ics!
In a recent comedy bit on one of the late night talk shows, the host was asking random people questions about American History. One of the questions was “When was the War of 1812 fought?” That was apparently a stumper for most of the respondents. It would be easy to laugh and make fun of those people, I mean the answer is right there in the question, but it really isn’t their fault. The War of 1812 gets glossed over in history class and seldom is talked about like the other major conflicts. Which is kind of weird considering it was one of the few wars fought between the United States and another nation here on this continent.
It is sometimes called a continuation of the American Revolution, Round 2 if you like, but that is a little dramatic. The British had no desire at that point to “reclaim” their former colonies. In fact, during the bulk of the conflict, they were more worried about beating Napoleon. The US really wanted Canada. It had conquered it in 1775 but could not hold it. Now it was thought that it would be an easy grab from the distracted British.
By the end of the war, the United States Army had ballooned from about 7,000 before, to more than 35,000. To supplement the regular troops over 458,000 militia were called up. Of those about 15,000 died during the war.
The photo above is of a uniform worn by a regular soldier. One interesting little tidbit regarding it. Blue was the official color of the uniform coat. When the ranks increased at the start of the war, the blue cloth was in short supply. For uniforms issued it that range, it was not uncommon for the colors to include black, brown, drab, or even gray. Yep, for a short period of time, the US Army wore gray coats. Not unlike another North American army would wear fifty years later…
The picture above is a US Naval Hospital Ship that was in use during the Vietnam War. The idea of the hospital ship goes all the way back to Ancient Greece and the Athenian Navy. Rome also had at least one hospital ship in their fleet. So they have been around forever.
The modern incarnation of the hospital ship came about during the Crimean War. The British had several steamships that were equipped with facilities comparable to hospitals of the day. Their decedents would be seen through both World Wars and up to today.
Most countries with a Navy have some sort of hospital ship or something designated in that class. Today there are also several civilian groups that outfit and maintain hospital ships for humanitarian relief.
The Hague Convention X of 1907 covers what designates a hospital ship under article four.
In 1994 the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea further refined the rules for hospital ships and laid out the rules under which action may be taken against the ships. A non-complying ship may only be fired upon under the following circumstances:
First thing first. Searching for images of Pirate Booty may not turn up what you think it should. This one works, however. The term booty, meaning illicit goods, steams from Norse byti which means “spoils of war”. Get your mind out of the gutter.
Naval tradition until the 19th century held that when the enlisted men of one ship boarded and captured another, they were entitled to anything that was on the main deck or above that they could carry with one hand. This was their reward for a job well done and it had the added benefit of keeping the men busy in the aftermath of the battle. Officers, of course, would be given shares of what was found below decks where all the good stuff was.
The above map is a section of a map of Pearl Harbor that one of the Japanese pilots carried. If you look close it shows where the ships were expected to be. Also the designated targets for each Japanese squadron. It is an interesting look at such a seminal historic event. Albeit through a lens different from what we normally see.
Pearl Harbor will always have a special place in our national psyche. The general public had no idea that relations with Japan had degraded so far. Most eyes were focused towards Europe and the rise of Germany. The government, however, knew that Japan was possibly an issue.
Jumping on the bandwagon that we “knew” Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked is sort of silly and actually immaterial. Once Japan invaded China the US took a course of action that made war almost unavoidable. On June 24th, 1941 President Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the US. With international cooperation throughout the world, Japan’s access to oil was cut off. Its current reserves were set to last only about three years, half that if it continued to expand its war machine.
The decision was made by their high command to strike out and take the resources they needed from the Dutch East Indies, but they knew the US would not sit idly by and allow it. They decided that the best course of action was to attack the US fleet in Pearl Harbor with the goal of landing such a devastating blow that the US would not have time to recover before the resources were secured, and by then the Japanese hoped to secure a peace treaty without fighting the US. They really underestimated the United States, a mistake that many enemies have made over the years.
Propaganda is “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.” So you can say just about everything you see during the day is propaganda. The use of propaganda during wartime is almost as old as war itself and certainly has had its place in American Military History.
The examples that you see in the picture are from the Korean conflict. Pamphlets like these were disseminated to the general population to convince them that the UN/South Korean troops were the good guys. The goal was to either get people to fight, flee, or at least not support the enemy. There is an ongoing debate as to how effective it is or was during this conflict. Other times the effective use of propaganda has proven very valuable.
Before and during the American Revolution the use of propaganda was vital to sway people to the side of the rebels. Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre that took some liberties with events. The stories that surrounded young Jane McCrea led to the British defeat at Saratoga. Propaganda proved an invaluable tool in gaining the support needed to win the American Revolution.
Several times it was not just used to gain support for a war, but to actually get one started!
During the lead up to the Mexican War is an example. The administration was able to convince the people that Mexican soldiers had attacked American soldiers on American soil. (A dubious and purposeful claim that a young Abraham Lincoln took exception to.)
Don’t forget using the sinking of the USS Maine to throw us into war against Spain. There many more examples in our history. Now expand that to the rest of the world. It seems that propaganda is just as important as guns and money to starting, fighting and winning a war.
A quick and easy one for today. Your rival is someone that is in competition with you for the same objective or goal. The term first appears around 1500 and stems from the word “river” as they often formed political and geographical boundaries. Two people on different sides of the river usually were in competition for the resources of the region. As such, rivals.