Posted on 01/23/2018 4:43:03 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed. To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.
At this time, India was ruled by the East India Company, which had its own army and fleet. Later this year, the Company will be disbanded and direct rule by the Raj will be instituted.
The Cawnpore Massacre was a horrible business. The British had barracaded themselves and were under seige. The rebels offered safe passage, which was accepted as foodstocks were nearly gone. When the British reached the docks where boats awaited, someone started shooting. When it was over nearly all the men were dead. The women and children were imprisoned in a house. As British troops neared and the rebels realized they couldn't hold the town, the decision was made to kill the hostages. The reason is debated to this day. Some argue the rebels wanted no witnesses who could identify killers. Some argue they thought the British would not take the town if there was no one to rescue. In any event, the women were killed at close quarters by knives. Their bodies and body parts were thrown into a well. Needless to say, the British reprisals were harsh.
Many years down the road, beyond our tale, young Queen Victoria, already on the throne and not yet 40, will take for herself the title, Empress of India.
Thank you for that interesting post, Professor Tanker.
January 25. General Scott yields to the prayers of the Administration and has made up his mind to go to California, there to organize a campaign against Utah. So his daughter, Mrs. Colonel Scott, reports to Murray Hoffman. The General is a grand old fellow, too old for the fatigue and exposure of such an expedition. It’s not likely he will ever return. We must get up a graven image of him on the other side of Union Square to balance Colonel Jem Lee’s copper Washington.
. Much delighted with a child’s book by Charlotte Yonge, Landmarks of History; not so grand as the Prescotts and Macaulays, but looking at things more nearly as they are.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
The Diary of George Templeton Strong (editors’ preface), Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Understatement award!
Happy birthday to George, and many more.
That did not happen but Scott did go to Washington state in 1859 to mediate the Pig War. I wonder how he travelled? No transcontinental train yet. Ship to Panama, across by rail, then ship again?
George Templeton Strong was a warden and vestryman at Trinity, and left some great color commentary of life in the parish in the 19th century! Here's one example:
How amusing! The more things change, the more they stay the same ... churches are almost always full of faction and scandal. I just learned this week about a dust-up at my parish of which I’d been totally unaware. Fortunately, it doesn’t affect me or my family.
January 27, Yesterday there was abundant rain. I spent most of the evening with Ellie and Miss Rosalie at Lewis Rutherfurd’s pleasantly enough.* It was a small tea-drinking. As the sky was cloudy, the planets didn’t “receive” and we postponed our visit to the new observatory. The Columbia College instruments are there and Rutherford works with them very diligently.
* Lewis M. Rutherfurd had built a small observatory at his premises on Second Avenue at Eleventh Street; launching his pioneer work in astronomical photography, he obtained his first photographs of the moon this year.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Continued from November 30, 1857 (reply #53).
James Lee McDonough, William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country, A Life
Big party comes off tomorrow evening on these premises. Would ‘twere well over.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
His honesty and sense of duty was admirable.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.