The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the Steam Boat "Yellow Stone" (1835-1836) - Apr. 27th, 2005

Wild West Magazine | June 2002 | Carmen Goldthwaite

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

.................................................................. .................... ...........................................

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The Sidewheeler That Saved Texas

The first steamboat in the fur trade spent five years maneuvering on the Upper Missouri, but then Yellow Stone took to foreign waters in time to aid General Sam Houston and the Texas Revolution.

The grand old lady of the mountain fur trade, Steam Boat Yellow Stone, steamed south on the Mississippi River in the summer of 1835. After five years of nosing her prow across the sandbars and around the snags of the Upper Missouri River, the steamboat headed for New Orleans. Hauled out at the New Orleans pier for a major retrofit, Yellow Stone would be recommissioned a U.S. flag vessel, bound for the foreign waters of Texas. At that time, Texas, a restless province of Mexico, boiled with notions of separating from the mother country and becoming an independent republic. Yellow Stone would be there, playing a vital role.

On the Missouri River, she had been first to power past the Council Bluffs and as far upstream as Fort Tecumseh (near present-day Pierre, S.D.). The 120-foot-long sidewheeler’s debut on the Upper Missouri had been orchestrated by Pierre Choteau, Jr., the St. Louis–based agent for David Astor’s American Fur Company. Now, Yellow Stone’s hull bore the brunt of warping and “grasshoppering” through sandbars and snags along the Missouri. Replaced by larger and fancier steamers, she was too tough to die. At a time when most steamboats her age were decommissioned, if they still floated, her career was about to undergo a dramatic change. The first steamboat in the fur trade, she was sold into the foreign trade with Texas as a “cotton packet.” Her destiny, though, would be that of heroine in the Texas Revolution.


"St. Louis From the River Below," by George Catlin, 1832-1836, showing the Yellow Stone before she went to Texas in 1835 and ferried the Texas Army across the Brazos during the Runaway Scrape.

Under new owners, and with a new mission, Yellow Stone spent 40 “supervisory” days, hauled up. More than a linear mile of cypress and oak went into rebuilding her worn and ravaged hull and decks that encapsulated the still-powerful single engine and its twin boilers. The cost of the retrofit, when Yellow Stone slid down the shipping ways at New Orleans, was about $4,000, less than the original shipwright’s bill of $7,000.

Once Yellow Stone was back in the water on New Year’s Eve 1835, her boilers were stoked. Her twin columns of black smoke rose high into the sky over New Orleans. Captain Thomas Wigg Grayson sounded her deep-throated whistle and backed away from the Crescent City’s pier. But she was late for her Texas welcome—a grand ball for her officers and crew had been held the week before, on Christmas Day.

Texans were eager fans of steam. Henry Austin, cousin of empresario Stephen F. Austin, had roomed with Robert Fulton in New York and had brought the first steamboat to Texas in 1829, the tiny Ariel. Another fan was the host for Yellow Stone’s celebration, Henry Jones, who operated a plantation and ferry landing. One of Austin’s “Old Three Hundred” colonists (a reference to the first 300 Anglos to settle in Texas), Jones was anxious for Yellow Stone’s arrival. Her size dwarfed existing packets, and the cotton trade was booming. The harvest in 1835 produced more than 5,000 bales of cotton awaiting transport to New Orleans, as well as hogsheads of sugar and corn piled up on landings up and down the Brazos River.


Lt. Thomas Wigg Grayson

A promise of 5,000 acres of land and $800 cash had enticed Yellow Stone’s owner, Thomas Toby & Brother of New Orleans, to put her into the Texas trade. The two-deck sidewheeler, newly registered in the United States, was placed in service to Texas entrepreneurs Samuel May Williams and Thomas F. McKinney. Traders and shippers, they operated out of Quintana, an old fort and post on the west side of the Brazos, where river waters poured into the Gulf of Mexico.

Sam Houston, who was elected major general of the Texas army in November 1835 and thus was the leader of Texas’ forces for independence, had been calling on the Tobys of New Orleans to recruit men and arrange for supplies and financing for Texan troops. So when Yellow Stone backed away from New Orleans, it was no surprise that the “nonhostile” ship carried men, munitions and supplies. With packed decks, she voyaged toward the Mexican province that brimmed with rebellion.

Yellow Stone trimmed the normal sailing time from New Orleans to Galveston to two days, instead of 10. Her passengers were of a different sort than she had carried in the past. On trips up the Missouri, she had carried not only fur traders but also royalty such as Prince Maximilian von Wied of Germany and painters such as Karl Bodmer and George Catlin, who wished to glimpse the Rockies and the Indians. Yellow Stone’s first passengers to Texas were 47 young men, the Mobile Grays, all itching for a fight. In the upper deck saloon, many of them toasted the success of their coming venture. Others polished their muskets and reveled in dreams of glory about Texas’ fight for freedom and of land grants promised to volunteers. Diverting her cargo from the Brazos, Captain Grayson’s orders were to take these men to Texas’ deep-water port, Copano on Copano Bay, northeast of present-day Corpus Christi. The Mobile Grays arrived in early January 1836 and marched more than 100 miles to join Colonel James Walker Fannin, Jr.’s troops at Goliad, southeast of the Alamo, on the San Antonio River. Scouts reported that Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and thousands of troops were crossing the Rio Grande. Skirmishes at the Alamo, first line of defense for the colonies, had already begun, along with pleas for reinforcements. Fannin’s troops fortified La Bahía presidio at Goliad and waited.


Thomas F. McKinney

While the Mobile Grays marched, Yellow Stone steamed for Quintana with a new captain. A veteran of Texas’ rivers and the cotton trade, John E. Ross took the helm of Yellow Stone, and Grayson moved to a smaller steamboat, the 65-ton Laura.

Two years before, Ross had delivered an earlier vessel to Galveston, Cayuga, an 88-ton steamboat with a 6-foot draft. A third larger, Yellow Stone also drew 6 feet, deep for Texas’ rivers and bays, but Ross was a veteran at finding troughs through the rivers and around rocks and shoals. Where there was only 2 or 3 feet of water, such as at the Velasco Bar, it was “full steam ahead.” He represented a breed of Texas steamer pilots who approached low water with the saying, “Tap a keg of beer and we’ll run four miles on the froth.”

When Yellow Stone plowed across the Velasco Bar, where the Brazos River laid up its silt, she was inaugurated into the cotton-packet trade. Ross guided Yellow Stone up and down the Brazos, stopping on the Lower Brazos, a wider, deeper section of the river, at Brazoria and Columbia (originally called Bell’s Landing).

The ship steamed into the Middle Brazos section above Fort Settlement (Richmond) and continued toward the village of Washington (named for Washington, Ga., it became known as Washington-on-the-Brazos) and Robinson’s Ferry. The river grew treacherous, with rocky shoals peppering the riverbed and sunken cottonwoods littering the bottom. Along this stretch, towns were fewer, so planters built landings on their riverfront property. Yellow Stone’s master, Ross, steered the vessel around the numerous hazards and stopped to take on cotton and sugar at various landings. He delivered the crops downstream to waiting sailing ships off Quintana. A round trip took about five days, with overnight stops, since he practiced the Western steamer tradition of tying up at night. Plantation owners continued to plant, though the winds of war blew like a hurricane, so Ross and Yellow Stone continued to steam the Brazos.

[SAMWolf]

Twin Mexican forts, Quintana on the west bank of the Brazos and Velasco on the east, were active ports. Quintana’s beaches served as resorts for plantation owners and their families. But 1836 was not a usual year, and though it was still winter, many families from the tidewater region flocked to the ports to catch a schooner for the United States. These wealthy Texas families were forerunners of the ones involved in the terrifying exodus that became known to history as the “Runaway Scrape.”


Samuel May Williams

On March 2, 1836, a blue norther swept down on Texas’ representatives, who had convened at Washington to sign the Declaration of Independence. Winds bit through the buckskins of General Houston’s troops. The Brazos, known as “Arms of God,” raged. Swirling cottonwoods uprooted and shot downstream in the turbulence like battering rams, threatening Yellow Stone’s hull and her 22-man crew.

Word came from San Antonio de Bexar that the Alamo had fallen on March 6, the 13th day of the siege. Every white man behind the walls of that old Franciscan mission had been slaughtered. A woman, her child and a slave were freed to spread the word that Santa Anna would kill, loot and burn as he hit every Texan home between San Antonio and the Gulf Coast. The families of Texas’ army volunteers had been left alone, or with slaves, to prepare for planting and to defend their property. The horror of the massacre at the Alamo was told and retold in frightened huddles as the Runaway Scrape began. The women, many just learning they were widows, abandoned their homes and fled with their children toward the Sabine River, whose east bank, the U.S. border, offered safety. They carried what they could. When the ox carts and wagons sank in the flooded bogs of the coastal plains, they dumped their possessions and plowed on. Wet and cold, these 5,000 or so desperate people straggled through the swamps. Many children, brought down by exposure and pneumonia, were hastily buried—their mothers pledging to return and give them proper burials.

Steamboat Yellow Stone arriving at Fort Union, circa 1835.

General Houston began a zigzag retreat to collect more men before taking the offensive. He urged the Runaway Scrape families to stay, to have confidence in a Texas victory over Santa Anna. He pointed to the eastern shore Brazos planters, who were going ahead and seeding their lands. He ordered Colonel Fannin, the Mobile Grays’ commander, to come from Goliad and join him, to swell their ranks. But Fannin, in charge of the La Bahía fortress, hesitated, and his delay proved costly. By the time the colonel left La Bahía on March 19 with nearly half of Texas’ remaining troops, he and his 350 men were surrounded. Near Coleto Creek on the open prairie between the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers, Goliad’s defenders fought some 1,900 Mexican soldiers. The Battle of Coleto began at 2 p.m. and continued until dark. Fannin surrendered on the 20th, assured that he and his men would be treated as prisoners of war and transported to New Orleans in eight days. The Texas prisoners were returned to Goliad. On March 27, three weeks after the fall of the Alamo, the Mexicans executed all of them.

Meanwhile, Yellow Stone was moving upstream again, picking up freight and tying up at landings. Many trees had to be cut to feed the fires in the sidewheeler’s massive boilers. Yellow Stone required a high steam buildup to buck the swift, upstream current. On this late March trip, Captain Ross sidled up to Groce’s Landing, a regular stop on the Middle Brazos route. Jared Groce, another of Austin’s Old Three Hundred colonists, had brought the first cotton seeds to Texas when he came in 1821. In 1825 he had built the first cotton gin, followed the next year by Austin’s at Peach Creek Plantation, near San Felipe.

Groce’s Landing was a short way downstream from Washington. Yellow Stone was there to take on 600-pound bales of cotton. Houston’s army was weaving back and forth from the Colorado River on the west to the Brazos River on the east. Rains clogged the prairies. The Brazos poured over its banks, sweeping past the first steep bluff at Washington and lapping at the second one, which served as a ground floor for the town. Santa Anna’s army had crossed the Colorado and was in pursuit, forcing Houston’s small army to back up to the Brazos. At Washington on March 30, Houston learned of the massacre at Goliad. Messengers also informed him that Santa Anna’s troops were split. Houston had issued orders to burn all the ferries and rafts on the Brazos so that Santa Anna could not sweep around him. Farther south, at San Felipe, the townspeople had burned their town and ferried themselves across the river ahead of Santa Anna.

The crossing of the Brazos River by Houston and his men using the Yellowstone

From scouts, Houston learned that Yellow Stone was tied up at Groce’s Landing. He moved his troops into a copse of timbers nearby, and they camped there in the rain. A contingent of some “80 volunteers from the Red River lands” arrived to swell the ranks. On April 2, 1836, Houston sent Captain Ross a message:

Sir: You and each member of your crew and the Officers of the Boat are hereby assured and guaranteed that they and Each of them shall be indemnified as well as the boat Owners for Wages, losses and damages in consideration of the impressment of your Boat into the public Services of Texas (the Yellow Stone) and its detention for the benefit of the Republic and furthermore for the rendition of Services of the hands and the boat until it can be discharged each person shall be entitled to one-third league of land and the officers a proportionally larger quantity. You are not required to bear arms.

Given under my hand on the day and date above written (April 2, 1836, Head Quarters West of Brasos [sic]).
The Boat is not to leave without my orders.

Sam Houston

Santa Anna arrived at burned-out San Felipe on April 7. After two days of stiff resistance from a small Texas company, the Mexican army left San Felipe, crossed the river upstream and headed for Harrisburg, the seat of Texas’ government.

Houston had rested his men and waited for supplies that did not come, either from President David Burnet or the Toby brothers in New Orleans. He moved his troops closer to the Brazos, into the canebreaks opposite Groce’s Landing.

"The Steamboat Yellow Stone," by Karl Bodmer, ca.1835. As she was running the gantlet past Mexican troops lining the Brazos, she protected her cargo and crew from gunfire by piling the decks with bales of cotton.

Captain John E. Ross sent a message from Yellow Stone, on Monday evening, April 11.

To Gen. Sam Houston
Sir I think the Cotton we have on board necessary to protect the Boat & Engine—if we have to pass the Enemy’s Cannon—I can transport 500 men with cotton enough to protect the boat from any damage from the Enemies fire—If you wish the cotton landed please instruct me— I can cross all the baggage without moving the cotton. I have four cords of wood on board & Everything ready to “go ahead.”

With respect
Jno E. Ross Comg Yl.Stone
Capt Ross

All things will do as you say they are until further orders.

At 10 o’clock on the morning of April 12, Houston’s men began filing aboard Yellow Stone. By 2 p.m. the next day, more than 700 soldiers, 200 horses and supplies had been ferried across the swollen Brazos in seven trips aboard the sidewheeler. Once on the eastern bank of the river, they readied for the march to the Gulf.

Houston released the riverboat with calls for Godspeed and a safe journey. With cotton piled two decks high, the steamer roared downstream, belching black smoke, her whistle blowing and bell clanging. John Fenn, a prisoner of the Texans, was aboard that day. “Yellow Stone was plowing the water for all she was worth, lashing the banks with the waves on both sides as she went,” he later said.

Ross knew part of the Mexican army would be waiting for him at the bend of the river. Neither he nor his men were Texas army volunteers, but they had aided the Texan rebels. He blasted along the familiar course. Mexican soldiers fired at the sidewheeler, but cotton bales absorbed the musket balls. Mexican horse soldiers even tried to lasso Yellow Stone’s chimneys. At her high rate of speed, rounding the river’s curve, the steamer skidded through a complete circle. Ross straightened her and continued the dash for the coast. He arrived at Velasco, the boat unscathed and her crew safe.

Meanwhile, Houston marched his men east, then south, toward the San Jacinto River below Harrisburg. Turned back by the Texans at San Felipe, Santa Anna took the main body of his troops across the Brazos above Washington, below the ford where the Bahía Road crossed, then went on to Harrisburg and razed the town. The townspeople fled before him, joining the Runaway Scrape. Only smoke and ashes remained of the Texas capitol. The fledgling government had evacuated to Galveston.

Downstream from the Mexican army, Sam Houston, outnumbered by a mere 400 to 500 men instead of thousands, drew up a plan voted on by his officers. During the Mexican army’s daily siesta on the afternoon of April 21, he ran his Texas army over a small rise in double column formation, at right angles to the Mexican camp. As ordered, the Texans held their fire until they were filed along the camp, flank to flank.

[SAMWolf]

Frustrated by the long retreat, outraged by the massacres at Goliad and the Alamo, anguished by seeing their families torn from their homes, the Texans fired, then charged, yelling, "Remember the Alamo!" "Remember Goliad!" Eighteen minutes later, the Mexicans, caught napping and with no sentries posted, surrendered. The battlefield at San Jacinto was littered with bodies; only two were Texans. The next day, Santa Anna was captured while trying to escape in a common soldier's uniform.



Yellow Stone, with Captian Ross and crew, was ordered to Galveston to pick up President Burnet and his cabinet and take them to view the site of the San Jacinto victory. Now a floating capital, she steamed back to Velasco on May 3, with the Republic of Texas' president and cabinet and their printing press on board. Also aboard were General Houston, injured in battle; General Santa Anna, also injured; and some 80 Mexican prisoners. The river steamer hosted the peace treaty signing of the Republic of Texas and the government of Mexico.

"Captian Ross and his crew enabled me to save Texas," Houston said. The stemer's master reportedly presented Houston woth the ship's bell.

Santa Anna remained a prisoner on the Orozimbo Plantation, before being returned to the United States, and then to Mexico. Sam Houston stood for election as president of Texas and defeated the "Father of Texas," Stephen F. Austin, first colonizer from the United States in the former Mexican province. On December 27, 1836, a dispirited Austin died of pneumonia at Bell's Landing, now West Columbia. After he lay in state for two days, Ross and Yellow Stone carried his body and mourners back to his beloved Peach Creek Plantation below San Felipe. This was the last official duty that Yellow Stone, Ross and crew performed for the fledgling republic and its heroes.



In the months that followed, the town of Houston won the vote to replace burned out Harrisburg as the nation's capital, and Yellow Stone changed captians. James V. West, who had been the ships clerk, owner's representative and agent under Ross, piloted Yellow Stone into the lucrative Buffalo Bayou trade. The bayou coursed up through Galveston Bay from the Gulf. Even with its small turning basin, the new capital became the favored shipping port for the Republic of Texas.

Captain Ross returned to his old ship, Cayuga, renamed Branch T. Archer in 1837. He was associated with its ownwers, the John Huffman Company of Houston, until he died in Harris county in 1848. A tattered partial receipt for goods delivered to Galveston in May 1837 is the last evidence of Yellow Stone. It is not certain what brought about Yellow Stone's end. Possibly she was "snagged and sunk" by submerged trees on the Bayou, a frequent epithet, or her hull had crunched on the oyster shells of Red Fish Bar, or she was destroyed by the hurricane of October 10, 1837. All that remains is her bell, presented to Houston by Captain Ross. It can be seen today in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Museum at the Alamo in San Antonio.


Famous painting by Seymour Thomas of Sam Houston pointing the way to the undulating plain at San Jacinto where the Texans would engage Santa Anna and his troops.

Long after Texas joined the United States, Sam Houston continued to argue with only limited success for payments he had promised people while leading the army of Texas. Among his petitions were those for Captain Ross' widow, Charlotte Stockbridge Ross.

In an odd twist of events, a woman whom Houston had helped out during the Texas Revolution fared better than Mrs. Ross. He met the woman on the banks of her flooded Brazos one afternoon. Her husband had been killed at the Alamo, the flood waters had carried off all her livestock and goods, and nothing remained for herself and her children. Houston, carrying $200 of his own money for emergency supplies for his troops, gave her $50. In later years, she wrote thanking him. She had stayed, not run, and used the money to purchase more livestock and seeds; she and her children prospered.

When Charlotte Ross wrote years later, after Texas became a state in 1845, she was applying for the captian's pension. Earlier, her husband had sought the promised payment of land for his service to Texas, but he never received it. On Mrs. Ross's behalf, Houston confided to the state auditors, "Had it not been for the Steam Boat Yellow Stone, we would have lost Texas.

Additional Sources:

www.bchm.org
www.state.nd.us
www.nps.gov
users.ev1.net/~gpmoran
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com

[SAMWolf]

Many have tried to determine the fate of the Yellow Stone. William M. Lytle states that it was stranded on the Brazos in 1837 with no lives lost, but no other source verifies this. The last known voucher for the Yellow Stone is dated May 30, 1837; it is for the passage of Dr. A. Ewing from Houston to Galveston and was signed by Ewing in Galveston. A ship's bell, said to be that of the Yellow Stone, is in the Alamo museum. Despite repeated petitions from Houston to the republic and state government after 1837, the full terms of his pledge in behalf of the crew were never met. Regardless of the Yellow Stone's final resting place, Sam Houston's words in his petitions for redemption of his pledge are an appropriate epitaph: "Had it not been for its service, the enemy could never have been overtaken until they had reached the Sabine," and the "use of the boat enabled me to cross the Brazos and save Texas."

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

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We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

Veterans Wall of Honor

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



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[snippy_about_it]

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Good Wednesday Morning Everyone.

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[Iris7]

Over the years I have contemplated General Houston and San Jacinto. The counter attack is the soul of defense, and San Jacinto was the counter attack that successfully defended Texas.

Rather wonder where and when such a perfect counter attack can be found. Maybe the Russian attack at Stalingrad, resulting in the loss of Von Paulus' Corps, or the American landing on Guadalcanal, or Stonewall in the Valley and at Chancellorsville, or Washington at Trenton. Mighty company, indeed.

But Houston's little gem had results wildly out of proportion to the means employed, turned tactical retreat into strategic offensive with perfect judgment. Victory. Some luck, to be sure, and much Grace. Lovely little war.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.((HUGS))

[alfa6]

Busier Than a Cat in a room full of rocking chairs Bump for the Freeper Foxhole.

Got time for one pic to get the day started. hope eerybody has a fine day today.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[GailA]

Good morning ALL. Going to be a nice day today here.

[The Mayor]

April 27, 2005

The Teacher's Legacy

Read:
2 Corinthians 6:1-10

We commend ourselves as ministers of God . . . by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love. -2 Corinthians 6:4,6

Bible In One Year: Psalm 49-51

Pastor Paul Walker shared this story of his salvation experience: "During my lifetime I was instructed by many different Sunday school teachers, but only one stands out in my memory. He was a big, red-faced ex-Marine, who probably broke every rule and technique of good teaching. The thing I remember best about him is how much he loved us. . . .

"At the end of each session he would say, 'Boys, let's take time to kneel and talk to the Lord.' Then he would try to put his big arms around all nine of us as we huddled together, and he would pray for each of us by name. Are you surprised that seven of those boys are now in the ministry, and that I am one of them?"

If you have a Sunday school class, small group, or some other teaching responsibility, do you take a warm, personal interest in your students? The apostle Paul said he commended himself as a minister of God "by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love" (2 Corinthians 6:6).

The exact methods employed by the one who taught Paul Walker do not need to be duplicated, but the earnest attention he gave and the spiritual concern he showed toward each pupil is a beautiful example of the importance of teaching by love. -Henry Bosch

A Sunday school teacher, I don't know his name,
Was a wonderful person who never found fame;
Yet he shaped my whole life far more than he knew,
For his loving example has helped me be true. -Anon.

To love to teach is one thing-to love those you teach is quite another.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
What Does It Take To Follow Christ?

[SAMWolf]

Morning Snippy

Time to get up!
Chamber Meeting and Cub Scout Birding Badges Project today

[U S Army EOD]

Good morning Sam, I note the name of Washington, GA is mentioned (I live there now). That is probably some of the crowd that moved to that area from Petersburg, GA (Lincoln County next to Wilkes County (Washington)) during that time.

I am orignially from Lincoln County. Lincoln County is named for Benjamen Lincoln. He is the is the general who took Cornwallis's sword at the Battle of Yorktown. Please don't get the name confused with any other Lincolns.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Iris7.

Houston was lucky enough and smart enough to be abl;e to choose the time and place to fight. Something not all commanders have the luxury of doing.

I'd include the Inchon landing as one of the greatest sucessful counterattacks in history.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut.

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C.

Supposed to be a good day today, but Snippy said she heard a revised forecast saying possible rain. :-(

Busy day today, Chamber meeting, We're helping a Cub Scout Troop get their Birding Badges, we're having a new vendor rep met with us and we're expecting a shipment in today.

The Mayor (Oregon City's not the Foxhole's) dropped in yesterday and spent a good chunk of change :-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning alfa6.

Busier Than a Cat in a room full of rocking chairs

Know the feeling, Snippy and I feel busier than a defense lawyer for the Portland JailBlazers.

[SAMWolf]

Morning GailA.

The "Let's Quilt" store has had a really succesful opening here, we've picked up a few customers who drop by after going there. Didn't realize quilting was that big out here.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Mayor

He was a big, red-faced ex-Marine, who probably broke every rule and technique of good teaching.

No better friend, no worst enemy.

[SAMWolf]

Morning EOD.

This patriotic scene is another completely inaccurate image. At the formal surrender of the British commander's sword, Cornwallis claimed to be sick and sent Gen. O'Hara of the Guards. Since Washington would not accept a sword from an inferior officer, he sent his deputy, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln who had previously surrendered at the second battle for Charleston, S.C.. The Turgises show Washington himself receiving the sword, while a British officer kneels in the foreground with the British flag laying on the ground in shame. It is interesting to note, however, that this was not just a European inaccuracy, as a number of American prints also showed Washington accepting the sword of surrender

[The Mayor]

No better friend, no worst enemy.

Absolutely!

[E.G.C.]

Souds like you guys had a busy day yesterday. That's great.

Hopefully you'll get a lot more business liket that.

Today is Norton Update Day I encourage those who anti-virus software to update it as more virus definitions come in.

We replaced the battery in our car yesterday. The flood light stayed on apprently and drained the battery. We also glued the raio on/off switch. We're going to see if it works.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on April 27:
1701 Charles Emanuel I King of Sardinia
1737 Edward Gibbon England, historian (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
1759 Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin England, writer/feminist (Female Reader)
1791 Samuel Finley Breece Morse US painter/inventor (telegraph)
1822 [Hiram] Ulysses S[impson] Grant Point Pleasant OH, 18th US President (1869-77, Republican)
1835 John Murray Corse Pittsburgh PA, Brevet Major General (Union volunteers)
1840 Edward Whymper 1st to climb Matterhorn (1865)
1891 Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev composer
1892 Louis Victor de Broglie physicist (studied electrons)
1896 Rogers Hornsby Winters TX, 2nd baseman (St Louis Cardinals)
1896 Wallace Hume Carothers inventor (nylon)
1900 Walter Lantz animator (Woody Woodpecker's creator)
1904 Arthur F Burns economist/chairman (Federal Reserve Board)
1911 Georges Dargaud French publisher (Asterix, Tintin)
1918 John Alfred Scali journalist/correspondant (ABC)
1922 Jack Klugman Philadelphia PA, actor (Oscar-Odd Couple, Quincy, Goodbye Columbus)
1930 Roelof F "Pik" Botha South African minister of Foreign affairs
1931 Robert Donner New York NY, actor (Yancy-The Waltons, Exidor-Mork & Mindy)
1932 Anouk Aimee [Françoise Dreyfus] Paris France, actress (8½, La Dolce Vita)
1932 Casey Kasem Detroit MI, radio personality (American Top 40)
1932 Chuck Knox NFL coach (Rams, Bills, Seahawks)
1939 Judy Carne Northhampton England, comedienne (Laugh-in, Fair Exchange)
1942 Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-6, TM-18)
1945 August Wilson US, playwright (Fences, Pulitzer 1987)
1947 Ann Peebles St Louis MO, soul singer (I Can't Stand the Rain)
1949 Yoshiaki Fujiwara wrestler (NJPW/PWF/UWF)

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Deaths which occurred on April 27:
1076 Willem bishop of Utrecht (1054-76), murderer of earl Floris I, dies
1124 Alexander I king of Scotland (1107-24), dies
1521 Ferdinand Magellan world traveler, killed by Filipino natives at 50
1605 Leo XI [Alessandro O de' Medici] Italian Pope (1605), dies at 69
1656 Jan J van Goyen Dutch landscape painter, dies at 60
1682 Theodorus III czar of Russia (1676-82), dies
1794 William Jones British Orientalist/jurist, dies at 47
1813 Zebulon M Pike US explorer (Pike's Peak), dies in battle at 34
1882 Ralph Waldo Emerson US poet (Representive Men), dies
1893 John Murray Corse US General (Union), dies on his 58th birthday
1902 Julius Sterling Morton who started Arbor Day, dies at 72
1957 Mario A Gianini creator of the maraschino cherry, dies
1959 Gordon Armstrong inventor of baby incubator, dies
1965 Edward R Murrow newscaster (Person to Person), dies at 57
1972 Phil King rock (Blue Oyster Cult), shot in head at 24 while gambling
1978 Mohammed Daud premier/President of Afghánistán, murdered
1994 Lynne Frederick Unger actress (Trail of Pink Panther), dies at 39
1996 William Egan Colby CIA Director, dies at 76
1998 Carlos Castaneda (72), author, dies. (“The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge,”)
1999 Al Hirt, "The King of the Trumpet," dies in New Orleans at age 76.
2002 Ruth Handler (85), co-founder of Mattel, creator of the Barbie doll (1959), dies

---

GWOT Casualties

Iraq
27-Apr-2004 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Staff Sergeant Abraham D. Penamedina Baghdad (nr. Sadr City) Hostile - hostile fire
US Private 1st Class Marquis A. Whitaker CSC Scania (near) [Al Qadisiyah Prov.] Non-hostile - vehicle accident


Afghanistan
A Good Day

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White

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On this day...
4977 BC Johannes Kepler's date for creation of universe
1296 Edward I defeated the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar
1509 Pope Julius II excommunicates Italian state of Venice
1522 Battle at Bicacca Charles I & Pope Adrianus VI beat France
1526 Mogol King Babur defeat sultan of Delhi
1565 1st Spanish settlement in Philippines, Cebu City, forms
1646 King Charles I flees Oxford
1650 Scottish General Montrose defeated
1746 Battle at Culloden Moor Duke of Cumberland defeats "James VIII & III"
1773 British Parliament passes the Tea Act (eventually leads to Boston Tea Party on December 16)


1805 US Marines attack shores of Tripoli. A force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli


1813 Americans under General Pike capture Toronto; Pike is killed
1838 Fire destroys half of Charleston
1857 Establishment of Jewish congregations in Lower Austria prohibited
1859 "Pomona" sinks in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard
1860 Thomas J Jackson is assigned to command Harpers Ferry
1861 President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus
1861 West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from US
1863 The Army of the Potomac began marching on Chancellorsville. (mud march)
1863 Battle of Streight's raid Tuscumbia to Cedar Bluff AL


1865 1450 of 2000 paroled Union POWs on their way home are killed when river steamer "Sultana" explodes on the Mississippi River


1865 Cornell University (Ithaca NY) is chartered
1870 Heinrich Schliemann discovers Troy (right where the Trojans left it.)
1874 White League, Paramilitary white supremacist organization, forms
1877 President Rutherford Hayes removes Federal troops from Louisiana, Reconstruction ends
1881 Pogroms against Russian Jews start in Elisabethgrad
1897 Grant's Tomb (famed of song & legend) dedicated
1903 1st Highlander (Yankee) shut-out, Philadelphia A's win 6-0
1909 Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown
1918 Brooklyn Dodgers get 1st victory after worst major league start (0-9)
1920 Pogrom leader Petljoera declares Ukraine Independence
1931 100º F (38º C), Pahala HI (state record)
1933 Karl Jansky reports reception of cosmic radio signal in Washington DC
1937 US Social Security system makes its 1st benefit payment
1940 Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp
1942 Tornado destroys Pryor Oklahoma killing 100, injuring 300
1942 Belgium Jews are forced to wear stars
1943 Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London
1945 Italian partisans capture Mussolini prisoner
1946 1st radar installation aboard a commercial ship installed
1947 Babe Ruth Day celebrated at Yankee Stadium & through the US
1948 Arab legion attacks Gesher bridge on Jordan River
1951 Mohammed Mossadeq chosen premier of Persia
1953 Wrestler Classy Fred Blassie coins the term "Pencil neck geek"
1956 Heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano, retires undefeated from boxing
1959 "Today" show goes abroad for the 1st time (Paris France)
1959 Liu Sjau-chi elected President of People's Rebublic of China
1960 1st atomic powered electric-drive submarine launched (Tullibee)
1960 South Korean President Syngman Rhee resigns
1961 NASA launches Explorer 11 into Earth orbit to study gamma rays
1961 NFL officially recognizes Hall of Fame in Canton OH
1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
1963 Cuban premier Fidel Castro arrives in Moscow
1964 John Lennon's "In His Own Write" is published in the US
1965 RC Duncan patents "Pampers" disposable diaper
1968 Jimmy Ellis beats Jerry Quarry for heavyweight boxing title
1972 Apollo 16 returns to Earth
1977 Bloody riots in Soweto South Africa
1978 Afghánistán revolution (National Day), pro-Russian military coup
1982 Trial of John W Hinckley Jr, attempted assassin of President Ronald Reagan, begins
1983 Nolan Ryan becomes strikeout king (3509), passing Walter Johnson
1987 US Justice Department bars Austrian Chancellor Kurt Waldheim from entering US, due to his aid of Nazi Germany during WWII
1989 Beijing students take over Tiananmen Square in China
1991 A group of 250 Kurds became the first refugees to move into a new U.S.-built camp in northern Iraq.
1993 Afghan Antonov AN-32 crashes at Tashqurgan, kills 76
1994 7th longest NHL game New Jersey Devils beat Buffalo Sabres (125 minutes 43 seconds)
1994 Minnesota Twins righty Scott Erickson no-hits Brewers 6-0
1994 President Richard Nixon buried in Nixon Library in California
2000 New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani disclosed that he had prostate cancer. He later bowed out of the U.S. Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
2003 Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin al-Yasin (6 of clubs), chief Iraqi liaison with UN weapons inspectors, surrendered to US forces. U.S. military arrest the self-anointed mayor of Baghdad, Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi

---

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Austria : 2nd Republic Day (1945)
Sierra Leone-1961, Togo-1960 : Independence Day
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi : Confederate Memorial Day (1868) (Monday)
US-Utah : Arbor Day-plant a tree (1872) (Friday)
US : Natural Law Day
International Pampers day
National Art Glass Month

---

Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Peter Canisius, confessor/doctor/apostle of Germany
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Turibius of Mogrovejo, bishop/confessor
Roman Catholic : Saint Zita Feast Day

---

Religious History
1537 Geneva's first Protestant catechism was published. Based on Calvin's "Institutes," it was compiled by John Calvin, 27, and/or by fellow French reformer, Guillaume Farel, 48.
1667 English poet John Milton, 58, sold the copyright to his religious epic "Paradise Lost" for ten English pounds (less than $30).
1775 Death of Moravian missionary Peter Bohler, 63. Commissioned by Count Zinzendorf in 1737, Bohler encountered the as-yet-unsaved John Wesley, no doubt imprinting within him the later Methodist characteristics of crisis conversion, joyful assurance of God's acceptance and a Christian lifestyle of self- surrendering faith.
1832 The American Baptist Home Mission Society was formed in New York City. During its first 15 years, $1.66 million in contributions were raised, 14,426 churches were organized and 1,116 missionaries were sent out.
1950 The modern state of Israel was officially recognized by the British government.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

---

Thought for the day :
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

[Valin]

John, txradioguy, lost a friend last night.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1391788/posts?page=217#217



1SG Timothy Millsap, A Company, 70th Engineer Bn. (Cbt) 3rd Bde 1st Armored Division.

Killed 26 April 2005 in the vicinity of Taji, Iraq.

1SG Millsap was the Brigade EO NCO when I was with the Brigade during our first tour of Iraq last year.

Always had a smile, always a good word. Always ready to go if an extra body was needed for a convoy.

This was his last mission before retirement.

He is survived by his wife and 13 y/o son.

He was a good friend. He will be missed.

Prayers going up for his family.

Bulldogs! Iron Soldiers!

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

Honoring the fallen

ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL, Engalnd -- Lt. Col. Kenneth Denman grieves during a candlelight vigil here April 4 to honor nine Airmen who died in a crash while participating in an exercise in Albania on March 31. The Aircrew members were assigned to the Det. 2, 7th Special Operations Squadron and 25th Information Operations Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Cecil C. McCloud)

Fallen Eagles size.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[snippy_about_it]

I'm up. I'll be ready.

Good morning everyone. Gotta run, today is our early day of the week.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning, PE.

Oh very moving Flag-o-gram today. Thank You.

[SAMWolf]

1805 US Marines attack shores of Tripoli. A force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli

Marine Officers were initially allowed swords of any style - as long as they were yellow-mounted.

In 1805, Marines assembled a fleet to Derna, Tripoli to put down Barbary Coast pirates taking a toll on American merchant ships in the Mediterranean. Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon and his Marines marched across 600 miles of North Africa's Libyan desert to successfully storm the fortified Tripolitan city of Derna.

A desert chieftain presented Marine Lieutenant O'Bannon with a scimitar to show his appreciation. The scimitar was used by Mameluke warriors of North Africa. By 1825, all Marine officers were mandated to wear the Mameluke sword.

Except for the period from 1859 to 1875, commissioned Marine officers have carried the Mameluke sword.

Regulations adopted in 1859 outlined the specifications for the sword still carried by today's noncommissioned officers. The design is based on the 1850 Army foot officers' sword, which Marine officers carried from 1859 to 1875.

[Valin]

A desert chieftain presented Marine Lieutenant O'Bannon with a scimitar to show his appreciation. The scimitar was used by Mameluke warriors of North Africa. By 1825, all Marine officers were mandated to wear the Mameluke sword.

Learn something new everyday.

[stand watie]

TEXAS BUMP.

HI, all ya'll!

free dixie,sw

[Wneighbor]

[Wneighbor]

Head bowed for the Airmen in Albania.

You know this lady Karen that lives behind me? She worked at RAF Mildenhall for 3 years. I gotta show this to her.

Can't remember if ya'll met Karen or if she was workin' when ya'll were here.

[Professional Engineer]

Lone Star bump!

[Professional Engineer]

1972 Apollo 16 returns to Earth

S72-36293 (27 April 1972) --- The Apollo 16 Command Module (CM), with astronauts John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II, and Charles M. Duke Jr. aboard, splashed down in the central Pacific Ocean to successfully conclude their lunar landing mission. The splashdown occurred at 290:37:06 ground elapsed time, 1:45:06 p.m. (CST) Thursday, April 27, 1972, at coordinates of 00:43.2 degrees south latitude and 156:11.4 degrees west longitude. A point approximately 215 miles southeast of Christmas Island. Later the three crew men were picked up by a helicopter from the prime recovery ship U.S.S. Ticonderoga.

[Professional Engineer]

Hi miss Feather.

I got a sample of the future last night. At Spiderboy's ball game, Bitty Girl had four boys, 6-8 years old - "older men", gathered around her at one point.

BTW, I hear Remington makes some fine shotguns.

[Professional Engineer]

No, we didn't meet Karen. I served with a guy who had been there as well.

[Soaring Feather]

Ah, yes, Remington, Ithaca Shotgun was pretty good, too!


LOL

[Darksheare]

Curious.
Wonder what happened to the boat, since if she'd been wrecked there would definitely have been salvage worked done.
And there should have been a record of that if indeed such were the case.

[colorado tanker]

Apollo 16

Ken Mattingly finally got his moon mission.

[colorado tanker]

Damn, just damn.

[colorado tanker]

Interesting post. What comes to mind is that according to Ted Kennedy freedom from tyranny and independence are crazy ideas cooked up in Texas. Little did he know that craziness goes right back to the foundation of Texas!

Congratulations, guys. If you're in with the Mayor and Chamber, you're on your way!

[Wneighbor]

Ah, yes, Remington, Ithaca Shotgun was pretty good, too!

I found the Remington 870 worked quite well ---- UNTIL THOSE DINGY GIRLS MOVED OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!!

[U S Army EOD]

I have seen a different print which show the British looking a little bored and pissed off with the Americans just grinning.

[SAMWolf]

1SG Timothy Millsap

[SAMWolf]

Afternoon PE.

[SAMWolf]

Hi Feather.

[SAMWolf]

Free Dixie!

[SAMWolf]

Afternoon Wneighbor.

[SAMWolf]

HI CT.

Didn't like getting their asses whipped I guess. :-)