For our Troops and supporters of the
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For our Troops and supporters of the
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HAPPY SATURDAY!
Oh, BOY! Casual Saturday AND LIBERTY CALL!
I'm READY!
Click on the pic
I'll see if I can't get a few more VA FReepers to add some comments to this subject that we all take such pride in.
FReegards...MUD
For some the man Robert E. Lee is an almost god like figure. For others he is a paradox. Robert E. Lee was born on January 19, 1807 at Stratford, Virginia. Robert was the fourth child of a Revolutionary War hero Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee and Ann Hill Carter Lee. Young Robert, the son, was raised mostly by his mother. From her he learned patience, control, and discipline. As a young man he was exposed to Christianity and accepted its faith. In contrast to the strong example of his mother Robert saw his father go from failed enterprise to failed enterprise. In part the young Robert was led to try harder and succeed.
Robert was accepted to the United States Military Academy and graduated 2nd in his class. But perhaps greater than his academic success was his record of no demerits while being a cadet which today has still not been equaled. Following his graduation Lee, like most top classmen, was given a commission as an engineer. Lt. Lee helped build the St. Louis waterfront and worked on coastal forts in Brunswick and Savannah. It was during this time he married Mary Custis the granddaughter of George Washington and Martha Custis Washington.
In 1845 the War between U.S. and Mexico erupted. General Winfield Scott, overall U.S. Army commander, attached Captain Robert E. Lee to his staff. Lee was intrusted with the vital duties of mapping out the terrain ahead, dividing the line of advance for the U.S. troops, and in one case leading troops into battle. Lee was learning skills he would need 16 years later. There in Mexico Lee also met, worked with, and got a chance to evaluate many of those he would later serve with and against; James Longstreet, Thomas J. Jackson, George Pickett, and U.S. Grant.
Following the Mexican War Lee returned to service as an army engineer. He spent most of this time near Washington D.C. and moved into Custis mansion (now overlooking the Arlington Cemetery). Thus was Colonel Lee was available for duty to put down a believed rebellion at Harper Ferry, Virginia the site of a United States Arsenal. Colonel Lee, and a young aide Lt. JEB Stuart, and a detachment of U.S. marines, were rushed by train to Harper's Ferry where they were able to capture radical abolitionist John Brown and his followers.
Brown's attempt seemed to confirm all the worst fears of the deep south and when Abraham Lincoln was elected President South Carolina seceded and was quickly followed by 6 more deep southern states: Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The old warrior General Winfield Scott asked Colonel Robert E. Lee to take command of the United States Army to put down the rebellion.
Lee, however, offered his services to the newly elected President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis. Mr. Davis accepted them and Lee was made a general in CSA service. At first General Lee was more or less advisor to President Davis and the Secretary of War.
General Lee's first campaign in what was to become West Virginia was less than a success. Command of the Eastern Army was divided between the hero of Fort Sumpter, P.G.T. Beauregard, and Joe Johnston who together won the first big battle of the East -- Bull Run (Manassas). Thus Joe Johnston was in command when George B. McClellan started his march on Richmond. When Johnston went down with wounds it was easy for Davis to replace him with General R.E. Lee who immediately took charge and attacked, trying to make up for his numbers with his audacity. In a series of continuous battles known as the 7 Days Battle Lee forced McClellan to retreat.
Thus began the career of the Army of Northern Virginia which rose and fell with Lee's star. His boldness and grasp of strategy made him more than a match for every General President Lincoln sent against him until U.S. Grant defeated him through the Battle of Attrition.
Lee's greatest victory was the Battle of Chancellorsville in May of 1863. Lee was faced with a larger army led by fighting Joe Hooker. Lee and his most trusted lieutenant, Gen. Stonewall Jackson, divided their forces and through a forced march around General Hooker fell on his exposed flank, rolling it up, and defeating the union forces yet again.
This victory led Lee and Davis to consider a second invasion of the North. Lee's army would hopefully bring the Federal forces to bay and destroy them. They would then march on Washington to hand Lincoln a letter asking for recognition of the CSA. So with desperate hopes, and while still mourning the loss of Stonewall Jackson, Lee and Davis crossed the river and invaded Pennsylvania.
The greatest land battle in the Western Hemisphere was fought at Gettysburg, Pa., on July 1, 2, & 3. The Army of Northern Virginia led by Lee, and the Army of the Potomac led by newly appointed General George Meade, hammered each other. On the 3rd day of battle General Lee hoping to end the war ordered the great frontal assault popularly known as Pickett's Charge. After the failure of the attack General Lee blamed only himself, but Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia fought on for 2 more years. General Lee surrendered at Appomatox Court House on April 9, 1865. This effectively brought the American Civil War to an end as other Confederate field commanders followed Lee's example
Following the war Lee was almost tried as a traitor, but was only left with his civil rights suspended. Lee was offered the post of President of Washington University where he served until his death in 1870. The school was later renamed Washington and Lee. As a final note President Gerald Ford had Lee's citizenship restored.
Adapted from Lauren Pitre's article for SWONET
Today, the most recognizable name of a naval officer of the American Revolutionary War
is that of John Paul Jones. Historic sites associated with his story attract tourists from around the world.
Jones was born John Paul on July 6, 1747, in Kirkcudbright, Scotland. At 12 he entered the British merchant marine and went to sea for the first time as a cabin boy.
Jones became first mate on a slaver brigantine in 1766 but soon left that trade in disgust. He was appointed master in 1769. As master of a merchant vessel, he killed the leader of his mutinous crew in self-defense at Tobago in the West Indies in 1773.To avoid trial, Jones fled to Virginia and was considered a fugitive by the British. He concealed his identity by adding the surname Jones.
At the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, Jones went to Philadelphia and entered the Continental Navy. In December he was commissioned a lieutenant on the first American flagship, Alfred. Jones was quickly promoted to captain in 1776 and given command of the sloop Providence. While on his first cruise aboard the Providence, he destroyed British fisheries in Nova Scotia and captured sixteen prize British ships.
In command of Ranger in 1777 and 1778, he operated in British home waters and made audacious raids on England’s shore.In recognition of his exploits, he was placed in command of five French and American vessels. Aboard his flagship, the Bonhomme Richard, Jones led his small squadron in the capture of seven merchantmen off of the Scottish coast. On September 23, 1779, Jones fought one of the bloodiest engagements in naval history. Jones struggled with the 44-gun Royal Navy frigate Serapis, and although his own vessel was burning and sinking, Jones would not accept the British demand for surrender, replying, “I have not yet begun to fight.” More than three hours later, Serapis surrendered and Jones took command.
According to some historians, Jones remained appealing as much for his actions as for his personality. British chapbooks, an early form of dime novels, pictured him as a ruthless marauding pirate akin to Blackbeard. His attacks on British ships were often sudden and sometimes bloody. The vision of a swarthy scalawag persisted even to the writings of Rudyard Kipling a century later.
In person, however, Jones was another man. Thomas Jefferson and others referred to him as ‘little Jones’ and he may have been 5’5”. Unlike other merchant seamen, he was well dressed, carried a sword, and conducted himself with practiced decorum.. Add to that a Scottish brogue, and light Celtic features. He was never an easy man to get along with, intense about his honor and his duties, a harsh military master. But he was surprisingly sociable. He was a prolific poem and letter writer, spoke some French, and, though he never married, was involved in many romances. Above all, no one questioned his daring. In Britain, his naval actions against the mother country certainly led to his presentation as a pirate.
In 1788, Russian Empress Catherine the Great appointed Jones rear admiral in the Russian Navy, in which he saw action in the Liman campaign in the Black Sea. He left the Russian service in 1789 and moved to Paris. He was appointed U.S. Consul to Algiers but died before the commission arrived. His body was buried in Paris, but in 1905, after a lengthy search, his remarkably preserved corpse was discovered and removed from a gravesite in Paris and transported to the United States. Through the intervention of President Theodore Roosevelt, Jones’ remains were re-interred in an ornate tomb at the Naval Academy Chapel at Annapolis, Maryland in 1913 when the tomb was completed
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There is no such entity as the "State" of Virginia. While generally categorized as a state, Virginia has been the "Commonwealth" since independence from Great Britain. Virginia is first of four states that are commonwealths, to include our daughter Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was formed from Virginia in 1792.
Our first Constitution, adopted on June 29, 1776, directed that "Commissions and Grants shall run, In the Name of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and bear taste by the Governor with the Seal of the Commonwealth annexed." The Secretary of the Commonwealth to this day issues commissions in this manner. Among other references, the Constitution furthermore dictated that criminal indictments were to conclude "against the peace and dignity of the commonwealth."
It is Virginia's Declaration of Rights adopted on June 12, 1776, that sets forth both our rights and philosophy of government. Virginia's founders viewed government as a contract between people who are "created equally free and independent." The underlying theory held that personal sovereignty was given over in order to create a society, which then in turn facilitated individual pursuits. As "all Power is…vested in, and consequently derived from the People," government was created to be the servant of the people.
Of greatest importance, Virginia's founders envisioned that the people would possess certain traits, namely, "a firm Adherence to Justice, Moderation, Temperance, frugality, and Virtue." No concept was more central than that of public or civic virtue. The civically virtuous citizen was self-reliant and self-determinative while recognizing a duty to the general welfare, or common good, of the community. It is the figure of Virtue, standing over the dead body of Tyranny, that dominates the Great Seal of the Commonwealth.
Virginians, as members of the Commonwealth, enjoy a higher degree of sovereignty. The continuing existence of the Commonwealth requires that each citizen be an active participant in government. All citizens must likewise be practitioners of civic virtue, dedicated to conducting themselves in a socially responsible manner.
A state may or may not reflect the will of the people, but a commonwealth simply cannot exist without the people's express consent. The commonwealth is an extraordinary form of government based upon collective genius of its citizens. The Commonwealth is distinguished from, and superior to, a mere state by the greatness of the people of Virginia.