Union soldiers find Lee's battle plans leading to the Battle of Antietam in 1862.
Posted on 09/13/2018 9:38:07 AM PDT by fugazi
Today’s post is in honor of Master Sgt. Danial R. Adams, a Green Beret that gave his life for our country on this day in 2011. The 35-year-old native of Portland, Ore. was killed during an intense firefight in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province. He was serving in the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne).
1814: Unable to break the strong American defensive lines around Baltimore after a series of attacks, British troops return to their ships. Meanwhile, Vice Adm. Alexander Cochrane’s fleet begins a 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry, which guards the entrance to Baltimore harbor. The ships fire their cannons and rockets at maximum range and are unable to inflict any serious damage.
American lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key observes the attack while aboard a Royal Navy ship to secure the release of an American prisoner. Key is so moved by the nighttime bombardment and the sight of the American flag in the morning that he writes “Defence of Fort M’Henry” on the back of an envelope, which will become the “Star-Spangled Banner.” The song does not become our national anthem, however, until 1931.
1847: After Marines capture the castle Chapultepec, the Mexican capital is now in American hands. The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo, will say that American Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott’s brilliant campaign against Santa Anna’s forces during the Mexican-American War is “unsurpassed in military annals,” and names Scott the “greatest living general.”
1906: As revolution threatens Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma’s government, six officers and 124 Marines and sailors disembark from USS Denver (C-14) to help restore order.
(Excerpt) Read more at victoryinstitute.net ...
And in case you're wondering, the nearly 300 pieces of debris left over from the anti-satellite test had all re-entered the atmosphere by 2005. I forget the escape velocity of earth, but it's incredibly fast. In fact, the Apollo capsules were traveling around 16,000 miles per hour towards the moon and even THAT wasn't fast enough to escape our gravity.
If anyone else wants to be added to the ping list, let me know.
At least the actual narrative here treated 1814 as the battle of Baltimore, not “Star-Spangled Banner” or “Ft. McHenry”.
But the headline scared me it would be the usual twaddle. Pretty good thorough summary. There was much more to it than Ft. McH and FSK.
There always is way more to it and it would take a thousand lifetimes to do these men justice whose sacrifice made the liberty and security we enjoy possible.
Great history, and I love how they honor our recent fallen heroes! Thanks for the ping!!
IIRC, The escape velocity from an orbit is the orbital velocity multiplied by 1.414 (the square root of 2). So, if you are in orbit, traveling at 17,000 mph, the escape velocity will be just over 24,000 mph.
The Battle of Baltimore was fought on several fronts. Baltimore ship owners had sunk about 20 of their own boats blocking access to the inner harbor. Baltimorean civilians, knowing that the British had burned Washington just a few days before, had built a miles long earthworks to protect the city from the invading infantry. Happily, that land invasion never happened.
Fascinating stuff. I was researching for a story on Apollo 8 a while back and I thought it was pretty neat that the crew never left earth orbit. They went fast enough to make a long loop away from the planet, and by the time they reached the moon’s orbit, they had slowed down to somewhere around the speed of a bullet.
Considering all the calculations that it would take to send astronauts out to a specific point where they will be intercepted by the moon’s gravity, along a course so specific so they can map a certain section of the moon, then blast off again to a point where they will re-enter the atmosphere at a precise angle (so as not to bounce off and be lost forever, or burn up) and splash down right next to an aircraft carrier is beyond spectacular.
Keep in mind that their computers were extraordinarily primitive (the smart phones in our pocket are around 1,000,000 times more powerful), the earth was rotating, the moon was rotating around the earth, and both were traveling tens of thousands of miles per hour. And we were going somewhere where no humans had ever gone before.
You’re welcome!
Key's son, Philip Barton Key II, followed in his father's footsteps and also became a lawyer, becoming the District Attorney for Washington D.C. In 1858, Key began an affair with Teresa Sickles, the wife of NY Congressman Daniel Sickles. In 1859, Daniel Sickles discovered the affair and after seeing Key outside his home, chased him down and shot him adjacent to the fence at Lafayette Park in D.C.
Sickles became the first person in US to be acquitted of murder due to temporary insanity, and went on to serve as a major general during the civil war where he lost his leg at Gettysburg. Following the war, Sickles took an active interest in preserving the battlefields of the war including Gettysburg. As the National Military Cemetery at Gettysburg abutted the local cemetery, Sickles thought it appropriate to separate the two, and to do so, he procured the old fence from Lafayette Park in DC, where he had shot Key's son.
Union soldiers find Lee's battle plans leading to the Battle of Antietam in 1862.
“To Anacreon in Heaven”
That is a new story for me. Such nefarious goings on.
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