|
Posted on 01/29/2004 12:01:15 AM PST by SAMWolf
|
|
 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
|
|
Bear River, Idaho January 29, 1863 Bear River was the first and the worst of the massacres of American Indians in the West. For fifteen years the Northwestern Shoshoni had been dispossessed of their traditional lands by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints pioneers, whose cattle herds were destroying the grass seeds that were their primary food. As the white hunters increased, the wild game decreased, taking another Shoshoni source of food. Without their lands the Shoshoni were starving, so they raided the farms on the lands that had been theirs. The policy of Brigham Young, the Church's leader, was that the settlers would provide food to the Shoshoni in exchange for the return of much of what they had taken.  The peace bought with food for the Shoshoni was an uneasy one. While the Shoshoni avoided the settlers' homesteads, the emigrants on trails and on the Overland Stage, with their supplies of food, were targets of their attacks. In one of their 1860 raids the Shoshoni along the Oregon Trail killed members of an emigrant family and captured three young children. In the search for the children, one man concluded that a young white boy in Bear Hunter's band of Shoshoni was his nephew. The Shoshoni said the boy was the son of a tribal woman and a French trapper. The uncle petitioned US Colonel Patrick Edward Connor to retrieve the boy. During the negotiations the soldiers killed four Shoshoni men. When a gold miner was killed by the Shoshoni on the Montana Trail, supposedly in retribution, a Salt Lake City judge issued a warrant for Bear Hunter's arrest.  Col. Patrick Edward Connor The primary mission of Connor and his California Volunteers was to guard the overland mail, the vital connection between the East and the West. Their orders permitted them to "hang on the spot" any Indians accused of hindering the mail. Connor used the warrant as his mandate to kill Shoshoni and discredit the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints's policy of providing food for them. Connor launched a surprise attack on the Shoshoni on January 21 by sending 69 men of the 3rd California Infantry with two 6-pounder mountain howitzers toward Bear River. Three days later he and US Major Edward McGarry left Fort Douglas near Salt Lake City with about 220 men of the 2nd California Cavalry. Traveling at night to avoid detection, they headed northward, suffering in the intense cold and snowstorms. The two columns united on January 27.  Bear River Camp was similar to this one The Shoshoni were in a favorite winter camp, located near hot springs and protected from winter winds by willow trees. Their seventy-five lodges were along Beaver Creek (now known as Battle Creek) where the protected ravine widened. Their horse herd was farther south in the meadow. Bluffs that almost circled the ravine provided defense. On January 29 McGarry crossed the Bear River with the cavalry and attacked. Bear Hunter's warriors easily repulsed the initial frontal attack. Connor then ferried his infantry across the river on cavalry horses and surrounded the camp. When the Californians broke through a ravine on the Shoshoni's left, the battle became a massacre and then a slaughter. There were no wounded on the field because the soldiers had bludgeoned them to death.  Chief Sagwitch and his wife, the former wife of Chief Bear Hunter who was brutally murdered at the hands of the California militia. Chief Sagwitch was the only surviving chief of the massacre. Chief Lehi was also shot to death by the militia after capture. While there were about 200 men engaged on each side, the Shoshoni included old men. As a result of the four-hour fight in the bitter cold, there were 42 wounded and 23 killed in Connor's force. Connor reported a month later that 112 men were still incapacitated from frostbite and injuries. About 20 Shoshoni men escaped, but Bear Hunter was killed and his body mutilated by the soldiers. Connor left the surviving women and children with a small supply of grain, destroyed the rest of their provisions, and burned their tipi poles to warm his troops. The massacre enraged the surviving Indians in the area, and for six months raids—that avoided Connor—continued, until Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Utah James J. Doty was successful in engaging them in talks and then treaties later in the year.  Monument at the site of the infamous Bear River Massacre, where on January 29, 1863 over 250 Shoshonemen, women and children where slaughtered by U.S. troops Connor was promoted two months later and became an adviser to US Colonel John Chivington, the commander in the massacre at Sand Creek in November 1864. Estimated Casualties: 65 US, 250 Shoshoni
|
By the way, SAM, I got a copy of "Tennozan" by Ticknor and Fields, a blow-by-blow account of the battle for Okinawa, and it is a devastating, fascinating book. I got very little sleep last night after starting to read it.
Something to take your minds off that awful cold you fellow Foxholers are going through.
Not a bad "cubicle", sure beats mine. ;-)
One of the best movies ever made. I got the DVD for Christmas.
Major T. J. "King" Kong: Well, boys, I reckon this is it -- nuclear combat toe to toe with the Rooskies. Now look, boys, I ain't much of a hand at makin' speeches, but I got a pretty fair idea that something doggone important is goin' on back there. And I got a fair idea the kinda personal emotions that some of you fellas may be thinkin'. Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be human bein's if you didn't have some pretty strong personal feelin's about nuclear combat. I want you to remember one thing, the folks back home is a-countin' on you and by golly, we ain't about to let 'em down. I tell you something else, if this thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I'd say that you're all in line for some important promotions and personal citations when this thing's over with. That goes for ever' last one of you regardless of your race, color or your creed. Now let's get this thing on the hump -- we got some flyin' to do.
General "Buck" Turgidson: Mr. President, about, uh, 35 minutes ago, General Jack Ripper, the commanding general of, uh, Burpelson Air Force Base, issued an order to the 34 B-52's of his Wing, which were airborne at the time as part of a special exercise we were holding called Operation Drop-Kick. Now, it appears that the order called for the planes to, uh, attack their targets inside Russia. The, uh, planes are fully armed with nuclear weapons with an average load of, um, 40 megatons each. Now, the central display of Russia will indicate the position of the planes. The triangles are their primary targets; the squares are their secondary targets. The aircraft will begin penetrating Russian radar cover within, uh, 25 minutes.
President Merkin Muffley: General Turgidson, I find this very difficult to understand. I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons.
General "Buck" Turgidson: That's right, sir, you are the only person authorized to do so. And although I, uh, hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like, uh, General Ripper exceeded his authority.
President Merkin Muffley: Is there really a chance for that plane to get through?
General "Buck" Turgidson: Mr. President, if I may speak freely, the Russkie talks big, but frankly, we think he's short of know-how. I mean, you just can't expect a bunch of ignorant peons to understand a machine like some of our boys. And that's not meant as an insult, Mr. Ambassador, I mean, you, you take your average Russkie, we all know how much guts he's got. Hell, look, look at all them them Nazis killed off and they still wouldn't quit...if the pilot's good, see, I mean, if he's really... sharp, he can barrel that baby in so low (he spreads his arms like wings and laughs), you oughtta see it sometime, it's a sight. A big plane like a '52. VRROOM! There's jet exhaust, fryin' chickens in the barnyard.
President Merkin Muffley: Yeah, but has he got a chance?
General "Buck" Turgidson: Has he got a chance? Hell, Ye... ye... (He covers his mouth dumbstruck, suddenly and solemnly grasping the implications of his words.)
Major T. J. "King" Kong: Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days' concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.
General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Yes, Jack?
General Jack D. Ripper: Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Well, I can't say I have.
General Jack D. Ripper: Vodka, that's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Well, I-I believe that's what they drink, Jack, yes.
General Jack D. Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, hmm, can't quite see what you're getting at, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Water, that's what I'm getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, uh, Good Lord!
General Jack D. Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Yes. (He begins to chuckle nervously)
General Jack D. Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Yes. (More laughter)
General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure-grain alcohol?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
General Jack D. Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh? Yes, II have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.
General Jack D. Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no.
General Jack D. Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
Major T. J. "King" Kong: Well boys, we got three engines out, we got more holes in us than a horse trader's mule, the radio is gone and we're leaking fuel and if we was flying any lower why we'd need sleigh bells on this thing... but we got one little budge on those Rooskies. At this height why thy might harpoon us but they dang sure ain't gonna spot us on no radar screen!
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Colonel! Colonel, I must know what you think has been going on here!
Colonel "Bat" Guano: You wanna know what I think?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Yes!
Colonel "Bat" Guano: I think you're some kind of deviated pervert. I think General Ripper found out about your perversion, and that you were organizing some kind of mutiny of perverts. Now MOVE!!
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Colonel... that Coca-Cola machine. I want you to shoot the lock off it. There may be some change in there.
Colonel "Bat" Guano: That's private property.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Colonel! Can you possibly imagine what is going to happen to you, your frame, outlook, way of life, and everything, when they learn that you have obstructed a telephone call to the President of the United States? Can you imagine?! Shoot it off! Shoot! With a gun! That's what the bullets are for, you twit!!
Colonel "Bat" Guano: Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: What?!
Colonel "Bat" Guano: You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company.
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.
