For all those in the MSM and on the left claiming the Tea Party and the Arizona illegal alien law are racist they need to take a long hard look in the mirror. But then, I doubt it is a case of ignorance to their own bigotry on their part. I wouldn’t doubt it is just a tool they use, knowing full well they could give a rat’s-ass about racism and bigotry. They seem to be experts at practicing it.

Moonbattery @ Phoenix Rally for Secure Borders and Immigration Enforcement
: [...] Despite the liberal establishment’s desperate lie that grassroots resistance to their agenda is “racist,” non-Caucasians were as usual hardly underrepresented. America’s Black Shield is only one example. The excellent speakers included SB1070 author Russell Pearce and Ted Hayes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t always easy to hear them, because the Tea Party movement is now very much on the radar screen of our collectivist rulers, who dispatched a motley contingent of communist thugs to drown out the proceedings. [...]

And who is Ted Hayes?

(1ST LT. VERNON J. BAKER at 76)

Vernon J. Baker, African American Medal of Honor recipient, dies at 90

First Lt. Vernon J. Baker, 90, an Army infantryman who, more than 50 years after the end of World War II, became the only surviving African American to receive the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the war, died July 13 at his home near St. Maries, Idaho. He had brain cancer.

In 1993, the Army commissioned a study led by researchers from Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., to determine whether there had been a racial disparity in how the Medal of Honor was awarded during World War II.

Of the more than 400 Medals of Honor awarded, not one of the 1.2 million African Americans who served in the war was a recipient.

After researchers found the discrepancy, the Army recommended seven African American soldiers for the country’s most prestigious military honor, including Lt. Baker.

On Jan. 13, 1997, after Congress voided a statutory limit for awarding the medal, President Bill Clinton presented the families of six men with the Medal of Honor; four had died in combat, and two others had died since the end of the war. Lt. Baker, then 77, was the only living recipient.

In April 1945, then-2nd Lt. Baker was one of the few black officers serving in the segregated 92nd Infantry Division near the northern Italian village of Viareggio.

He and his 25 men were ordered to lead an assault on Castle Aghinolfi, a heavily guarded mountain fortress on the western end of the Gothic Line, a series of fortified bunkers considered to be the one of the last lines of German defense toward the end of the war.

Two hours after starting their mission on April 5, Lt. Baker and his men came within 300 yards of the castle. While attempting to find a suitable place for a machine gun, Lt. Baker observed two rifle barrels hanging out of a concealed slit in some rocky earth.

After stealthily crawling to the opening, he popped up and emptied the clip of his M-1 rifle into the observation post, killing two sentries.

While searching for more camouflaged emplacements, Lt. Baker spotted a machine-gun nest occupied by two soldiers distracted by their breakfast. He shot and killed them both.

A German soldier then hurled a grenade that landed at Lt. Baker’s feet. Undeterred, he fired two fatal rounds at the fleeing German, while the grenade by Lt. Baker’s boots failed to explode.

He found the door to another bunker and blasted it open with a grenade. A wounded German soldier stumbled out in confusion, and Lt. Baker shot him. After tossing in a second grenade, he raided the bunker with a submachine gun blazing, killing two more Germans.

On the way back to his men, Lt. Baker saw that his platoon’s position had come under heavy machine gun and mortar fire. He watched in despair as 19 of his men were cut down by bullets or wounded by shrapnel.

Even though he’d been shot in the hand, Lt. Baker led the evacuation of his remaining men, helping to eliminate two machine-gun nests and four more German troops.

In the midst of the retreat, Lt. Baker’s platoon came across German soldiers wearing helmets painted with red crosses carrying litters covered with blankets.

His shellshocked men urged him to let them fire, but Lt. Baker refused. When the platoon came within 50 yards of the supposed medics, the Germans dropped their stretchers and picked up machine guns.

“Hit the bastards!” Lt. Baker instructed his men, according to his 1997 memoir “Lasting Valor.” “Our riflemen cut loose with a vengeance. . . . The enemy platoon dissolved.”

On July 4, 1945, Lt. Baker received the Distinguished Service Cross, the military’s second highest decoration for his actions in Italy. Upon receiving the Medal of Honor 52 years later, he burst into tears.

“I’m not a hero,” Lt. Baker later said. “I’m just a soldier that did a good job. I think the real heroes are the men I left behind on that hill that day.”

Vernon Joseph Baker was born Dec. 17, 1919, in Cheyenne, Wyo., where he was raised by his grandparents. He learned to hunt at a young age and became an expert marksman.

He shined shoes, swept out a barbershop and worked as a railroad porter before graduating from high school. When he attempted to enlist in the Army, he was told by a recruiter that there was no place for “you people.” He tried again and was accepted into the infantry in June 1941.

He stayed in the Army until 1968, retiring as a first lieutenant. His other decorations included the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart. After his Army career, Lt. Baker worked in Vietnam with the Red Cross and counseled military families.

His marriage to Leola Baker ended in divorce. His second wife, Fern Brown, died in 1986. Survivors include his third wife, Heidy Pawlik Baker; and two children.

He spent much of his later life hunting big game in Idaho. During one expedition, he discovered a mountain lion lurking behind him. After receiving his Medal of Honor, Lt. Baker was asked by Clinton what happened to the cougar.

“Why, it’s in my freezer,” Lt. Baker said. “I’m going to eat him.” -- WaPo

(H/T Weasel Zippers)

As some area veterans know, the story lines of two epic movies about World War II — “Saving Private Ryan” and “Band of Brothers” — center on two local families.

Now the memories of those World War II soldiers will be enshrined along the banks of the Niagara River in the City of Tonawanda.

That’s because the four Niland brothers, whose story helped inspire “Saving Private Ryan,” and Sgt. Warren H. “Skip” Muck, a central figure in “Band of Brothers,” hailed from Tonawanda.

An Amherst couple, Rick and Lisa Lewis, donated $150,000 for the multistone monument to pay special tribute to the Nilands and Muck for their sacrifices.

“There will be one stone for each family, and etched on the stones will be the stories of the Niland brothers and Skip Muck,” said Rick Lewis, whose family lived nearly a century in Tonawanda and became prominent when it owned the Talking Phone Book.

In the center of the veterans memorial plaza, which will be dedicated Saturday, will be a 10-foot-tall granite replica of the Washington Monument with a tribute to all other City of Tonawanda veterans from various wars.

“This will be in Niawanda Park directly behind City Hall, and at night it will be prominently illuminated, and I believe it will become a signature landmark for the City of Tonawanda,” Lewis said.

The story about the Niland brothers is well known in some veteran circles.

On June 6, 1944, at the start of the Normandy invasion, Michael I. and Augusta Niland received the first of three telegrams that three of their four sons were missing in action. Two other telegrams soon followed, notifying the parents that two more sons were missing.

Their fourth son, Sgt. Frederick W. “Fritz” Niland, an Army paratrooper, was participating in the invasion.

War Department officials wasted no time ordering Fritz Niland out of the combat zone, once his whereabouts were determined. It was that effort that inspired the basic storyline of Steven Spielberg’s 1998 movie starring Tom Hanks and Matt Damon.

The other Niland brothers were not as fortunate. Tech. Sgt. Robert J. Niland perished on the day of the invasion, and the next day, Lt. Preston T. Niland died. The third missing brother, Tech. Sgt. Edward F. Niland, was shot down over Burma and captured by the Japanese. He survived 11 months as a prisoner of war.

As for Muck, he became famous posthumously, with his story told in the best-selling book, “Band of Brothers,” and later in the HBO cable network movie miniseries of the same name.

Muck was a member of Company E, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and one of about a dozen main characters. The story told of how the soldiers, first meeting in paratrooper school, became like a family.

“They banded together because they were up against so many hardships. That’s why they called themselves the Band of Brothers. If any got injured, they would go to the hospital, get patched up and want to be back with their guys,” said Becky Krurnowski, a 55-year-old niece of Muck.

In her City of Tonawanda home, she has a reminder of her uncle, who was killed Jan. 10, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge.

“A million years ago, my mother gave me the American flag that had covered my uncle’s coffin,” Krurnowski said. “It’s been in my family room for about 20 years now on display.”

Adding a sense of irony, Lewis said, is the fact that Skip Muck and Fritz Niland were best friends before going off to war.

“The sacrifices made by the Muck and Niland families in Tonawanda are just unbelievable,” said Thomas Beilein, a Niland family cousin and former sheriff of Niagara County who now serves as head of the State Commission on Correction.

“As children, we didn’t hear stories about the sacrifices. The family never talked about it. They never held it out there for the world to see. They didn’t wear it on their sleeve,” said Beilein.

The monument will be officially unveiled at 11 a.m. Saturday with members of the Niland and Muck families present. Surviving members of the Band of Brothers, all around 90 years of age, are scheduled to travel here from different parts of the country to attend.

The actor who played Skip Muck, Richard Speight Jr., will also attend and speak at the dedication.

A military flyover and reception are also planned, and HBO has agreed to provide free showings of Band of Brothers after the ceremony in the nearby Riviera Theatre on Webster Street, North Tonawanda.

Pete Niland, son of the late Edward Niland, also is scheduled to speak at the ceremony.

“I’m going to especially thank Rick and Lisa Lewis, who are sponsoring this, and I’m going to make mention that this is an honor not only to our family but to all the Tonawanda families who sacrificed, and there were a number of them,” said Niland.

Lewis said he and his wife have wanted to honor the two families for years and put a spotlight on the City of Tonawanda.

“The area has been very good to my family, and we’re anxious to do some things for the community,” said Lewis, who organized a special committee a year ago with City of Tonawanda Mayor Ronald Pilozzi and representatives from several veterans groups, including Post 264, American Legion.

Pilozzi, a Vietnam veteran who was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor and a Purple Heart, says he feels a special closeness for the monument.

“One of the reasons I’m so proud of it is I was in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam,” Pilozzi said, explaining that Muck and a Niland family member were in the 101st.

The 101st faced its toughest assignment during the Battle of Bastogne, one of the more famous encounters against the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge.

“The 101st Airborne was completely encircled and cut off by the Germans, but they made their stand and held out long enough for Gen. [George S.] Patton to come in and relieve them and basically defeat the Nazis,” Pilozzi said of the division’s bravery.

Describing himself as an amateur historian for the modest working-class City of Tonawanda, Lewis said the memorial will ensure that no one ever forgets the sacrifices and bravery demonstrated by the deceased relatives of the Niland and Muck families.

The City of Tonawanda has a tremendous history of which it can be very, very proud,” he said. “I still have family members there and consider myself an amateur historian of the city.”

The monument, Lewis explained, is designed with enough open space to add additional stones in the future, should Tonawanda want to honor other veterans.

The monument was chiseled and inscribed by Stone Art Memorial Co. of Lackawanna. The grayish colored granite was quarried in Maine. – Military.com

(H/T BK)

Lack of Funds May Force Korean War Museum to Surrender Its Land

A ground-breaking ceremony for the Korean War National Museum in Springfield, Ill., will no longer be taking place this summer – because the museum doesn’t have enough money even to start construction.

According to the museum website, the museum is “well short of financial and operational goals to break ground” due to “the recent economic downturn,” as well as leaders it says were “too optimistic” about their ability to raise funds.

Organizers are now desperately trying to fund the initiative to honor the aging vets before it is too late.

“It’s an effort and an organization that goes back to 1997,” Korean War National Museum Executive Director Ryan Yantis told FoxNews.com.

That was when Robert Kenney, the first president of the board, and his wife, Lorraine, opened up a small storefront in Tuscola, Ill.

“They had, as I understand it, been promised some funding from the state which didn’t materialize,” said Yantis, a Korean War veteran.

Still, the museum gained enough private donations of items and artifacts that it outgrew the small town and was moved to the former Chanute Air Base in Rantoul, Ill.

“It was a nice little museum. The problem is, where’s Rantoul?” said Yantis. “It’s another small town, out in the middle of that southern central portion of Illinois. Difficult to find, difficult to get to, not in a heavily touristed area.

“So in 2008 they decided as they were growing in items and influence that they would move to Springfield and that they would get a plot of ground there and build an $18 million facility, and in the meantime they would open up another storefront museum, and that’s the Dennis J. Healy Freedom Center.”

The Freedom Center went up quickly and is open for business in Springfield with about 6,000 square feet of exhibits, but plans for the larger museum went south.

“Every other tourist aspect of Springfield focuses on Lincoln, and the Korean War National Museum planners figured we’ll move there and the half a million or so tourists a year that come to visit the Lincoln museum will get to see something else; we’ll be another offering,” Yantis said.

“But there’s not that cognitive link between Abraham Lincoln and the Korea War. And Springfield is also primarily a summer season tourist destination; they don’t have a robust attendance in the November-March months.”

Add a crumbling economy and some controversial management decisions and the project collapsed. But now, with a new board and a new plan in place, Yantis says the organizers hope to build a world-class national museum in his — and other vets’ — lifetimes, so they can see their story told.

“We term it not the forgotten war… it’s the forgotten victory,” Yantis said. “The Korean War fit between World War II, which many considered to be a good war, and Vietnam, which a lot of folks really didn’t like. And Korea was this conflict in-between.

“President Truman sent troops over on an executive order, and when asked if it was a war he said, ‘no, no it’s a police action.’ ”

As a result, Yantis said, troops returned from heavy combat to a public that was barely aware of the conflict.

“There was also some resistance from various organizations and even the Veterans Administration. The Korean War veterans would go in and say, ‘Hey, I’m a combat injured vet.’ Well, earlier on, VA said not really, it’s not a war.”

All the while, Yantis says, the country was enjoying the fruits of their sacrifice.

“South Korea was this very feeble, embryonic democracy … but it emerged in the late ’80s as a democratic and economic powerhouse in Asia — it’s the 14th largest economy today, it’s a very vibrant democracy,” he said. “The South Korean government, the South Korean people that we’ve interfaced with, have been very supportive and very appreciative of that success. Forty million people are living in a democracy that wouldn’t have happened, and we’re seeking to help tell the story of that success here.”

Yantis hopes the story can be told at a newly planned facility in the heart of Chicago.

“Right now we’re waiting on a decision from Chicago at Navy Pier, and if we get that bid we’re going to put together a world-class facility there, because Navy Pier is a huge tourist attraction and Chicago is a destination city. Our thought is that Chicago is a base that would support a world-class museum.”

But getting the location approved isn’t the only obstacle in the new museum’s way.

“We understand that Congress and the government have other challenges, but the Korean War National Museum, to our understanding, is the only national museum that’s not receiving support by the federal government,” Yantis said.

Yantis plans to go to Washington, D.C., next month in hopes of garnering government support, but says the museum won’t be waiting around for a bailout. The new board has already made inroads with the South Korean government, private donors and even major companies, he said.

“There needs to be a combination of the people and the government. Previous fund-raising efforts have been on the backs of the veterans. Now it’s time for the corporations that have benefited from 60 years of peace to say ‘we believe that this is a great story to tell.’”

For the people who served, it seems that opportunity can’t come soon enough.

“It would be nice to have a national museum dedicated to the Korean War. It would have been much nicer had the museum been in place 10 years ago when more Korean War veterans would have enjoyed it,” Korean War Veterans Association Director Glen Thompson told FoxNews.com. “Korea War veterans are all about 80 now, and physical impairments will keep many of us away.”

Korean War veteran Frank Metersky agreed that the museum is “long overdue, like anything else having to do with the Korean War,” but said he supports any venture that aims to relay the veterans’ message.

“Anything that they do positive related to the Korean War, particularly with the 60th anniversary of the war is terrific, ” Metersky, a lead activist for Korean War MIA issues, told FoxNews.com.“You know, as Colin Powell said, it’s a victory forgotten, and anything that focuses on that and brings it into proper perspective is fabulous.”

Yantis says aging veterans make it increasingly vital that they get the museum up as soon as possible. But even if it doesn’t happen, he said, it’s important that their story will be told long after they are gone.

“When the war started, 36,000 people gave their lives, over 100,000 were wounded, all to keep from being taken over by the communist north,” Yantis said. “…Understanding why we committed troops on the ground and what their purpose was and understanding in a total sense the victory is a very important thing.” – FOX News

Click here for information on how to donate to Korean War National Museum.

Nurse in Iconic WWII Times Square Kiss Photo Dies

The nurse captured in the iconic 1945 photo of her kissing a U.S. sailor in New York’s Times Square at the end of World War II has died at age 91, her family said.

The photo shows Edith Shain, dressed in her white nurse’s uniform, being dipped and kissed by a jubilant U.S. sailor as V-J Day celebrations roar around them. The image by photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt became one of the most famous photos of the WWII era, and was published in Life magazine.

But the young nurse’s identity was a mystery until the 1970s, when Shain wrote the photographer and said she was the nurse in the photo, taken on Aug. 14, 1945, while she was working at the Doctor’s Hospital in New York City. The sailor’s identity is still unknown.

Shain died Sunday at her Los Angeles home, her family announced Tuesday on her website. She was a registered nurse, kindergarten teacher and public access cable television producer who became famous late in life once her identity in the photo was revealed. She participated in ceremonies on the 50th and 60th anniversaries of V-J Day in 1995 and 2005.

Her son Michael Shain described Eisenstaedt’s photo as having captured “an epic moment in American history, one that inspired patriotism, unity, joy and a spontaneous national pride in victoriously ending the war.”

As a WWII celebrity later in life, Shain devoted herself to helping veterans. “My mom was always willing take on new challenges and caring for the World War II veterans energized her to take another chance to make a difference,” another son, Justin Decker, said on the website.

Shain is survived by three sons, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

by Marc Stockwell-Moniz
ChandlersWatch.com

Paul Revere was an American patriot and silversmith, Paul Revere was born in Boston, Jan. 1, 1735, and died May 10, 1818. Revere became a legendary hero at the start of the American Revolution, when he rode from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass., on the night of Apr. 18, 1775, to warn the countryside of approaching British troops.

An official courier for the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence, Revere arrived in Lexington shortly before another rider, William Dawes, and warned John Hancock and Samuel Adams to escape. Revere then started for Concord accompanied by Dawes and Samuel Prescott but was halted by a British patrol. Only Prescott reached Concord. Revere’s exploit was celebrated in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous (but generally inaccurate) poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride” (1863).

In the above portrait, Paul Revere holds an unfinished silver teapot painted by John Singleton Copley around 1765. The energetic, colorful Revere organized a network of more than 60 fellow artisans that formed the secret heart of Boston’s Revolutionary movement.

His father, Apollos Rivoire (or De Rivoire), was a Huguenot who had gone to Boston while still a boy as a refugee from religious persecution in France. Apprenticed to the silversmith John Coney, Apollos had married Deborah Hitchbourn (Hitchborn), and he gradually Anglicized his name as Paul Revere. As an independent silversmith, the elder Revere had become a man of substance by the time his son Paul was born, in Boston, Mass., on Jan. 1, 1735.

Young Paul learned the trade of silversmith in his father’s shop, and probably attended the North Writing (or Grammar) School while serving his apprenticeship. In 1756 he enlisted for the unsuccessful expedition against the French post at Crown Point, serving as second lieutenant. A few months after his return, in the summer of 1757, he married Sarah (“Sary”) Orne, by whom he was to have eight children.

Revere is remembered as much as a craftsman as he is as a patriot. His anti-British engravings of episodes such as the Boston Massacre were effective propaganda. He cast musket balls and cannon during the war and designed and printed the first Continental currency. After the war he became one of New England’s leading silversmiths and a pioneer in the production of copper plating in America.

Paul Revere Was An Ardent Anti-British Activist

When tension developed between the colonies and the mother country after the end of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), Paul Revere emerged as one of the leaders of the group of artisans who identified themselves with the critics of the policies of the mother country. As a Mason he had already come to be associated with James Otis, Joseph Warren, and other libertarians. He now became a member of various Whig groups, organized and unorganized, such as the Sons of Liberty, the North End Caucus, and the Long Room Club. He was probably a witness of, although not certainly a participant in, the Stamp Act riots and the looting of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson’s house.

Meanwhile, although his fame as a silversmith steadily mounted, business fell off for several years, and Revere turned to other trades to supplement his income. He did copper engraving, although his skill as a draftsman was woefully inadequate, drew political cartoons for the Whig polemicists, published music, and even went in for dentistry, a craft that he soon dropped. He was not only one of the most versatile and outstanding artisans of Boston; he was also an active political leader.

He observed the coming of the customs commissioners and the British troops to Boston in 1768, and published a series of engravings that commemorated the latter event. When the so-called Boston Massacre took place in 1770, he published a famous drawing of the scene that doubtless aroused as much resentment against the British troops as the event itself.

In the years between 1770 and 1773, Revere became an express (mounted messenger) for the Whig patriots of Boston. At the time of the arrival of the tea ships in the autumn of 1773, he rode out to warn the committees of correspondence of the other ports along the coast not to permit the ships to land their cargoes. A little later, after he himself had been one of the “Indians” in the Boston Tea Party, he rode to Pennsylvania for the Boston committee to carry the news of the party to the committees of New York and Philadelphia.

Colonel Paul Revere’s Wartime Services

It was in the spring of 1775 that Revere made the famous ride described by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that placed him among the immortals of the American national tradition. Gen. Thomas Gage, the British military governor of Massachusetts, had decided to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were at Lexington, and to confiscate the military supplies stored by the Whigs at Concord.

On Sunday, April 16, four days before the projected Gage expedition, Revere rode out to Lexington to warn Hancock and Adams, and sent word to the Whigs at Concord to hide the stores. At this time he arranged to signal the patriots by showing two lanterns in Boston’s North Church steeple if the British moved by sea or one if by land.

On the night of Tuesday, April 18, Revere and William Dawes rode out, Dawes by way of Boston Neck and Revere by way of Charlestown, to alert the countryside that the British troops would move the next morning. Revere arrived in Lexington about half an hour before Dawes, and Hancock and Adams fled to Woburn. Revere, Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott started for Concord, but Dawes and Revere were stopped by a British patrol; Prescott got through. Revere was released by the British and returned to Lexington to help in saving John Hancock’s trunk and papers.

During the first years of the war, Revere served as a messenger for the Committee of Safety, with headquarters at Cambridge. He was then commissioned by the Provincial Congress to manufacture gunpowder. He also designed and printed the first issue of Continental money, and made the first official seal for the colonies and the state seal for Massachusetts. After the reoccupation of Boston in 1776, he again took up his old trade. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel and was placed in command of Castle William (Castle Island) in Boston Harbor. Meanwhile he had begun to cast cannon for the American Army.

Paul Revere’s Postwar Years

“Sary” Revere died on May 3, 1773, and Revere married Rachel Walker on October 10. They had eight children. After the war he went into merchandising and, later, bell casting, but silversmithing, with the assistance of his son, continued to be his most dependable and rewarding business. Presently, at the age of 65, he learned how to roll sheet copper and furnished the new sheeting for the dome of the Massachusetts State House and other public buildings, as well as for the hulls of ships in the young American Navy, including the Constitution, for which he had earlier furnished bolts, spikes, braces, and other fittings.

Paul Revere’s outstanding characteristic was the versatility of his craftsmanship; his reputation as an artist in the working of silver is hardly less great or enduring than his fame as a patriot. For him, that famous ride to Lexington was hardly more than an exciting incident that was, in fact, shared by William Dawes. Because of its dramatic nature, however, it is for the ride that he is most popularly remembered by succeeding generations.

by Eric Rauch
American Vision Week In Review
Dec 10, 2009

It could be argued that how you view George Washington is a very good indicator of how you view America as a whole. Washington, like Jefferson and Franklin, is a towering figure (literally in Washington’s case, he was well over six feet tall) of American history, and his very likeness is as symbolic for America as the flag. It seems that every group wants to claim Washington as one of their own—whether they are on the left, the right or somewhere in between. The real question is: which Washington is the real Washington? The staunch patriot, ready to put everything on the line for his country; or the pragmatic politician, the consummate deal-maker? The committed evangelical Christian, approaching every situation humbly on his knees before Almighty God; or the dedicated Mason, loyal only to the ways and patterns of powerful men and prestigious positions? Was Washington the saint that most Christian biographers want us to believe, or was he ever the statesman, keeping up appearances for the sake of the job?

The truth, as is usually the case, is probably somewhere in between the two caricatured extremes. A new reprint of a mid-19th century work, while tending more to the “saintly” view of Washington, should prove to be a valuable resource in the ongoing battle for the historical Washington. The mere fact that it was written within 50 years of his death is enough to set it apart from modern biographies. Anna C. Reed, a niece of one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence, wrote The Life of Washington for the American Sunday School Union in 1842. The book quickly became popular and was subsequently translated into more than 20 languages, making it one of the most widely-read biographies of the time. And since it was originally written for Sunday school children, most modern American adults—hindered as they are by a public school education—should have no trouble reading and understanding Reed’s book.

What I found particularly interesting as I read through The Life of Washington, was not so much the exaltation of Washington himself, but the stories of the supporting characters that surrounded him. Reed spends a fair bit of time developing and discussing several English generals, most notably Generals Howe and Cornwallis. While most pro-Washington works will demonize the English armies to such a degree that the colonials look innocent as doves by comparison, Reed’s account doesn’t take such a simplistic approach. Since she assumes that her readers will understand that Washington is the hero of her tale, she doesn’t feel the need to portray the English as blood-thirsty heathen or describe the colonials as the victims. Because of this, the personalities of the opposing armies become more human, and the difficulties they face in their impossible task of conquering a determined people in an unfamiliar land receives more sympathy. The definitive historical interpretation of the bad guys wearing the redcoats and the good guys wearing the torn coats (or no coats at all), doesn’t get an easy pass in Reed’s book. She presents Washington as a mediator between his own men as much as she presents him as a warrior and commander on the battlefield. The apocryphal story of the “swear jar” is a case in point where the reality is far more instructive:

It was in the summer of this year [1779], that General Washington took measures to suppress the habit of profane swearing which prevailed in the army. The following general order is sufficiently illustrative of his views of that most vulgar and impious practice.

“Many and pointed orders have been issued against that unmeaning and abominable custom, SWEARING. Notwithstanding which, with much regret the general observes that it prevails, if possible, more than ever—his feelings are continually wounded by the oaths and imprecations of the soldiers; whenever he is in hearing of them, the name of that Being from whose bountiful goodness we are permitted to enjoy the comforts of life, is incessantly imprecated and profaned in a manner as wanton as it is shocking: for the sake therefore of religion, decency, and order, the general hopes and trusts, that officers of every rank would use their influence and authority to check a vice which is as unprofitable as it is wicked and shameful. If officers would make it an invariable rule to reprimand, and if that does not do, to punish soldiers for offences of this kind, it could not fail of having its intended effect.” (p. 129-130)

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From this general order to his officers, Washington reveals far more than his distaste for swearing. At a deeper level, it shows what he expected and required of the men serving under him, not only the soldiers, but the officers as well. It would have been easy enough for Washington to address the men himself, giving this general order verbally, with the power of the general rank to back it up. But he delegates the responsibility to his officers, expecting that they will be ready and willing to see it through. Washington trusts the chain of command and this makes his men trust it too.

But there is something else behind this general order that the observant reader should notice. Many of the soldiers in Washington’s army were mere boys, probably away from home for the first time. As the scourge of swearing galloping through the camps, we should recognize a mass of frightened young boys trying to be men. In this general order that Anna Reed uses to exemplify Washington’s piety, it also reveals the fragile humanity of a new nation’s youth, being thrust into a life and death struggle for their futures. Their idle swearing and careless language is a mask that they wear to hide their fear. Washington knows this, and he takes the opportunity to encourage his officers to disciple his soldiers, rather than inflicting yet more fear on his already terrified men. It’s these “stories behind the story” that make The Life of Washington such a fascinating read.

It is also interesting to note that Reed begins her book, not with Washington’s birth, but with the childhood of another famed historical figure: Christopher Columbus. She follows on at a breakneck pace giving the shortest history lesson of the years between 1492 and 1682: 13 pages. But the point is made clear—Washington’s life history is meaningless without all of the events that preceded it. The life story of George Washington is not an isolated 67 years. Washington, in the providence and sovereignty of God, was born at just the right time. Reed understands this and wants her readers to understand it as well. Although she can at times make Washington seem to be more than a mere man, she knows that the where and the when of the man was no accident, but the working of an ordaining and sustaining Creator God. In fact, after praising many of Washington’s admirable qualities, she closes her book with this reminder:

But, remember, Washington directed his countrymen to a higher example than his; he said that he earnestly prayed that they might follow that of “THE DIVINE AUTHOR OF OUR BLESSED RELIGION;” and the Bible, the sacred book which makes known that example, you should value as the crown of all your blessings; for in it, you may learn how to secure their continuance through this short life, and how to obtain that blissful gift of God, “Eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

Abigail Adams stood on a hilltop near her farm in Braintree, Massachusetts. It was June 17,1775. Abigail Adams, along with her seven-year-old son John Quincy, watched the epic Battle of Bunker Hill unfold several miles away on the Charlestown peninsula. That evening she wrote a letter to her husband John Adams. John was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving as a representative from Massachusetts in the First Continental Congress. She wrote to lament the facts of the day to John. It would be one of the many letters she would write to him during the revolution. She wrote that the Americans had inflicted heavy casualties on the British and that she feared total warfare was now imminent. Her words were prophetic; the war had already begun.
Abigail Adams had no formal schooling. However, she eagerly gathered knowledge from her extensive reading of literature and history. She always spoke her mind and gave her opinion on public issues to John and the other revolutionary leaders.
Abigail Adams had learned to cope with her absent politician husband. For many years, John had been serving as a diplomat both at home and abroad. Abigail Adams, therefore, became a successful merchant and farmer. Self taught and self reliant she learned how to farm and manage a business. She was a prominent woman of her era. When John returned home he would consult with her on the pressing issues of the day. He often referred to his wife as “my top advisor. Probably John didn’t always agree with Abigail, but he knew she had many valid and heartfelt suggestions. Unlike most woman of her day, Abigail Adams supported women’s rights. John however, was reluctant to support women’s rights. He thought the new nation was not ready for women’s rights. Abigail Adams pushed for better education for females. One of her famous suggestions to her husband was, “Remember the Ladies.” She was one of America’s first abolitionists. She spoke out against slavery. She understood that the institution of slavery was contrary to everything that the United States stood for.
In the summer of 1784, after the United States secured independence from Britain, Abigail Adams rejoined John in France. He was on a diplomatic mission and had just recently signed the Treaty of Paris.
Abigail Adams continued to advise her husband. Although not an official diplomat of the United States, she promoted the new American nation to her French friends. Abigail Adams became good friends with Martha Washington when John was serving as Vice-President. John was in the first and second administrations of President George Washington. In 1796, after Washington’s term ended, John Adams was elected as the second president of the United States. When John Quincy Adams became the sixth president of the United States, in 1824, Abigail Adams became the first woman to be both wife and mother to a president of the United States.
Abigail Adams rests with her husband John in the United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts. She died in Massachusetts of typhoid fever, in 1818, at age 73.

Baron Friedrick Wilhelm von Steuben-Prussian Drill Master

In 1747, Baron Friedrick Wilhelm von Steuben, was a seventeen year old Prussian officer. He served in the Prussian Army until he was thirty three. In 1763, he was discharged for unknown reasons. von Steuben retired into private life and worked as a chamberlain at the court of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. von Steuben gained the title of Baron at this court. (1) He then immigrated to France in 1771 and attempted unsuccessfully to gain an officer’s commission in several European armies.

By 1777, von Steuben’s military reputation had led him to the attention of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was then in Paris as America’s representative to the French crown. On Franklin’s recommendation, the former Prussian officer eventually made his way to the United States that year. von Steuben carried with him documents that promised him a Continental Army officer’s commission. Franklin had written a letter to General George Washington introducing von Steuben as a former lt. general in the King of Prussia’s army. Actually, von Steuben was no more than a captain in Frederick the Great’s army; however, von Steuben knew how to train military troops and this is what the American Army needed in the winter of 1777-1778. Congress commissioned him a major general and appointed him Inspector General of the army on the recommendation of General Washington. (2)

When von Steuben joined the American Army, he immediately ordered that the men be trained by officers and not sergeants. He knew that this was the quickest and easiest way to build discipline and professionalism in the American camp at Valley Forge. von Steuben believed that the men needed to have more direct contact with their officers and that the officers needed to work on their commands to the troops. The Prussian initially trained a small core of about one hundred men. Soon, all the soldiers were striving to be like the chosen one hundred. During the pitiful winter encampment at Valley Forge, the Baron managed to mold the whole American Army into a viable fighting force. von Steuben wrote the American Army’s first training manual called, “Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States”. This manual was commonly known as the “Blue Book”. von Steuben spoke no English, the book’s translation was written by Lt. Colonel Alexander Hamilton, then an aide-de-camp to General Washington. At times, von Steuben must have seemed comical to the troops. When the troops did not perform up to his standards, he would curse them in German, then French, and if that did not work, he would have an aide curse them in English.

Major General von Steuben’s experience and leadership changed the American Army from a “rag-tag” mix of regulars and colonial militiamen into a professional army capable of resisting the most powerful army on earth. Without von Steuben’s training, the American Army surely would have suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Barren Hill. But because von Steuben trained them well; the American Army narrowly escaped a crushing defeat and made an orderly retreat. von Steuben’s transformation of the American Army was an extraordinary achievement.

Shortly after the Battle of Barren Hill, the Americans fought the British to a draw at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey. von Steuben was first to realize that the British were heading for Monmouth, and his leadership helped steady the American Army during the battle. General Washington and Lt. Colonel Alexander Hamilton also fought at that battle.

General Washington had the full confidence of von Steuben, as von Steuben became the Commander-in-Chief’s representative to Congress in 1779.

When the Southern campaigns of the war were underway, in the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia, von Steuben was still fighting along side of General Washington. At the last great battle of the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, von Steuben was appointed a division commander. He witnessed the surrender of British Commander Lord Charles Cornwallis and the grand British Army, in October, of 1781.
Major General Baron von Steuben helped in the demobilization of the American Army after the war. He then retired to New York State. A grateful New York gave von Steuben, 16,000 acres of land. This land was secured with the help of his good friend, Alexander Hamilton. (3)

Major General Baron von Steuben was the first professional “drill master” and teacher of the young American Army. He is the man most responsible for it’s inception into professionalism. Von Steuben died in 1794 an American citizen and Revolutionary War hero.

The unwary pedestrian who is lured into using Hamilton Place as a possible short cut from Tremont to Washington Street is likely to find himself wandering into a department store or theater without any very clear idea of how he got there, for the street ends unexpectedly in the entrances to Gilchrist’s and the Orpheum.

Hamilton Place was the site of Boston’s first large manufacturing project and it was also the locale of a battle in which a British regiment was put to rout by an army of one lone man.

A long time ago, about 1718, a group of emigrants arrived from Londonderry bringing with them the tools and skills necessary for the manufacture of linen. Very welcome they were. The Boston women had gotten along with coarse homespun, but they had never liked it. The thought of linen was to them as is catnip to a kitten. They all wanted to learn the new craft. The men were in favor of the idea, especially as the women would do all the work, so the legislature voted to establish a spinning school. An excise tax was laid on carriages and other luxuries to finance the plan, and the Manufactory House, 140 feet long, was built. A female figure, distaff in hand, ornamented the facade.

Spinning became the rage. The Manufactory House was crowded to the doors, and those who could not be accommodated there took their wheels to the Common and spun, like spiders, in the open air.

Like all fads the “spinning craze” wore itself out in two or three years, and, the Manufactory House was rented by the Province to private families.

This brings us to the amazing story of Boston’s one-man army. In 1769, when the British troops held possession of the town, a Mr. Elisha Brown was living at the Manufactory House.

Colonel Dalrymple was expected to arrive at any moment with his regiment, the Fourteenth Royal Regulars, and it was Governor Bernard’s duty to find a barracks where they could be quartered. The huge Manufactory House seemed to be ideal for the purpose, so the governor sent a formal and official notice to Mr. Brown that he was to vacate the premises forthwith.

Elisha, feeling that his home was his castle, refused to leave. The enraged governor wrote an order of eviction which was served by Sheriff Greenleaf. Brown tore it up. The sheriff and his deputies forced an entrance into the cellar. Brown locked them in. A file of soldiers from the Common rescued them but could not force an entrance into the house.

Meanwhile Colonel Dalrymple and his regiment arrived, encamped on the Common, and kept the Manufactory House surrounded by soldiers day and night. For seventeen days Mr. Brown endured the state of siege and kept possession of his house. He barred the windows and doors and was living comfortably on the family supplies. In those days one did not run to the store every day or so. Each family kept enough staples on hand to last for weeks, so Elisha had no food problem. Finally, completely out-maneuvered, Colonel Dalrymple withdrew and quartered his soldiers in Faneuil Hall.

Elisha Brown died in August, 1785, at the age of sixty-five years and was buried in the Old Granary Burying Ground where on his gravestone we may still read of his valiant deeds.

ELISHA BROWN

of BOSTON

who in Octr 1769, during 17 days

Inspired with

a generous Zeal for the laws

bravely and successfully

opposed a whole British Regt

in their violent attempt

to FORCE him from his

legal Habitation

Happy Citizen when call’d singly

to be a Barrier to the Liberties

of a Continent

Salem Poor – Recognized Courage

At least three-dozen African-Americans are known to have fought at the legendary Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. But the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony recognized the courage of only one African-American during that battle: a patriot named Salem Poor. Unfortunately, not much is known about Salem Poor. We do know that he was born into slavery at Andover, Massachusetts, in the late 1740’s. The General Court issued a proclamation in honor of Salem Poor in December of 1775, only six months after the battle. The document said; “Salem Poor behaved like an experienced officer, and in this man centers a brave and gallant soldier”. Fourteen officers signed the document, including the Massachusetts commanding officer, Colonel William Prescott. Prescott had fought along side Poor in the small earthen redoubt.

During the night of June16, 1775, Salem Poor’s regiment under the command of Colonel William Prescott, was sent to Bunker Hill to build fortifications in Charlestown. Poor is said to have slain the popular British officer, Major John Pitcairn, as well as many other British redcoats. Pitcairn led third and final fatal charge of British marines on the American redoubt. Pitcairn was the same British officer who, only two months earlier, had marched the regulars to Lexington and Concord in the failed attempt to capture Sam Adams and John Hancock.

In 1776, Salem Poor and the newly formed Continental Army marched to New York. Poor saw action again at the Battle of Saratoga. This important American victory convinced the French to become militarily involved on behalf of the Americans. Poor also endured the hardships of the cold winter camp at Valley Forge in 1777-1778.

The professionalism and bravery of Salem Poor and other African-American soldiers unfortunately did not persuade the Continental Congress to enlist more African-American patriots. Southern representatives to the Continental Congress opposed this measure. Their states feared that if many African-Americans enlisted, slaves would revolt and fight for the British. The Northern delegates, anxious for unity, joined with the Southern delegates. The Continental Congress ordered General Washington to stop recruiting African-Americans.

By 1777-1778, the war was going badly for the American Army. General Washington’s manpower crisis continued to grow. By early 1778, General Washington was desperate for American soldiers. General Washington decided to defy Congress. General Washington continued to enlist African-Americans. Congress had little choice but to approve General Washington’s decision. The American states subsequently began to offer freedom to slaves in return for their military service.

Salem Poor was an American fighting for the liberties that he was denied at birth. There is no record of his death. His courage at the Battle of Bunker Hill made him an American Revolutionary War hero, and his patriotism will forever stand as an example to all Americans who cherish freedom.