Fighting For Naught!

In the War of 1812, the British set fire to Washington, D.C. President James Madison had to flee and hide. We all know the story of his wife, Dolly Madison, saving some of the White House's treasures. The British were elated by their victory, which emboldened them to continue.

Sir Edward Pakenham led his troops to attack the Americans at New Orleans on January 8, 1815. He had his men line up in several horizontal lines.

On the American side were Andrew Jackson and Tennesseans, Kentuckians, Creoles, and pirates. The men had not trained or fought together.

The two armies faced off. Andrew Jackson had his men take cover behind breastworks. Jackson told his men to hold fire until the Redcoats were at close range. Wave after wave of British soldiers marched forward and met the Americans' volleys. Finally, the Lobsterbacks (British soldiers) retreated.

Jackson's men sang, "Behind it stood our little force-None wished it to be greater: For every man was half a horse and half an alligator." They sang it to the tune of "Hail, Columbia."

On the British side, seven hundred men were dead, including Sir Edward Pakenham, fourteen hundred wounded, and five hundred prisoners. On the American side, eight men died, and thirteen men were wounded.
Neither side knew a treaty had been signed between the United States and Great Britain two weeks earlier on December 24, 1814.

* Information is from Shocking Secrets of American History by Bill Coate.

** Breastworks: a temporary fortification, often a breast high earthwork thrown up to provide protection to defenders firing over it from a standing position. 

The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Newspaper, and the New York Stock Exchange.

Our U.S. Constitution is often in the news these days, so I thought I would share some facts.

Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution in 1787, and New Hampshire was the ninth on June 21, 1788. We became a nation. However, some states thought the Constitution didn't protect individual freedoms enough.

James Madison presented to the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789, 12 amendments. He hounded the members until Congress sent them to the president. George Washington forwarded them to the states for ratification. Ten were formally adopted.

On September 24, 1789, George Washington signed the Judiciary Act, which created the federal court system. The Supreme Court was created in 1891 so the judges would not have to ride a circuit to hear cases. George Washington submitted the first six men as nominees.

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In 1792 the country was in its first financial panic, and there were runs on the banks.

On May 17, 24 New York stockbrokers met under a buttonwood tree and agreed to set rules for trading to bolster public faith in the markets. This was the first step to the creation of the New York Stock Exchange.

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Noah Webster, a writer, editor, and Federalist, launched his newspaper. The American Minerva, Patroness of Peace, Commerce, and the Liberal Arts. He pledged it would be chaste and impartial.

The paper was renamed in 1797 and in 1904, and it was published continuously for 130 years. The Sun paper absorbed it in 1923.

Hi, everyone. A wonderful guy made a video trailer for one of my books. If you ever need a trailer, let me know, and I will recommend him.

I wanted to share it with you. So, no history facts this time, although the book has history in it.   

The website is https://www.writingwater. 

                            The Mob of 1770

Snowball fights can be fun. However, the snowball fight outside the Boston Custom House on March 5, 1770, turned deadly.

Eight British soldiers under the command of British Captain Thomas Preston were besieged by a mob of colonial dock workers, pelting them with snowballs in an unfriendly fight.

The soldiers fired into the mob and killed five of them.

Samuel Adams published the story, and it was known as the Boston Massacre. Bostonians loudly demanded justice.

If the captain had been found guilty, all the blame would be on him. But if found not guilty, the blame would be put on the soldiers. The captain was found to be not guilty. So the British authorities made the eight Redcoats scapegoats.

The men knew they needed a good lawyer. John Adams, an ardent anti-British patriot, felt it was his duty and took on their case.

The soldiers and Mr. Adams were ridiculed in court, and Adams faced cold stares and hostility on the streets. 

The defense attorney, John Adams, argued the mob was an unlawful assembly. The soldiers had no choice but to defend themselves. His argument persuaded the jury to declare six of the Redcoats not guilty and two guilty of manslaughter. The two men found guilty chose to be branded rather than go to prison, which was part of the common law at the time. No one went to prison.

John Adams later became the second President of the United States.

"Lord, Help The Fish!"

We have all heard of Sam Houston and his part in the Alamo. But did you know he ran away from home in Tennessee when he was a teenager? He lived with the Cherokee and was named Raven. He served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 182. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1823, and he was elected as the governor of Tennessee in 1827.

He was the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and represented Texas in the United States Senate. He was the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas. He is the only person to be elected governor of two different US states.

He married Eliza Allen in 1829, but after 11 weeks, they divorced as she was in love with another man. However, some dispute that. They separated, as she was Catholic.

In 1830, he entered the US House of Representatives and beat William Stanbery with a cane over accusations of fraud. The House convicted Houston, and the Speaker, Andrew Stenson, reprimanded him, and a federal court ordered Houston to pay $500 in damages.

He went to live with the Cherokees and married Dianna Rogers, the daughter of a Cherokee chief and a Scots-Irish trader. They lived together for many years. When Sam moved back to Texas, she went back to her people and later remarried.

Houston, now 47, married for the third time. Margaret Moffette Lea was 21. They had eight children. She was a Baptist and influenced Sam to stop drinking and "acting out." (I was able to find a definition for acting out.)

In 1850, he agreed to be baptized. It was set for November 19, 1854. His friends thought it was a joke, and they filled the area for the baptism with tree limbs and debris. Houston had made up his mind, and he was immersed in Little Rocky Creek. When coming out, he said, "Reverend, you've baptized my pocketbook." The reverend replied, "Thank God, I wish it could have happened to the pocketbook of every Baptist.

Later, Houston met a friend who said, "Well, General, I hear your sins were washed away the other day." Houston said, "Yes, that's true. Lord help the fish."

Sam, age 70, died on July 26, 1863. The inscription on his tomb reads:

A Brave Soldier. A Fearless Statesman.

A Great Orator—A Pure Patriot.

A Faithful Friend, A Loyal Citizen.

A Devoted Husband and Father.

A Consistent Christian—An Honest Man.

If you want to know how Sam Houston, with his ragtag army of about 200, defeated Santa Anna with his thousand, read my book Wild River. He did it with the help of Emily Morgan, a mulatto woman. (Also known as the Yellow Rose of Texas). (Sh-sh-sh, don't tell the Daughters of the Texas Revolution, as they are not happy about Emily's contribution.) It is on Amazon and my website, https://www.writingwater. It should come up on the menu as Home- Writing Water

 

                      Stalked by Tragedy

Lincoln's death seemed to bring tragedy to other people.

Henry and Clara Rathbone attended the play at Ford's Theatre. They were startled by Lincoln's assassination. Sometime later, they decided to move to Germany. There, Henry killed his wife and ended up in an insane asylum.

The soldier who shot John Wilkes Booth was Boston Corbett. In 1887, he was arrested for brandishing a gun at the Kansas State Legislature. He was sent to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane. He escaped and was never seen again. In his civilian life, he was a hatter, and scientists now think he had mercury poisoning because of his work.

Ann Suratt was the daughter of Mary Suratt. Mary conspired with Booth to kill President Lincoln and was sentenced to be executed. Ann Suratt wanted President Johnson to grant her mother clemency. Ex-Senator Preston King and Senator James H. Lane prevented her from seeing Johnson. Her mother, Mary, was executed. 

The ex-senator Preston King committed suicide by jumping off a ferryboat on the Hudson River with a bag of bullets tied around his neck

The next year, Senator Lane killed himself in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Dr. Anson G. Henry, who helped Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln get back to Illinois. He died on July 30, 1865, drowned when the steamer in which he was a passenger sank off the coast of California.

In 1875, Mary Todd Lincoln was sent to the state hospital for the insane. Scientists now think she had migraines, Pernicious Anemia (vitamin B12 deficiency), and bipolar disorder. 

Abraham Lincoln wrote a Murder mystery when he was a lawyer in Illinois. It is now in the public domain. I am working on a book of six short stories, and I am including his as he wrote it. I am also including in the book, as one of the short stories, my telling of the same story. 

                       Abraham Lincoln's Children

                              Tragedy followed Lincoln's children.

Willie and Tad with their mother. The picture is courtesy of Edward Anthony.

Mr. Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln had four children: Robert, Edward, Willie, and Tad.

Edward died before his father became president. His passing was on February 1, 1850, at 3 years and 11 months from chronic consumption, which we now call tuberculosis.

Tad died July 15, 1871. Scientists are not sure if it was from tuberculosis, pleurisy, pneumonia, or congestive heart failure. He was 18.

Willie died from typhoid fever on February 20, 1862, at the age of eleven years.

Robert, ironically, was rescued from a moving train by Edwin Booth, the elder brother of John Wilkes Booth.

When he heard his father was shot, he rushed to his bedside and stayed with him throughout the night.

Robert graduated from Harvard University, joined the army, and served on General Ulysses S. Grant's staff. He later became the minister to Great Britain. He traveled with President Garfield as Secretary of War when the president was shot at the Washington, D.C., railroad station and was with him when the president died.

Then he became the president of the Pullman Company of Chicago. He attended the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, with President William McKinley. He witnessed the president being assassinated.

Enough was enough. He had witnessed three presidential assassinations. He retired to his summer retreat in Manchester, Vermont, where he became a recluse. 

He died at the age of 83 of a cerebral hemorrhage. He is the only one not buried in the Lincoln family plot in Springfield, Illinois.

Information from Shocking Secrets of American history by bill Coate

The next blog will be about what happened after Lincoln was shot.