NOVEMBER 22 = JFK is Murdered

John F. Kennedy is Murdered

On today's date in 1963, our nations 35'th president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot while in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Governor John Connally of Texas, who was riding with Kennedy was also shot. The presidential limousine sped on to Parkland Memorial Hospital. There, President Kennedy was pronounced dead. Governor Connally was seriously wounded, but would eventually recover. Shortly after the President was murdered, a man named Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged with the crime. Two days later, while being transferred to another police facility, Oswald was himself assassinated by a Dallas nightclub owner, one Jack Ruby. The new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson soon appointed a panel of eminent Americans (pictured below with Lyndon Johnson) to investigate the crime. Led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, the panel, known as the "Warren Commission", concluded after a probe lasting several months that Oswald acted alone, and that Ruby did as well. No conspiracy either foreign or domestic was found to have been involved in either of the murders.

The Public Skepticism Over the Warren Commission's Report

Those are the bare facts of the case. Ever since the Warren Com- mission's report came out, there have been many questions raised as to the findings of the Warren Report. A veritable industry of conspiracy theories and theorists has grown up around this event. There are many reasons for this. One reason is that the American public has grown up since that time. Our government has since then been found to have lied to us on numerous occasions. The whole experience of Vietnam, Watergate, and other cases has greatly reduced the public's willingness to accept the government's word on matters of importance.

Questions About the Death of J.F.K.

And the particulars of JFK's death do indeed lend themselves to considerable skepticism. There were any number of groups who would have been happy to see JFK dead. The Soviets, who had just been faced down in a standoff over the presence of Missiles in Cuba certainly had reasons. And the accused killer, Oswald, had at one time defected to the Soviet Union. He also had attempted to defect to Cuba. That country's leader, Fidel Castro, certainly had no love for JFK. The attempted invasion of his country by US-backed rebels in the Bay of Pig's fiasco had left him and his government very wary of American intentions. On the home front, the President's brother Robert F. Kennedy had as the U.S. Attorney General been conducting successful probes against leaders of organized crime in the U.S. And Oswald's killer, Jack Ruby had had links to organized crime. Further, although it was not known until some years later, RFK had been in charge of US efforts to assassinate Castro. Indeed, while he publicly accepted the Warren Commission's conclusions, LBJ himself is now known to have believed that Castro had simply gotten to JFK before JFK got to Castro.

The Substance of J.F.K.

But the whole merry-go-round of conspiracy theories and theorists will be dealt with on November 24, the day that Oswald himself was shot. I want on this day to remember our murdered president. Much has been written about the magic qualities which he brought to the presidency, the glamour and the optimism. This author thinks that rather too much has been written about that. There was more than enough about JFK to point to him as a man of real substance and vision and to make him and his presidency worthy of study and also to make much of what he represented worthy of admiration. Yes, there were plenty of aspects of the man that were quite negative. His frequently cut-throat approach to politics, his persistent womanizing, which put him and his presidency at risk, as well as his policies all had things about them to concern anyone. The man was no saint, and his presidency was not all that successful at the time of his death.

"National Review" on the Death of J.F.K.

But his presidency had more than a year left to go when he was murdered. And we are now left with the tantalizing, yet melancholy consideration of what might have been. As to the meaning of his life and his presidency, I would like to quote the conservative magazine "National Review" which said at the time that Kennedy's loss would be grieved:

".... not because (his) policies were so universally beloved, but because he was a man so intensely charming, whose personal vigor and robust enjoyment of life so invigorated almost all who beheld him. The metabolism of the whole nation rose on account of the fairyland quality of the First Family. After all, no divine type caster could have done better than to get JFK to play JFK, Jackie to play Jackie, and the children to play themselves."



READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!!  You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at:  krustybassist@gmail.com  I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!

Source :


"J.F.K. - The Man and the Myth" by Victor Lasky. Arlington House, New Rochelle, New York,
1966. pp. xi to xii.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy

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NOVEMBER 21 = Lincoln's (?) Letter to Mrs. Bixby

An officer tells General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, that a Private by the name of
Ryan is apparently the sole survivor of four sons of one woman, and that he is somewhere in Normandy, and very much in the thick of the fighting. And the question is, should he be found and pulled out even though finding him may prove very difficult, and may cost the lives of other soldiers? General Marshall, as tough and hard-nosed a soldier as has ever lived says to the officers around him to listen to a letter he has. He goes to his desk and produces a piece of paper, from which  he recites - mostly from memory - the letter from President Abraham Lincoln to a Mrs. Bixby, who had lost five sons during the American Civil War:

November 21, 1864

To Mrs. Lydia Bixby.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln

General Marshall then orders that Private Ryan be found and gotten "the hell out of there." This was a very moving moment from a fine movie.  Although the letter was real, the story was of course fictional, and it went on to quite deservedly win the Academy Award in 1998 for "Best Picture of the Year". But a very untidy fact of history is that the letter to Mrs. Bixby, written on today's date in 1864, and later published in the Boston Herald, was probably not written by Abraham Lincoln, and Mrs. Bixby was actually a southern sympathizer who did not lose five sons in battle.

Mrs. Bixby - A Rebel at Heart, and Possibly Worse...

First of all, the Mrs. Lydia Bixby to whom it was addressed (pictured, left) was apparently a Confederate sympathizer who may also have been "a Madam". Sarah Cabot Wheelwright, was a Boston woman who knew Mrs. Bixby during the Civil War, wrote about her that she was “a stout woman, more or less motherly-looking, but with shifty eyes.” Wheelwright had thought of hiring Mrs. Bixby until she received a police report to the effect "that she kept a house of ill-fame, was perfectly untrustworthy and as bad as she could be.” Further, Mrs. Bixby's grandchildren and great grandchildren very distinctly recall being told not only that Mrs. Bixby was a southern sympathizer, who had little good to say about President Lincoln, but also that the letter made her so angry that she destroyed it. The part about Mrs. Bixby being a "Madam" may be apocryphal, but that she destroyed the letter is likely true, as the original has never been found. There have been many copies of it which have surfaced over the years, but these have all been found to be forgeries.

Mrs. Bixby's Sons. She Did Lose TWO in Battle.

As to the actual fate of Mrs. Bixby's five sons, the historical record is a bit clearer (see also the letter written below on the details of Mrs. Bixby's sons). Two of her sons, Sgt. Charles N. Bixby, Company D, 20th Massachusetts, and Cpl. George A. Bixby, Company H, 25th Massachusetts were in fact killed in action. Another, Cpl. Henry C. Bixby, Company K, 32nd Massachusetts, was captured and later released. A fourth son, Pvt. Arthur Edward Bixby, Company C, Massachusetts 1st Heavy Artillery joined the army underage and was ordered discharged for that reason, but had gone AWOL by that time. The fifth son, Cpl. George A. Bixby, Company H, 25th Massachusetts, may have been captured, or may have deserted to the enemy, but his precise fate is unknown. However he was apparently not killed in action. A report to Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, regarding the father of five sons serving in the war, reached the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, William Schouler, and was sent by him to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.  Somewhere along  this route through official channels, the information got changed  to read that ALL of the Bixbys had been killed.  This was the information which was delivered along with the records of the five sons to President Lincoln and at that point the letter was written. The claims by some writers that Mrs. Bixby lied about the death of all five of her sons, in order to gain some sort of monetary reward are not beyond Mrs. Bixby's character, but are largely speculative. The woman may simply have been as misinformed about her sons as the Adjutant General was.

Did President Lincoln Actually Write the Letter?

On this point, the record once again becomes rather murky. It is because the original of the letter has never been found that it cannot be said for certain to have been written by our 16'th President. It was later claimed by Lincoln's Assistant Private Secretary John Hay (pictured, right) according to Hay's associates, that he had written the letter on Lincoln's behalf. The letter did come during a time at which Lincoln was extraordinarily busy with his re-election campaign, and Hay did say that Lincoln was unable to read many of the letters which were sent to him. Further, some analysis of the letter in comparison to the other known writings of the two men does lend itself to some doubts as to Lincoln's authorship. For example nowhere else in Lincoln's writings is the word "beguile" used. Whereas it frequently appears in the known writings of Hay. But whomever the actual author of the letter may have been, the greatness of the man, and the meaning of the letter remain beyond question. As Michael Burlingame, who wrote the article "The Trouble With the Bixby Letter" in "American Heritage" Magazine in the summer of 1999 concluded:

"The author of the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural will always command the world’s admiration. As a journalist wrote in 1925, “If under the merciless hand of investigation it should be shown that this remarkable document was not only based upon misinformation but was not the composition of Lincoln himself, the letter to Mrs. Bixby would still remain … ‘One of the finest specimens of pure English extant.’” The letter can never diminish the status of Lincoln, but it deserves to elevate that of John Hay. And of course it has long since won Mrs. Bixby a most unlikely immortality."

READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!! You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at: krustybassist@gmail.com I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!

Sources:

http://www.americanheritage.com/content/trouble-bixby-letter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_to_Mrs._Bixby

"Saving Private Ryan" Released by Dreamworks Paramount Pictures, 1998; directed by Steven Spielberg.

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NOVEMBER 19 = Lincoln Gives his Gettysburg Address

"I was close to the President and heard all of the Address, but it seemed short. Then there was an impressive silence like our Menallen Friends Meeting*. There was no applause when he stopped speaking."
- Sarah A. Cooke Myers

This is how Mrs. Sarah Cooke Myers recalled the reaction which greeted Abraham Lincoln after he finished his Address at Gettysburg which he delivered on today's date, November 19 in 1863. The Battle of Gettysburg was the largest military engagement ever fought in North America. For three days - July 1, 2 and 3 in the summer of 1863 the once peaceful farmlands of Pennsylvania were soaked with blood as the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of Robert E. Lee clashed head-on with the Army of the Potomac under the command of George G. Meade. The result was victory for the Union as Lee's second invasion of the North was driven back. While the Confederate Armies would never again penetrate so far into the north, Lincoln was furious that Meade had not followed up the victory by attacking Lee's army as it retreated back into the south. But by November of that year all of this was in the past. Lincoln now was warily eyeing his prospects for re-election the following year. And the citizens of Gettysburg had cleaned up the scene of death and destruction that had been the battlefield. A new national cemetery marked the final resting place of those killed in the battle.

Lincoln Was Invited for a "Few Appropriate Remarks"

By November, the cemetery had been completed, and was ready to be dedicated. The Governor of Pennsylvania had charged an attorney, David Wills with the task of arranging the cemetery for the more than 7,500 men who fell during those three days, and for a solemn ceremony

to mark that dedi- cation. Many digni- taries were to be present, including six gover- nors, as well as Army officers, members of the President's cabinet, and a large number of local residents. Wills had arranged for the celebrated statesman and orator Edward Everett to deliver the main address - something that would be suitably exalted and solemn as befitted the occasion. The President was invited almost as if by afterthought, to deliver a few appropriate remarks. Well Everett's oration was indeed grand and flowing - lasting more than two hours. Lincoln listened to Everett's words quite intently. Others standing on the outskirts of the crowd drifted away. Secretary of State Seward who was bothered by the bright sun sat with his arms folded, and his hat drawn over his eyes. Then Lincoln rose to speak.

"Although a heavy fog clouded the heavens in the morning during the procession, the sun broke out in all it's brilliancy during the Reverend Mr. Stockton's prayer and shone upon the magnificent spectacle. The assemblage was of great magnitude, and was gathered around within a circle of great extent around the stand which was located on the highest point of ground on which the battle was fought. A long line of military surrounded the position taken by the immense multitude of people."

Lincoln Delivers a Short, Quick Masterpiece

As reported above in the New York Times the next morning, it was a sunny scene with a large crowd who no doubt strained to hear Lincoln speak, if it had not already been put to sleep by Everett's long winded remarks. There were in fact photographers present for the occasion, but it took some time for them to get set up for their pictures to be shot.

After Everett's address, one photographer, David Bachrach likely guessed that the President would go on for a similar amount of time, and thus was not ready to take a full picture of the president in the astonishingly short three minutes that it took for Lincoln to speak. By the time he actually got his shot in, the president had already left the podium and was taking his seat. Thus we have only the rather blurry image above. Reports differ as to the reaction which the president received. The Times reported that the address was interrupted several times by applause and that he finished to "Long continued applause". Whereas we have the report of Mrs. Cooke above saying that there was little or no applause at all. The pro-Republican Springfield Times said that the address was " a perfect gem". The Democratic favoring Chicago Sun Times said: "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States." Whereas Edward Everett (Pictured above, left) himself made his reaction clear in a letter to Lincoln which he wrote the next day: "Mr. President, I would flatter myself if I came as close to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you came in two minutes." The full text of Lincolns extraordinary address {Click on image below to enlarge}:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate...we can not consecrate...we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

* = Menallen Friends = A religious brotherhood of Pennsylvania Quakers.



READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!!  You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at:  krustybassist@gmail.com  I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address

THE NEW YORK TIMES..... Book of the Civil War....Ed. by Arleen Keylin Douglas John Bowen, Arno Press, New York 1980, pp. 194 - 195.

"The Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery and Lincoln's Address: Aspects and Angles"  
by Frank J. Klement, White Mane Publ. Inc. pp. 104 -105.













Images:

Broad image = http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/speechgfx/gettys.jpg
Close-up image = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address

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NOVEMBER 16 = Pizzaro Conquers the Inca

"So many tents were visible that it truly frightened us. We never thought that Indians could maintain such a magnificent estate nor have so many tents... Nothing like this had been seen in the Indies up till then. It filled all of us Spaniards with confusion and fear although it was not appropriate for us to show any fear nor to turn back. For had they sensed any weakness in us the very Indians [porters]we were bringing along would have killed us. Thus with simulated good spirits and after having thoroughly observed the town and the tents... we descended into the valley and entered the town of Cajamarca."
- Migeul de Estete.

The notary for the Spanish Army under the command of Francisco Pizarro (below,right) is describing the first glimpse which the Spanish army caught of the @ 80,0000 man army with which they were about to contend in the Battle of Cajamarca which took place on today's date, November 16 in 1532. The Spaniards had good reason to be fearful, as they had about 200 men in their retinue to face this native host.

Pizarro Meets the Inca

When Pizarro (right) arrived in what is now Peru in 1531, he found the Incan empire embroiled in a civil war between Atahualpa, the younger son of the former Incan ruler Huayna Capac and Huascar, his half brother. Pizarro was determined to capture the Incan empire in the name of the Spanish King Charles V with whose blessing he had come to these lands. Hearing of the internecine fighting between the two factions, Pizarro marched his army into the interior of the country to the city of Cajamarca. The Spaniards took camp in the city square which was surrounded by a wall with only two entrances, and thus seemed the safest place to be. When no word arrived from the Inca, Pizarro sent a small contingent of 15 men under the command of Captain Hernando de Soto to invite Atahualpa to a meeting. The Incans were clearly intrigued by their visitors. None of them had ever seen horses before. But Atahualpa was under none of the illusions which had bedeviled Montazeuma before Cortez in Mexico some twelve years earlier. He did not believe these men to be divine Gods, nor representatives thereof. He intended to smash them the next day, and breed these strange animals for his own use in smashing Huascar. He accepted the invite.

Pizarro Versus Atahualpa - A Fight to the Finish!!

Arriving with his whole army the next day, November 16, Atahualpa, not fearing the handful of Spaniards who had paraded before him so arrogantly the day before, decided to enter the city with a much smaller force, some 7,000 men of his personal guard unarmed, in a show of goodwill. The rest of his men would remain outside the city. Arriving in the square amongst the Spaniards who were all carefully hidden and awaiting the orders to launch their ambush, Atahualpa called for the Spanish to come out and show themselves. Instead he was approached by Friar Vincente de Valverde. The friar invited Atahuapa to climb down off of his litter and meet privately in one of the buildings with Pizarro, thinking that this would be the easiest way to capture the heathen. Atahualpa declined, saying that he would stay there until the Spaniards returned all that they had taken from him. The friar then began delivering speeches to the effect that Atahualpa would have to accept Christianity, and the sovereignty of King Charles V. Atahualpa then asked to see the Friar's Bible. Having never seen a book before he fumbled about with it. When the friar reached forward to show him how to handle the book, Atahualpa struck him on the arm and threw the book aside. The friar cried out and the attack was on.

Cannons were fired from around the square. Simultaneously, Spaniards came bearing down upon the surprised and frightened Inca with a ferocious cavalry charge. These proud and brave warriors, having never before seen these huge animals that were now charging towards them mounted by armoured men slashing at them with swords broke into a panic. They began heading for the exits of the square, while the Spaniards hacked and cut their way through the mass of fleeing Inca. Meanwhile Pizarro lead a detachment straight for Atahualpa. According to the scribe Xerez:

"(Pizarro) armed himself with a thick cotton coat of armor, took his sword and dagger and entered into the midst of the Indians with the Spaniards who were with him.... he reached Atahualpa's litter and fearlessly grabbed (his)left arm...But he could not pull him out of his litter which was still held high. All those who were carrying Atahualpa's litter appeared to be important men and they all died."

The Beginning of the End for the Inca

The result was a slaughter of those Inca who were in the square and the quick disbandment of Atahualpa's large army outside the city in confusion without it's leader and it's command structure. Atahualpa was indeed taken prisoner and later murdered. Fighting between the Inca and the Spanish would continue for some time,but with the capture of their leader at Cajamarca, and his later murder, the end was already written for the Incan Empire and the beginning of full-scale European colonization of the Americas.


READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!!  You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at:  krustybassist@gmail.com  I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!

Sources:

"The Last Days of the Incas" by Kim MacQuarrie. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2007 pp. 55 - 137.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cajamarca

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/among-vs-amongst/

Picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inca-Spanish_confrontation.JPG

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NOVEMBER 14 = "Moby Dick" is Published

“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”

This was the way that American writer Herman Melville (above, circa 1860) began his stirring and classic novel "Moby Dick" which was first published on today's date, November 14 in 1852, by Harper and Brothers Publishers in New York City.   Melville's tale of the young Ishmael's adventure on the whaling ship, "the Pequod", and of Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit of the great white whale of the novel's name has long since come to be recognized as one of the greatest stories of all time, capturing as it did the adventure as well as the perils of life on the great oceans of the world. But at the time of it's debut, it was very coolly received, and Melville received little acclaim for it in his lifetime.

Melville and life at Sea

Herman Melville was born on August 1, 1809.  He was the third of nine children of Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melville of a well-regarded Boston family. His father, a merchant trader in dry goods and furs suffered business setbacks and died when Herman was 12, leaving his family penniless.  While she had relatives who were able to help her

out, young Herman developed a desire to support himself, and had an adventurous spirit so he signed on as a cabin boy in a ship bound for Liverpool. He made the voyage and apparently the spirit of the sea stuck with him, because like his character of Ishmael above, ("Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth...) he found himself longing for more adventure.  So after a stint as a teacher he signed up for more work at sea in late 1840. Herman recorded many of his impressions of life at sea, and his adventures on his subsequent voyage became the basis for his very successful novel "Typee" (1846).  From 1838 to 1847 he lived at what is now called the Herman Melville house in Lansingburgh, New York (pictured, above). He went on other voyages, and produced other novels telling exotic and adventurous tales based on his experiences, such as "Redburn" (1849) and "Whitejacket" (1859) which was based on a 14 month stretch of service aboard the frigate U.S.S. United States.

Melville and "Moby Dick" 

But those two novels, while both commercially and critically successful were just for paying the bills; they were in his words: "...two jobs which I have done for money -- being forced to it as other men are to sawing wood". Melville had deeper themes in mind with "Moby Dick" which is
altogether much more allegorical than his adventure novels.  "Moby Dick" is based on two actual events which Melville read about.  First was the sinking of the whaling ship Essex in 1820 after being rammed by a Sperm Whale. Second was the alleged killing in the late 1830's of an albino whale named "Mocha Dick" which was said to have survived many harpoon hits, and which was said to have committed pre-meditated attacks on pursuing ships. Along with considerable description of the business of whaling and how it is done, the story contains much symbolism of class as the characters discuss their place in the world and aboard ship.  And their is a lot of representation of greed as the bizarre character of Captain Ahab nails a gold Doubloon to the mast for the man who sights the great white whale, as well as good and evil, with Ahab and his relentless chasing of the whale to the exclusion of all else, including other whaling opportunities or even the safety of his own ship, the Pequod. 

"Moby Dick" Tanks....

Regrettably for Melville, "Moby Dick" was a commercial failure with most of the public, which was hoping for a swashbuckling tale of adventure on he high seas, and ports of call to exotic islands such as they had enjoyed with "Typee" and "White Jacket". And the critics of the day were none-too-pleasant about the book either. A critic for the London Athenaeum called it:

"An ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed."

In America "Moby Dick" was met with a similar reception,  But Nathaniel Hawthorne (right) wrote of it: "What a book Melville has written! It gives me the idea of much greater power than his preceding ones." In it own time, "Moby Dick" only sold 3,000 copies to begin with.  Also with the "Gold Rush" of 1848 being in full swing, the imagination of the American public had turned fully to the west, and its tales of quick riches. So the timing of this work which Melville considered his magnum opus would appear to have been wrong.  Nevertheless, "Moby Dick" has since come to be one of the greatest classics in the history of American literature.

Images:

Herman Melville = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herman_Melville_1860.jpg

Herman Melville House = http://thefreegeorge.com/thefreegeorge/herman-melville-house-lansingburgh-ny-troy/

Moby Dick = http://www.mhpbooks.com/new-moby-dick-adaptation-sort-of/moby-dick-5/

Nathaniel Hawthorne = http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/nathaniel-hawthorne-and-literary-humor

Sources:

"Moby Dick" by Herman Mellville, (Originally published by) Harper Bros. Publ., New York, 1851

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/195956-call-me-ishmael-some-years-ago---never-mind-how

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Melville

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redburn

NOVEMBER 13 = Vietnam Memorial Wall Opens

" It was as if a common emotion held back in so many private corners was all at once coming out into the sunlight. I cried too, more than once…As I stood in front of the polished granite I saw the names, but I also saw my own reflection. It fell across the names like a ghost. “Why me, lord?” we asked ourselves in Vietnam. It was a question that came back as I stood there: “why them?” "

- William Broyles Jr. on his first impressions of the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

The Vietnam Memorial Wall

The Vietnam Memorial Wall opened on today's date - November 13 in 1982. The Vietnam War had been a truly harrowing experience for America. We had been a nation who in Patton's famous words had never and would never lose a war. When the general said that in the 1940's it was true. But then came Korea. In that war, which was called a "police action", the nation got her first taste of war fought to a political standoff. No Declaration, no Peace Treaty, no glorious parade of the returning victorious

troops. Americans had (with a great many UN allies) fought, been wounded and died, and the end result was a political stand-off at the 45'th parallel of the Korean Peninsula. Vietnam was even worse. There was still no declaration, and no peace treaty, there had been riots and political un-rest at home,draft dodgers in Canada, many men and women killed and wounded, and to top it all off, we had been treated to the spectacle of an American helicopter departing from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon while the enemy came pouring through the streets. For the nation, it just didn't get any worse than that. We wanted to forget it.

The Controversy Over the Vietnam Memorial Wall

Unfortunately for the men and women who went to the war, and who had bravely fought, or otherwise been involved - whether in support or medical units, the war had indeed been a lot worse, and they couldn't forget it. And nor should they have had to forget it. But to many of them, it seemed that they had been forgotten. The war in which they had sacrificed so very much had indeed been controversial, and in the end very unpopular. But the service people who had done their duty and gone to serve were hardly to blame for that. Nevertheless, they encountered apathy, turned heads and in many cases outright hostility if they appeared in public in uniform. Many Vietnam vets spoke of being spat upon, and being called "baby killer". Happily, with the passing of time this public attitude began to change. Awareness of the Vietnam Veterans, the sacrifices they made, and the difficulties they faced began to spread. And eventually plans for a memorial to them were begun.

The Choice of Maya Lin

The choice for the winning design proved to be almost as controversial as the war itself had been. The architect, was one Maya Lin (right), a Yale University architecture student who had been born in Ohio in 1959. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Ms. Lin's seemed to many an odd choice. America's national boob, H. Ross Perot, even went so far as to dismiss Ms. Lin as "an egg roll". Her design was a black granite wall dug into the ground in a large "V" shape, and inscribed with the names of those who had been killed in action during the war, or who had later died as a result of such wounds. To many (including at the time, this author), the design seemed stark and sterile. The "V" shape struck still others as reminiscent of the two-fingered "peace" sign so popular amongst those who demonstrated against the war. And many veterans' groups were opposed to Lin's winning design because it lacked the more traditional memorials heroic statues and stirring words.

"The Wall" Becomes a Place for Healing

But once the memorial opened a remark- able change in public attitude toward the Memorial, the veterans, even to some extent to the war itself began to be felt. The war, how ever unpopular, began to be seen as having been fought for decent motivations. The veterans came at long last to be seen as the heroes that they were. The Wall itself became the center of healing for that huge, gaping wound that the war had wrent upon our national psyche. It became a place for quiet reflection and soul searching. And the Vietnam Memorial Wall became a place where, thank God, the veterans could finally begin to let go of their grief. And I, for one am thankful for this, and am so very glad that my doubts were proven unfounded.

The Mementos Left at "The Wall"

People began to leave little remem- berances of those they had lost at the wall itself. Bouquets of flowers, bottles of wine, pictures, cigarettes, knives, baseballs, even a pair of panties are among the mementos of lives cut short that have been left. The National Park Service which oversees the Wall and its maintenance regularly collects these items and places them in storage. Among these items are a great many letters, a few of which are quoted below:

On a piece of paper with the familiar three pointed peace sign:

"Dear Ralph, I'd like you to know that you are well remembered. I don't (remember) you well, but I am very close with you. Your buddies didn't let you down they still love you. I remember you
with honor and bravery."

On a postal service routing slip:

"I was with you and I hope I made a difference. Twenty five years later my heart is still empty and broken. God how I miss you.
- Frank W. Spehr, Sgt., USMC, 2169323."

On a paper lunch bag:

"Dear Mr. Kerry, Sorry this is so sloppy. I'm on a bus for a field trip to Washington D.C. I noticed that your birthday is on the same day as mine. You were born on March 14, 1947, but I'm sure you already know that. I was born on March 14, 1978. I will be sure to celebrate yours as well as my birthday on that day. I will pray for you and perhaps I will meet you in heaven some day. I will wait until then. On March 14 every year I will celebrate you. I will keep you in my prayers.

Love in Christ, Becca Raub."

On a card with A Vietnam Service Ribbon attached:

"If you want to know about the women and how good they were, don't waste your time reading books.... just ask the men.
- Jeff Kanner, USMC Vietnam, 12/66 - 12/67."

READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!!  You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at:  krustybassist@gmail.com  I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!

Sources:


http://members.tripod.com/~msg_fisher/wall.html

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do (for 11/13).

- Michael Sofarelli
Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2006.

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NOVEMBER 11 = VETERAN'S DAY

{Above: Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities. This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect. It can be found at: http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp}

ON THIS DAY IN 1918 - "THE ELEVENTH HOUR OF THE ELEVENTH DAY OF THE ELEVENTH MONTH...."

the guns at long last fell silent around the world, and the vast conflict which came to be known as "World War One" came to an end (It only became "World War I" when an even more horrendous war, World War II came along). Imperial Germany, faced with imminent invasion by the Allied Powers signed an Armistice which brought the fighting to an end. The war had begun in August of 1914 following the assassination in June of that year of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria--Hungary. In the ensuing weeks Austria, determined to punish her neighbor Serbia for fomenting rebellion in the Austrian province of Bosnia-Herzegovina (the capital of which - the city of Sarajevo had been the site of the attack), attacked the Serbian capital city of Belgrade. Russia mobilized her armies against Austria in support of her Slavic ally, Serbia. Germany mobilized against Russia in support of Austria, France mobilized against Germany and Austria in support of Russia, and England eventually came in on the side of Russia and France. By early August all of these countries had in the words of historian Alan Crankshaw been "dragged into Armageddon by an Austria visited by a death wish."

Austria's "Death Wish" Leads to...

And a death wish is exactly what it was. There had certainly been wars before, as far back as time itself. Wars had certainly become more destructive with modern weaponry, and civilians had certainly been caught up in the destruction before. And wars had certainly gone on for a long time. But these wars had always been fought for limited gains; a piece of land or a political end. Only with the American Civil War had large numbers of casualties (50,000 or more) been sustained in battle after relentless battle. Only with the American Civil War had the entire society been mobilized towards the end of winning the war, and only in that conflict had the slaughter been so vast that the winning of the war itself became the primary goal with one battle leading to another and yet another, each one more terrifically murderous than the last. Nobody could have imagined such terror in August of 1914. I have done considerable reading on the subject, and the only one I have found who appears to have grasped this fact, was Lord Kitchner (pictured, above).  A European war at this time would “exact a degree of sacrifice and endurance, that only the American Civil War offered a faint, but inadequate foretaste.” he had written in about 1906. America had gotten a taste of that kind of war from 1861- 1864. But by 1914, that was 50 years in the past;  World War One was the world’s introduction to modern war and modern mechanized destruction. And by the time it was over, the little territorial spat in the Balkans over which it had started was long forgotten. Winning the war was the sole purpose behind it -- one side simply outlasting the other. For this, an entire generation of young men was about to be slaughtered, en masse. It was insane.

The Hell of Trench Warfare,

An early German offensive that crossed through the (once) neutral countries of Belgium and little Luxembourg was unexpectedly blunted by the French at the (First) Battle of the Marne, and the belligerents then settled into trench warfare. In a line of opposing trenches that ran from the coast of the English Channel to the Swiss border, armies faced each other in the hideous and (previously) unimaginable hell of trench warfare. In the four years that ensued, four years of incredible violence and untold slaughter nations around the world were dragged, or jumped eagerly into the war. America, whose troops had finally tipped the balance of power for the nearly exhausted Allies against Germany emerged as a truly World Power for the first time.  From the seas of Jutland near the English Channel to the coasts of South America, European colonial holdings in Africa to those in the South Pacific the fighting raged. Soldiers were thrown into hails of machine gun bullets, which were a new method of destruction. Other weapons such as poison gas, the flame thrower, the Tank, and submarines all appeared for the first time in this war. Also with the infamous Zeppelin air raids on London, the war ceased to be a newspaper headline, but instead became a very real thing right on the doorsteps of the Allied home front. An estimated nine million soldiers were killed and twenty two million were wounded. And of the young men who fought, who had gone off to war happily expecting adventure, few ever returned. Many of them who did survive returned as dazed ghosts of their former selves.

Wrecks Three Empires, and Exhausts the Allies,

And what of those nations who had been formerly known as "the Great Powers"? Three major Imperial dynasties had been swept away, all never to return. Their monarchical systems of government, wherein these hereditary rulers had held absolute power went with them. The German Kaiser had abdicated and fled to Holland. The Austrian Emperor had been eliminated and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had

been wiped from the map.  And the Czar of Russia along with his entire family were prisoners in Siberia. The Russian Empire had dissolved into Revolution, and the new Bolshevik government would execute the Czar, his wife and his children the following year. The British Empire which had girdled the globe began her long retreat from her world holdings. And sadly, this war would merely set the stage for another even more destructive and more horrendous war a mere quarter of a Century later, as an obscure and unknown Austrian corporal who was then languishing in a military hospital - one Adolf Hitler, would nurse his hatred into control of a resurgent Germany.

And Leads to This Day When We Honor Our Veterans

Perhaps the only good thing to come out of it all was the fact that this day was set aside to remember those who had sacrificed so much in war. In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of "Armistice Day." The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m. The U.S. Congress officially recognized the end of World War I on June 4, 1926 with a resolution marking the day, and recommending solemn observance. An Act approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day." It had been a day reserved to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in America's history, and after American forces had fought in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by removing the word "Armistice" and replacing it with the word "Veterans." With this legislation, on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars. May God bless ALL of our noble and heroic veterans, including my father John (Marines W.W. II), my brother Pat (Navy), and my brother in law, Dave (Navy)!!



READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!!  You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at:
krustybassist@gmail.com  I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!

Sources:

"The American Heritage History of World War One" narr. by S.L.A. Marshall, American Heritage Publ. Co., New York, 1964

"The Face of Battle" by John Keegan, Viking Press, New York, 1976

"King Edward VII" by Phillip Magnus, Penguin Books, New York, 1964

"Bismarck" by Edward Crankshaw, Viking Press, New York, 1981

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