Boer War Origins The origins of the Boer War lay in Britain’s desire to unite, or confederate, the British South African territories of the Cape Colony and Natal with the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (also known as the Transvaal). The Boers, Afrikaans-speaking farmers, wanted to maintain their…
Category: History Remembered
Small-Unit Tactics: The Flying Column
Ireland’s Wars: Flying Columns The popular memory of the Irish War of Independence, at least if you happen to be Irish, often revolves around the image of the IRA “flying column”. For a large number of people, those two words indicates a very particular type of unit: A sort of mobile platoon that lived and…
Know Your Real WW2 History: The French Resistance
Know Your Southern History: Causes of Southern Secession in the Upper South, Part 1
Part 1: Causes of Southern Secession in the Upper South “If centralism is ultimately to prevail; if our entire system of free Institutions as established by our common ancestors is to be subverted, and an Empire is to be established in their stead; if that is to be the last scene of the great…
Know Your History: White Immigrants & Free White Persons
The Bad Ass Files: Colonel Charles Askins, US Army (Ret.)
The Legend Of Charley Askins by Skeeter Skelton (As Published in Shooting Times Magazine, May 1972) In The West Wing of a secluded, tile-roofed Spanish home in San Antonio, Texas is a room that is one of my favorite retreats. It’s a large room, carpeted with the rich hides of Polar and…
Know Your Southern History: The Battle of Sabine Pass
The Battle of Sabine Pass Less rowdy Irish were found in the Davis Guards, formally known as Co. F, First Texas Heavy Artillery. They were posted at Ft. Griffin at the mouth of the Sabine River, as it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The site was near Beaumont, Texas, an important railway junction. The…
On This Day in History, November 4, 1862
Built over 150 years ago, the first machine gun is still influential American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling patents the hand-cranked Gatling machine gun in Indianapolis. “It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine gun which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty…
On This Day in History: October 31, 1517
Oct 31 Martin Luther sends his Ninety-five Theses to Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, precipitating The Protestant Reformation 1517 Copy of Martin Luther’s ’95 Theses’, the Publication of which began The Protestant Reformation in Europe.