"And Ajax by mad passion borne stern had replied, fierce scorn enhancing scorn to fell extremes…"
“On June 30, 1863, the eve of the battle of Gettysburg, General John Buford contemplates the enemy position and prepares for the next day’s battle. Later, the Lutheran Theological Seminary was turned into a makeshift hospital for the wounded. Buford leads his staff into position near the seminary at dawn on July 1.”
“Lloyd W. Williams was born on June 5, 1887 in Berryville, Virginia and attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech). After graduating, he became a second lieutenant of the United States Marine Corps.On June 2, 1918, a division of Marines was sent to support the French army at the Battle of Belleau Wood. As the Marines arrived, they found French troops retreating. When advised to withdraw by a French colonel at the defensive line just north of the village of Lucy-le-Bocage, Williams bluntly replied: “Retreat? Hell! We just got here!” On June 11, 1918, Williams led an assault that routed the German defenders at Belleau Wood near Chateau-Thierry, France. Only 1 of the 10 officers and 16 of the 250 enlisted men survived or escaped injury. According to a French Major’s report, after he ordered Williams to withdraw, Williams told him to “Go to Hell!.” Later, when Williams had been gassed and injured by shrapnel and lay wounded on the battlefield, he told the approaching medics, “Don’t bother with me. Take care of my good men.” He later died from a shell explosion as he was being evacuated.”
“Schmidt took the breakfast dishes off the table, scraped the egg yolk from Riker’s plate, and rinsed them. He generally liked cleaning up after meals. From the start, in the early division of chores between him and Mary – it was important to her that Schmidt share equally in the housework and looking after Charlotte – he had asked that doing the dishes be included in his assignment. The activity, as did washing off the kitchen floor and counters and sweeping anyplace at all. They were simple, uncontroversial tasks, in which it was possible, provided there was enough time, to achieve, when one stood back squinting at the clean surfaces, a feeling of perfection, an illusion that order had been reestablished.”
“President Lincoln and his cabinet made the decision to relieve General Joseph Hooker as the commander of the Army of the Potomac, but finding a qualified successor was difficult and it was not until the Confederate campaign of invasion was clearly approaching its climax that the change was finally made. They selected General George Gordon Meade, who had been in command of the V Army Corps, largely because he was known as a reliable professional soldier who did not scare easily.Outside of the V Corps, the soldiers had hardly so much as heard of him and he definitely was not the inspirational leader who arouses the enthusiasm of the rank and file. To use a modern expression, he utterly lacked charisma. He was crusty, not to say crabbed, with a quick temper and a sharp tongue. He once remarked without rancor that he had heard his soldiers refer to him as a ‘damned google-eyed snapping turtle.’
But if his inspirational qualities were nil and his strategic abilities unknown, there definitely was nothing wrong with his nerves. He was not afraid of the weight of top command and he was not in the least afraid of Robert E. Lee. And it soon developed that when they chose Meade the authorities acted very wisely indeed.”
“Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday. He was 88.
“Rummy,” as he was often called, was ambitious, witty, energetic, engaging and capable of great personal warmth. But he irritated many with his confrontational style. An accomplished wrestler in college, Rumsfeld relished verbal sparring and elevated it to an art form; a biting humor was a favorite weapon.”
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From FB:
“Yes, I had to visit the statute to Hootie & the Blowfish, who exploded out of the Five Points neghborhood in Columbia in the early to mid-90s.
They’ve sold 25 million records.
I remembered they played a Phi Sigma Kappa party at Virginia Tech around ’89.
From FB:
“Grave of Wade Hampton, Confederate cavalry commander under JEB Stuart, Governor of South Carolina, and U.S. Senator.
Sherman claimed Columbia was burned because of Hampton’s irresponsibility in leaving cotton bales in the streets on a gusty night after his troops had retreated from the capital, but later wrote he deliberately blamed Hampton because he was so popular in South Carolina and wanted to besmirch his reputation.
One of only three men, including Nathan Bedford Forest, who rose from the rank of Private to Lieutenant General during the Civil War.”
Equestrian statue of Confederate Cavalry General Wade Hampton.
Molon Labe.
Song Of Ajax 