A Brief History On February 20, 1864, the Union and Confederate armies fought the Battle of Olustee, the largest land battle of the American Civil War (1861-1865) in Florida. Although the tide of the war had turned in favor of the Union by February of 1864, this particular battle was won by the Confederate forces, more or less ending the ground war in Florida. Digging Deeper Union General Truman Seymour had landed near Jacksonville and was supposed to stay put, acting as a blocking force to prevent Confederate food and other supplies from moving through the area. Encouraged by little…
Author: Major Dan
Major Dan
Major Daniel Zar is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He served during the Cold War and has traveled to many countries around the world. Prior to his military service, he graduated from Cleveland State University, having majored in sociology. Following his military service, he worked as a police officer eventually earning the rank of captain prior to his retirement.
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A Brief History On February 19, 1807, former Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr, the same guy that shot Alexander Hamilton to death in a duel while Burr was serving as Vice President, was arrested for treason. Burr is just one of several US Vice Presidents or former Vice Presidents that ran afoul of the law or otherwise engaged in nefarious or questionable behavior. Today we look at some of these ill-starred #2 politicians. As always, feel free to tell us who you would add to this list and why. Digging Deeper Aaron Burr. Burr first earned notoriety…
A Brief History On February 18, 2010, the international hacker and leaker organization, WikiLeaks, released the first batch of an enormous trove of classified American documents, in fact, hundreds of thousands of top secret files turned over to WikiLeaks by a US Army soldier, Bradley Manning. Manning was soon arrested and later convicted of violations of laws governing national secrets, and along the way announced his intention to live as a female, changing his name to Chelsea Manning. Manning is but one of many well known transsexual or transgender persons, and today we take a look at some of the…
A Brief History On February 17, 1370, the Teutonic Knights fought a great battle against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a battle known as the Battle of Rudau. This particular battle was one in the series of wars called “The Northern Crusades,” a war to impose the Christian religion on Pagan people in Northern Europe, especially in the Baltic region. The “other” Crusades, those in the Middle East as a Christian effort to take and retain control of Jerusalem and “The Holy Lands” against Islamic forces is much better known, and had been discussed on our site at length. Today,…
A Brief History On February 16, 1804, the U.S. Navy conducted a stunningly audacious raid to deny the enemy the use of an American warship by concocting a ruse that allowed American sailors into the jaws of the enemy harbor to sink a captured American frigate. The American Navy managed to sink the captured ship and escape under heavy gunfire, a heroic and successful raid marking a high point in the bravery and cunning of the U.S. Navy. Digging Deeper The United States had been having troubles with pirates along the Barbary Coast (modern Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) resulting…