Category Archives: History

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN – SOUTHERN MAGIC DISIPATES IN FORECAST OF FUTURE

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Idealized painting of the Battle of Lookout Mountain. Joseph Hooker rides the white horse in center.

Flying from the west into Atlanta, looking out the window it is hard to miss the waves of mountains sprawling in long ranks southwest to northeast not unlike a series of geographically arranged ribs.  Chattanooga, Tennessee lies smack dab in the middle of these ancient ripples.  And flowing right through the middle of the long mountain spines is the Tennessee River looping back and forth onto itself as it brushes through the city.  The long ridges, extending for vast distances from Birmingham. Alabama in the southwest all the way to the northeastern edge of Pennsylvania in the northeast, represents a vast area once an ancient seabed that underwent uplift.  Eons have worn down the region, though Lookout Mountain still rises 1,500 feet above the city below. 

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AUSTRIA AND FRANCE IN THE HAPSBURG FINALE

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Very similar to the Italian episode of 1918 in France, Austria-Hungary sent several divisions to help her Central Power ally Germany in the last summer of the Great War.  Unlike the Italians, there are no monuments or military cemeteries marking their presence on the battlefields.  The only evidence of their participation is a lonely memorial and the few graves left behind in several German military cemeteries.  You must look closely to find them.

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ITALY IN FRANCE – THE SECOND CORPS ON THE ROAD

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Graves of soldiers sent by Italy to fight for France in 1918 at the Italian military cemetery.

In covering the countryside of France in the region where elements of the American Expeditionary Force took part in the Second Battle of the Marne on a corps level, I ran across two Italian military cemeteries. Certainly, the appearance of these cemeteries came as a surprise to me. The story of how the Italians got here and their battles do not show up in many histories of the war.  So, here is a quick rundown of Italy in France.

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CHICKAMAUGA – STORIES TOLD IN GRANITE ON THE RIVER OF DEATH

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Monument to the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment and the Field Headquarters of General William Rosecrans 20 September 1863 at Chickamauga.
Monument to the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment and the Field Headquarters of General William Rosecrans 20 September 1863 at Chickamauga.

The second deadliest battle of the American Civil War, Chickamauga is nowhere near as well-known as other battles such as Gettysburg, Antietam, or Vicksburg.  The first two were fought by the Army of the Potomac, the main Federal army fighting in the eastern theater of the war centered on Virginia.  If this army had been destroyed, the Federal cause would have been defeated.  Neither Gettysburg nor Antietam were large-scale Federal victories.  They both were emphatic ending notes to the two invasions of the Northern States in 1862 and 1863 by General Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.  Vicksburg meant the Confederate States were split into two as Federal control over the Mississippi came into being.

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STONES RIVER – “BRAGG’S A GOOD DOG, BUT HOLD FAST’S A BETTER!”

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Graves of men of Hazen's Brigade killed at the Battle of Stones River.
Graves of men from the 41st Ohio Infantry of Hazen’s Brigade killed at the Battle of Stones River.

A three-day affair to end 1862 and begin the new year, the Battle of Stones River – also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro – resulted in the highest percentage of casualties of any major battle of the American Civil War.  32.7% of the 78,400 who fought died, became wounded or went missing or captured after the battle’s end.  Four brigadier generals died either outright or from mortal wounds from the battle – two on each side.  Braxton Bragg’s newly renamed Army of Tennessee moved first on the morning of 31 December rolling through the Federal lines.  But true to his nature, Bragg would find a way to turn victory into a tactical defeat.  Much of Tennessee remained under Federal control as 1863 began.

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DOBERDO – HUNGARIAN SACRIFICE RECAPTURED IN THE KRAS

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Headstone in the Austro-Hungarian military cemetery in Bovec, Slovenia bedecked with a faded Hungarian tri-colored ribbon.
Headstone in the Austro-Hungarian military cemetery in Bovec, Slovenia bedecked with a faded Hungarian tri-colored ribbon similar to graves in cemeteries in Doberdo.

In 2018, as part of centenary observances of World War 1, a monument unveiled at Fiume Road Graveyard in Budapest.  This became the first national memorial erected commemorating the efforts Hungarians undertook during the Great War.  Government officials noted the memorial was in line with a fundamental theme of the nation: to restore historical continuity broken during the Nazi and Communist occupations.

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RAVELNIK AND ČELO – MEMORIES OF THE GREAT WAR IN THE BOVEC BASIN

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Ravelnik lies at the head of fields extending east of Bovec – Svinjak rises high in the distance.

Ravelnik and Čelo are two open-air museums allowing visitors a chance to visit spaces where soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army defended the Bovec basin from invading Italian troops from the end of May 1915 until the end of October 1917. The two sites restored by locals and the Slovene government are different in what they offer as well as their original purpose with regard to their roles in holding off the Italians.

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INFANTRY REGIMENT 97 – DIFFERENT HISTORIES IN THE REDEEMED LANDS

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Men of Infantry Regiment 97 leaving from the Trieste train station for the Galician front.

Stuck away on the east side of multiple train tracks at the train station in Trieste is a small monument.  It stands forlornly nest to a like sized monument dedicated to rail workers who died in World War 2.  The monument in question reads: “In riccordo di cittadini del littoral Austriaco partiti da questi binary nell’agosta del 1914 per lontani cmapi di battaglia” – “In memory of citizens of the Austrian Littoral who left from these tracks in August 1914 for battlefields far away.”  The sign is fixed on a large stone on which also is placed, a cap design for the Imperial and Royal – Kaiserliche und Königliche (K. und K.) – Infantry Regiment 97.  The K. und K. Infantrie Regiment 97 entrained from here to the battlefields of Galicia from which many of the men, locals from Trieste and the surrounding region, would never return.

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EMPHEMARILTY OF SPENDING – DEFENSE OF THE PANAMA CANAL

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Squadron of B-17 bombers flying over the entrance to Panama Canal with Fort Amador below.
Squadron of B-17 bombers flying over the entrance to Panama Canal with Fort Amador below. Defense of the Canal beginning to pass from the gun to the air.

Recently, I made my fourth trip to Panama.  Each trip, a short visit to the Canal in one form or another, gets included in the itinerary.  To understate the importance of the Canal to Panama and the World from an economic point of view is not possible.  The Canal gives Panama money to do things many other countries in Latin America – especially in Central America – can only dream about.  Large freeways, light rail, subways, and a seemingly burgeoning economy from a casual tourist outlook reflect success in the heat, humidity, and constant drip – or sudden deluge – from the skies here in Panama. One factor hiding from plain sight today are the former huge efforts made in defense of the Canal.

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EMILIO AGUINALDO – HOME AND TOMB OF THE INSURGENT ENIGMA

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The Man - Emilio Aguinaldo - and his Shrine. Aguinaldo family home in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.
The Man – Emilio Aguinaldo – and his Shrine. Aguinaldo family home in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.

Emilio Aguinaldo is considered by many to be the “George Washington” of the Philippines.  His family home is preserved – much like Washington’s at Mount Vernon – and a museum is dedicated to his life and times.  Additionally, to the Aguinaldo home, the leader himself is entombed on the grounds behind the house. The grounds became the official Aguinaldo Shrine in 1964 just after his death.

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