Category Archives: History

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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MORMON COLONIES IN THE LAND OF THE TACO BELL DOG

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High on the hill above Colonia Juarez, the LDS temple sits.
High on the hill above Colonia Juárez – one of the original Mormon colonies, the LDS temple sits.

Mormon colonizers were sent out throughout the desert West in the later parts of the 19th century seeking to expand the world of Deseret.  First, they developed arable lands in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Arizona, but also a group ventured further south into northern Chihuahua State.  Here, some of the valleys and places where enough water existed, they founded a total of ten Mormon colonies over time.  Two survive today, though one of those is becoming engulfed by the growth of nearby Nuevas Casas Grandes.

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DEFEAT ON THE KOLOVRAT CHANGES INTO CATASTROPHE

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Restored Italian trench line atop Na gradu – Green mountain in background is Mrzli vrh.

Standing in the renewed Italian positions of the open-air museum of the Kolovrat, you are rewarded with an all-world view over the Isonzo River valley with the Krn-MonteNero massif rising dramatically on the other side. Of the Bovec-Kobarid open-air museums, the view from here is only matched by what you gain at the former Austrian artillery base on Čelo above Bovec.

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THREE DIMENSIONS TO TWO – THE MAGIC OF GOUSHA MAPS

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1972 version of road map of Oregon from H.M. Gousha Co. for Shell Oil. End of the era of free road maps.

Maps have a magical ability to allow one to travel to places they have and have not been to.  They offer an experiential taste.  From the late 1920’s until the 1970’s, would-be travelers had options to pick up road maps at no cost from various gasoline stations around the US.  My favorites as a child – and even now – fell to those produced by the H. M. Gousha Maps.  Vibrant colors accompanied by bright fonts set the maps as a peak for other map companies to reach for in my eyes.

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WATERS FALLING IN THE RAIN FORESTS OF THE LOWER COLUMBIA

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Last wintery look at Beaver Falls.
Late wintery view at Beaver Falls, one of the most magnificent found in the Lower Columbia.

Waterfalls abound throughout the State of Oregon, especially in the western hills. Abundant rains fall throughout the forests filling streams cascading over lava cliffs. To catch these falls at their height means an off-season journey. Summer season can mean little or no rain for a month or more at a time making the falls seem much tamer than when they are at their fullest. Here, a small collection of waterfalls taken from the area around the Lower Columbia. This area gets pelted with rains out of summer. Astoria averages 86 inches of rain a year – Portland, by contrast, averages a mere 36 inches.

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