Month: July 2012
Unchained — The Bloody History of Slave Rebellions
“Just about every major slave-owning society from ancient times to the 19th Century has faced slave revolts.” THE EARLIEST written record of slavery, the Code of Hammurabi (1760 BCE), describes the punishment for helping slaves to…
Final Notes — ‘Taps,’ ‘The Last Post’ and Other Military Funeral Tunes
“Both the Last Post and Taps share a common lineage. Each are derivatives of a Dutch tune from the 1600s called the Taptoe.” TAPS, THE SONG THAT’S BEEN PLAYED AT American military funerals for more than…
The Chinchas War – Inside the Little-Known Conflict Between Peru and Spain Over Animal Turds
“The resulting two-year naval conflict would see ships captured, cities bombarded, ports blockaded, economies destroyed, and governments toppled.” WHEN IN 1864, a hotheaded Spanish admiral wanted to punish Peru for a perceived diplomatic insult, he…
The Sawbones Will See You Now – A History of Battlefield Medicine
“There have been a number of leaders in the long history of military medicine that helped improve and modernize patient care. Here are a few of them.” “A PHYSICIAN is worth more than several other…
The First Air Forces – A Century of Balloons at War
The great, great grand nephew of a U.S. Civil War-era military ballooning pioneer was on hand this week in Buffalo, New York to view a local museum’s working replica of his famous ancestor’s creation. According…
Drinking with the Enemy – Opponents Fought by Day and Boozed Together By Night in the Transnistria War
The pages of military history contain a number of examples of soldiers sharing the occasional drink with their foes. For example, at the outbreak of the War of 1812, British officers stationed along the Canadian side…
