Category: Locations (Page 7 of 9)

Specific geographical points of interest

Moores Creek National Battlefield - Patriot earthworks
Moores Creek National Battlefield, North Carolina

Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, North Carolina 27 February 1776

26 October 2016 / / 1 Comment

On 27 February 1776, British Loyalists, made up predominantly of Scottish Highlanders, decided to take on a known Patriot force near Currie, North Carolina. The Loyalists were handed their hats at the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge in an action that destined North Carolina to be one of the first colonies to push for a declaration of independence from the Crown.

In early 1776, the British were preparing to put down a full scale rebellion in the north of the North American colonies. At the urging of the North Carolina governor, they saw an opportunity to put the fledgling rebellion in the south to rest early and secure a good base for northern operations. A Scottish clan leader, named Donald MacDonald was appointed Brigadier General and raised a Scottish Highlander militia of 1,600 from the interior of North Carolina to fight for the Loyalist cause. They marched to the North Carolina port town of Brunswick, south of present day Wilmington, to meet the British forces of Cornwallis and Clinton in late February 1776. On route, they received word that local Patriot forces were gathering around Moores Creek, but the Highlanders figured they could take them and proceeded to battle.

The Patriots in three separate forces, led by Colonels Alexander Lillington, Richard Caswell and James Moore, arrived from 25 February 1776 and began earthen works on the east and west sides of the bridge. By the morning of the 27th, they had consolidated behind the eastern works with two cannons known as “Old Mother Covington and her Daughter.”

MacDonald led his force from the west and decided to charge headlong across the bridge with a lead element of Highlanders, screaming “King George and broad swords.” Behind the works, the Patriots waited until the lead Scots crossed the deliberately slippery and rickety bridge, then let loose with a volley of musket, followed by the limbering up of the elderly mum and her hot progeny. One could imagine the Patriot reply of “General George and redneck hordes.” The Patriot rifles and gunners put such a world of hurt on the bagpipe serenaded Loyalists that the whole offensive failed immediately. The losses to the lead element were horrendous, but the longer term damage was from the rounding up of 850 prisoners that had been dispersed by the action.

The British plans to subdue the south and then on the north were superceded by one determined force of North Carolina militia. The Brits were not to focus on the south again until 1780.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Here’s a ride to show you part of North Carolina, much like it was in colonial times. Start in Wilmington, North Carolina and head down to the Orton Plantation, which is near the historical site of Brunswick, to which the Loyalists were heading to meet with British Regulars and more Loyalists on that fateful day. Then cut up through the Green Swamp and finally down to the Moores Creek National Battlefield.

Photo Credit: By NPS Photo [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Lake Erie Loop

25 October 2016 / / 0 Comments

I had not seen this before, so mind the April 2008 date of this, but Motorcycle Classics has an article about the Lake Erie Loop. I did a Lake Erie loop as part of a bigger ride from Chicago to Vermont and back. The shores of Lake Erie are a treasure trove for the War of 1812 sites from Michigan to Ohio to Pennsylvania to New York and Ontario. Well worth a read and the loop tour is well worth it too, although I wouldn’t want to speed through it. I like stopping and looking at stuff too much.
Here’s a Google map of War of 1812 battle sites around Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Champlain.

A Redleg Ride to Los Alamos

24 October 2016 / / 0 Comments

Here is a motorcycling blog I’ve been reading lately, Redleg’s Rides. Charlie6 went to Los Alamos recently. There are a couple of good pictures of the “Fat Man” and the “Little Boy” in the post. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, head on over and find out.

Sarah Winnemucca in traditional dress

The Northern Paiute of Northern Nevada Prior to 1860

20 October 2016 / / 0 Comments

The Northern Paiute people made their life in present day northwest Nevada over thousands of years. They lived off the land and moved regularly following the animals or the ripening season of the plants. Due to the rugged and spare environment, their culture was one of hospitality and limited possessions. Archaeological sites near present day Lovelock, Nevada indicate the Paiute’s ancestors lived there back to 2,500 BC. However, the arrival of the Americans and competition with them for scarce resources would change their way of life.

Through Paiute folklore, we also know that there were other indigenous people in the area as well. Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins in her book, Life Among The Piutes, tells a traditional Paiute story about a tribe of cannibals that lived near the Northern Paiutes and spoke the same language. The Paiutes had tried to bring the tribe to peace, but could not get them to give up their cannibalism, so this tribe of red-haired people were exterminated by the Paiutes in a great cave fire. Winnemucca Hopkins claimed to have a traditional dress that was trimmed with the red hair.1

From the early 1820s, maybe earlier, a few whites had explored the Great Basin area. Fur trappers had made their way down from the Snake River valley in the north. Fremont’s expedition had traveled through and mapped the area in 1844. There were hostilities with some of the white parties, but the volume of contact remained low for decades. However, from the 1840s, the real threat to the Paiute way of life came from the immigrant trails through their homeland. At first, the Paiute and the transient settlers managed to co-exist, but as the gold and silver rushes engulfed the area around Virginia City, whites began to settle and spread out into the Paiute heartland. The core problem was not merely a question of personal space, but a more basic conflict over culture and the use of scarce natural resources in modern or traditional ways. This made the opportunities for conflict much more numerous.

You can find out more about the Northern Paiute in my book on The Paiute War of 1860.

You can also use my Battlefield Biker Ride Guide to the Paiute War of 1860 to visit the sites associated with the war.

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Buy the Battlefield Biker™ Ride Guide to the Paiute War of 1860

1 pp. 73-75 Hopkins, Sarah Winnemucca. Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims. Reno, Nev: University of Nevada Press, 1994.

Image credit: Public Domain. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923.

Normandy Breakout Map
Map Courtesy of USMA Dept. of History

Operation Cobra, the American Breakout of the Normandy Beachhead

18 October 2016 / / 0 Comments

On the 24th of July 1944, the German forces around St Lo, in Normandy, did not have a clue about the hell that was about to be unleashed upon them. Their dispositions looked like this:
German positions prior to Operation Cobra
To the west of St Lo, you can see the area that the Americans chose to breakout from the close hedgerow fighting that had so favoured the Germans for the months of June and July 1944.
Operation Cobra Map

The Allies delivered a devastating aerial bombardment on the German front lines in the area on 25 July 1944. The line did not immediately give way. This was due to the American infantry not pushing quickly at first. Who could blame them? They had just spent 2 months fighting in the hedgerows and had learned to be cautious. Additionally, the lingering shock of the bombardment, which also killed and wounded several hundred Americans was still wearing off.
However, the American Commander on the ground, General J. Lawton Collins, saw no need to delay and committed his exploitation forces on the morning of the 26th. This was risky, because if the Germans had managed to slow down the attack further, it would have meant an American traffic jam right on the front lines. Luckily, they couldn’t and the Americans pushed right through and found the German line disintegrating like it had not done for the Americans before in Normandy.
Thus began the great race from the beachheads to the German frontier that occurred over the next 2 months, including the liberation of Paris and most of the rest of France.

I rode through the breakout zone in 2008. The ride from Gavray to Avranches is an especially nice twisty rode

Ride Recommendation

Check out the Terre Liberte’ route of Cobra- La Percee (the Breakout). Here’s a Google map of part of the D7 route that I rode.

Map - Northwest Georgia ACW May June 1864
Courtesy USMA History Dept.

Battle of New Hope Church / Hell’s Hole 25 May 1864

13 October 2016 / / 0 Comments

In mid May 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman was picking his way down North Georgia. His counterpart, General Joseph E. Johnston had just reluctantly retreated from Cassville, Georgia to the Allatoona Gorge in the hopes of luring Sherman into a tight killing zone. Johnston’s only worry was that the position at Allatoona was too good. Unbeknownst to Johnston, Sherman knew the position was too strong to attack head on. Sherman had spent a lot of time in the area as a young officer and had spent much time around the Etowah Indian burial mounds nearby. Sherman decided to swing west and go directly after the strategic crossroads around Dallas, Georgia.

After a few days rest, the Union forces moved south. General Joseph Hooker was in the van of the middle column and began a pursuit of a small band of Confederate cavalry which was acting as a screen for Johnston’s forces to the south. “Fighting Joe” Hooker lived up to his name and went fast and hard at the Confederates under General John Bell Hood. Hooker had hoped to catch the Rebels off guard and press home and advantage. Hood had other ideas. Taking his cue from his cavalry screen, Hood had begun entrenchments and selecting defensive positions. The first of Hooker’s assaults led by Brigadier General John W. Geary was thrown back when it encountered an undetected enfilade Confederate position which hit them hard. Hooker persisted with two more Divisions and the battle was enjoined.

Hood’s middle was held by Major General Alexander P. Stewart’s Division and they bore the brunt of Hooker’s onslaught for several hours in the afternoon. The battle raged with such ferocity that Johnston became worried that Stewart might relinquish the position. Stewart, a Tennessean, held firm even though some of Hooker’s men got close. With a fierce thunderstorm brewing and setting in, Hooker made one last throw of the dice and pulled Geary out of reserve through dense wood to push through a perceived advantage. Stewart’s artillery which had been so effective now opened up with even more canister rounds and caused the veteran Geary to claim that it was the hottest he had experienced with his command. The Union forces were praised for the courage and coolness, but the day was no to be theirs. With the drenching from the rain and the gloom of the stormy evening setting in, the Union forces settled down in their positions and awaited daylight. The battle has been called New Hope Church, but the soldiers knew it by “Hell’s Hole.”

The next day would bring probing for weakness all along the line, two days later, the fighting would continue near Pickett’s Mill.

Ride Suggestion

Next time you are buzzing down I-75 from Chattanooga to Atlanta, jump off at Cartersville for a great little circular ride that takes in Allatoona Lake, The New Hope and Pickett’s Mill Battlefields and a couple of mountainous switchback roads near Dallas, Georgia.

hot-spring-valley-montana
Big Sky, Big Thoughts

Meriwether Lewis and Mid-Life Crisis

12 October 2016 / / 0 Comments

In a desolate camp in the middle of modern day Montana, Captain Meriwether Lewis of the Corps of Discovery sat down in a thoughtful mood. The Pacific Ocean seemed a long way away through impenetrable wilderness. Lewis picked up his pen and wrote the following. Historian’s have argued what this passage is about. I don’t know. You decide.

“This day I completed my thirty first year, and conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this Sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the hapiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now soarly feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. but since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought and resolved in future, to redouble my exertions and at least indeavour to promote those two primary objects of human existance, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestoed on me; or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.”

— Captain Meriwether Lewis, 18 August 1805

Corporal Edward Scott of the 10th U.S. Cavalry

Corporal Edward Scott Severely Wounded in Pinito Mountains Battle of Sierra Pinto

11 October 2016 / / 1 Comment

After the Apache leader Geronimo’s escape in April 1886, rumors of his whereabouts floated around, but soon his band of Apaches raided the Peck family ranch in the Santa Cruz Valley in modern day Arizona, killing Mrs Peck and a child. The Apaches took Mr Peck and another child captive.

Company K of the 10th Cavalry (one of the famed Buffalo Soldier units, the other being the 9th Cavalry [Buffalo! , I’m a veteran of D/2/9]), led by Captain Thomas Lebo, followed in hot pursuit for 200 miles through the Sonoran desert. When the troopers found him, Geronimo took his band up into the rocky heights of the Pinito mountains. A fire-fight ensued where 2 Apaches were killed and 1 wounded. Private Hollis of the 10th was killed and Corporal Edward Scott was critically wounded in the legs. Lieutenant Powhatan Clarke braved the hail of bullets and pulled Corporal Scott to safety. Geronimo escaped again, but was continually harried by the 10th and then the 4th Cavalry who re-engaged in the same area on 15 May 1886.

Clarke was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. Clarke later wrote to his mother about the actions and said this of Corporal Scott “The wounded Corporal [Scott] has had to have his leg cut off, the ball that shattered it lodging in the other instep. This man rode seven miles without a groan, remarking to the Captin that he had seen forty men in one fight in a worse fix than he was. Such have I found the colored soldier.”

Ride Suggestion

Take a ride from Tucson, Arizona through the Santa Cruz Valley and then on to Tombstone, Arizona.

 

Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/99129398@N00/310540601/

 

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