Saturday, April 18, 2015

Another Shot Heard ‘Round the World

HURLEY THE HISTORIAN says Patriots’ Day 2015 on April 20 has not yet arrived, but on today’s date (April 18) in 1775, Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from Boston, riding to every Middlesex, village, and farm to warn the countryside that the British were coming.

Tomorrow (April 19) was a pretty big day, too, because a lot of blood had been shed on that date in American history. Besides 1775, when the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World Officially Began the American Revolution during the Battle at Lexington Green.

On April 19, 1861, the first bloodshed of the American Civil War was shed when a secessionist mob in Baltimore attacked Massachusetts troops bound for Washington, D.C. Four soldiers and 12 rioters were killed.

One week earlier, on April 12, the Civil War actually began when Confederate shore batteries opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay. During a 34-hour period, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. The fort’s garrison returned fire, but lacking men, ammunition, and food, it was forced to surrender on April 13. There were NO casualties in the fighting, but one federal soldier was killed the next day when a store of gunpowder was accidentally ignited during the firing of the final surrender salute. Two other federal soldiers were wounded, one mortally.

On April 19, 1993, Clinton’s Attorney General Janet Reno blew up David Koresh and his followers at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.

And on April 19, 1995, Homegrown Terrorist Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Now which of these events do you think our Kneepad Liberals in the Press are most likely to mention?

Some people confuse Monday’s “Patriots’ Day” celebration with George W. Bush’s “Patriot Day” commemoration on September 11. Even more people get the “Patriots’ Day” apostrophe in the wrong place, including all those other local TEA Party Groups (except Andy, Sue-zilla, Judy, and Heidi at the recently capitalized Anderson Township TEA Party) because those other groups still can’t remember to capitalize all three letters of their first name which stands for “Taxed Enough Already.”

More Patriotic Flag Waving Later