Details

christopherSholes“I replied, ‘That machine is very crude, but there is an idea there that will revolutionize business.’ Mr. Remington asked, 'Do you think we ought to take it up?' I said, ‘We must on no account let it get away. It isn't necessary to tell these people that we are crazy over the invention, but I'm afraid I am pretty nearly so.’”

Before word processing, there was the typewriter.  Before Mr. Sholes's invention, handwriting was the only method of transcribing thoughts or activities of individuals.  Sure, there was the printing press, but what if you only needed one copy?  Millions of typewriters were sold in the ensuing years, until they were displaced by the personal computer.  American ingenuity and production capability made it all possible.

Details

GustavusConynghamWhile American soldiers were fighting the British at Brandywine, Germantown, Saratoga, and Monmouth, this brave young Philadelphian was striking hard blows, all alone, at the same powerful enemy off their own coasts. During this period his fame, in the line of his service, was exceeded by that of no one, not even by that of John Paul Jones.

Through one of those unknown processes by which certain men seem to be raised up for certain emergencies, such a man appeared in Gustavus Conyngham.  Feared by the British.  Adored by the French.  Celebrated by the Americans.  He soared to the pinnicle of fame during his prime, then, like so many heroes of the Revolution, without whom we would still be subjects, he faded from memory.  He deserves our sincere gratitude.

Details
The arrogant assumption of the English Government of a right to govern them as denizens of conquered countries by the arbitrary laws of conquest, left them no choice but to become the slaves of arbitrary power or to exercise the great right of rebellion against tyranny which is so emphatically recognized in "Magna Charta." 
 
We've all heard it, "No taxation without representation!"  Here we have a concise explanation of exactly why the colonists believed that they had the right to resist the will of the English Parliament when the bill for the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War) came due in 1763. The British Government had borrowed heavily to finance the war, and as a consequence the national debt almost doubled. British officials set their sights on the colonies to pay their "fair share" of empire, and expected obedience from deferential subjects.  Why did things go so wrong?
 

Details
Great Britain, with a large contempt for the naval weakness of the United States, assumed, rather than claimed, the right to stop our merchant vessels on the high seas, to examine the crews, and to claim as her own any British sailors among them.  This was bad enough in itself, but the way in which the search was carried out was worse.  Every form of insolence and overbearing was exhibited.  The pretense of claiming British deserters covered what was sometimes barefaced and outrageous kidnapping of  Americans.
 
Relations between the United States and Great Britain were not good until World War I.  Obviously, they were not happy with losing their colonies, and the competition for the remainder of North America after the Revolution was an ongoing contest.  The boundary between the US and British Canada was not finalized until 1872.  Britain viewed the United States as independent, for the time being, but certainly not to be treated as an equal of their mighty empire.
 

Details
Into a veritable hell of hissing bullets, into that death-dealing torrent, with heads bent as though facing a March gale, the shattered lines of Marines pushed on. The headed wheat bowed and waved in that metal cloud-burst like meadow grass in a summer breeze. The advancing lines wavered, and the voice of Sergeant Daniel Daly was heard above the uproar: "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"
 
Marines overcame such odds, and won such a victory, that a grateful France renamed Belleau Wood, "Bois de la Brigade de Marine" ("Wood of the Marine Brigade").  General Pershing, commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, was quoted as saying, "The deadliest weapon in the world is a United States Marine and his rifle."  General Pershing also stated "the Battle of Belleau Wood was for the U.S. the biggest battle since Appomattox and the most considerable engagement American troops had ever had with a foreign enemy."
 

  1. California Joe - A Real Dime Novel Hero
  2. The Acquisition of California - Fremont's Conquest
  3. Lexington and Concord - Freedom or Subjugation
  4. Intervention or Luck? Providence in the Revolution Illustrated

Search

Go to top