Housekeeping Notes
We are changing the Alligator format this week. To reduce confusion and to make your Alligator consumption experience as convenient and available as possible, we are publishing Alligator Considerations on Wednesdays and the Alligator News Roundup on Fridays.
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Each week in Alligator Considerations, you can look forward to a review of current or historical events, cultural developments, my own rambling meditations, or political firestorms in this space. Generally, there will be a Biblical twist because I can’t help myself.
Please share Alligator Considerations with others, and don’t forget to look for the Alligator News Roundup on Friday.
Independence Day 247 years on
From the very first year that America’s colonies celebrated independence from Great Britain, fireworks have been part of the party. To get someone’s attention, nothing matches the explosive power of gunpowder.
When the Declaration of Independence was first read publicly in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776, it was greeted with celebratory muskets fired into the air. Given the shortage of ammunition in that day, and the widespread familiarity with the potential damage of lead balls moving at 1,000 feet per second, one supposes they were unloaded.
In 1777, cannon in Philadelphia boomed out 13-gun salutes in honor of the number of colonies.
Where did they get the cannon?
December 16, 1773 Boston Tea Party
April 19, 1775 Battle at Lexington and Concord (the shot heard ‘round the world)
May 10, 1775 Fort Ticonderoga captured by Green Mountain Boys
June 17, 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill
December 1, 1775 Knox goes after the guns
A Boston bookseller, 25-year-old Henry Knox knew two things: (1) If ever General Washington were to dislodge British troops from Boston, he needed guns. Big guns, and lots of them. (2) There were 59 cannon at Fort Ticonderoga, a mere 300 miles away, free for the taking, left abandoned by British troops after Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys had taken the Fort earlier in the year.
On December 1, young Knox led a party of hardy New Englanders north.
By December 9, he had loaded the Ticonderoga guns onto barges and floated them down the length of Lake George in a wicked winter snowstorm.
On December 12, the guns were transferred to 3-ton sleds and began the slow drag by oxen toward Albany.
By January 8, 1776, he had crossed the frozen Hudson River, losing two guns that broke through the ice. (There is no report of what happened to the unfortunate oxen yoked to the 3-ton sleds.)
On January 24, the artillery train reached Boston, the remaining guns intact.
On March 4, the guns were deployed on Dorchester Heights overlooking the British encampment.
On March 17, the British evacuated. There were sore losers among them who demanded their pound of flesh over the next eight years.
After Ticonderoga
Henry Knox had endeared himself to George Washington and served the general through the rest of the War of Independence. He was the first Secretary of War in Washington’s administration.
After years in public service, he retired to civilian life in order to attend to his commercial affairs. He was not wealthy, as other notables of the Revolution were, and needed to develop his businesses.
Just as things were looking up for Knox financially, he choked on a chicken bone at a picnic and died three days later. 1750-1806.
Figures of History
Reading the exploits of persons of grand actions, it is hard to escape the notion that God raised up certain people to act in specific ways at specific times. And in some cases, He then took them out of the way.
Abraham Lincoln, George S. Patton and John Basilone come to mind.
Why that would be the case is the one question we are not allowed to ask. We do not understand God’s works or God’s justice.
It is enough for us to acknowledge Him and humble ourselves before Him.
And Some Crass Commercialism
And now, on to our own commercial interests. My thanks to the hundreds of you who have purchased Alligator Wrestling in the Cancer Ward. It carries a message of truth for anyone dismayed by life-altering crises, and with some humor thrown in besides.
Beyond your plans to purchase dozens of copies of the paperback as Christmas presents this year - get your order in early! - you may be interested in the merch.
Everybody likes merch!
The Alligator Wrestling coffee mug comes in six different patterns, as these shown below. Order the first one at Alligator Publishing dot com. Each is $24.49, free shipping. Ain’t this economy a marvelous thing?
Perhaps by next week, I will have deciphered the expletive-deleted merchandising application and can show you the others.
Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, Shine!” Gordon LIghtfoot: I’m on my second cup of coffee, and I still can’t face the day. (Red)
Black Coffee. Milk is for babies. Hebrews 5:13 (Black)
Cancer: A bully worth fighting. Philippians 1:20 (Yellow)
The Cancer Ward. Heroes work here. Mark 10:45 (Orange)
We do not always get to choose the trials we face; only how we face them. (Pink)
Collect all six!
America by the Numbers
Continental Army, authorized by 2nd Continental Congress June 14, 1775
Age minimum: 16 years
Monthly pay: $6.25
Total colonists serving: 230,000
Killed in action: 8,000 (3.5%)
Wounded in action: 25,000 (10.9%)
Died (illness, starvation): 16,000 (7.0%)
Total wounded and dead: 49,000 (21.3%)
Other U.S. Wars; total serving in uniform, total dead (U.S. personnel only)
Civil War: 3.2 million; 655,000 deceased (North and South) (20.4%)
WWI: 2+ million; 116,516 deceased (over half from Spanish flu) (5.8%)
WWII: 12.2 million (all services); 405,399 deceased (3.3%)
Korea: 1.8 million; 36,516 deceased (2.0%)
Vietnam: 2.6 million; 58,193 deceased (2.2%)
Verse for the Week
1 Peter 5:5-6 “God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Thanks for reading! We should probably each study our own history, and then maybe we won’t have to repeat it!
Curt
Alligator Considerations