Monthly Archives: December 2008

We hear this little tune come the end of a year, but where did it come from and why do we sing it? “Auld Lang Syne,” is a Scottish Poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to a tune of a traditional folk song. The song is well known in many English-speaking countries. It is often sung to celebrate the start of a New Year, or at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day.

“Auld Lang Syne” translated into English is, “old long since,” or “long long ago,” or “days gone by.” The phrase “Auld Lang Syne,” had been used by other poets predating Burns. There is some doubt as to whether the melody used today is the same one Burns originally intended, but it is widely used both in Scotland and in the rest of the world.

Singing the little tune on New Year’s Eve became a Scots custom that very quickly spread throughout the British Isles. And as the Scots and Brits emigrated around the world, the song went with them.

Band leader Guy Lombardo has been given the credit for popularizing the song at New Year’s celebrations in America through his annual broadcasts on radio and television beginning in 1929. The song became his trademark, and he recorded it twice. And that is why we sing it 220 years later, and for many more years to come. Happy New Year!

Three Union soldiers on the morning of September 13, 1862 spot a paper package lying in the grass. The soldiers were in a clover field two miles south of Frederick, Maryland. When they opened the package they find 3 cigars and a two-page letter written by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The letter detailed the battle strategy for his Maryland campaign. The letters came to be known as the “Union discovery of Special Orders No. 191.”

Wow, talk about hitting the jack-pot. These three soldiers took this letter to their superior officer, eventually the letter made it up the ranks, up to General George B. McClellan himself. McClellan came to the conclusion that the letters were not a ruse de guerre, that in fact the letters were genuine and contained helpful information. McClellan knew exactly what to do and was more than happy to have this epiphany, if you will, show the way.

The orders gave detailed instructions for placing all of Lee’s units. How on earth did this happen? I don’t know that we will ever know that. Were these plans dropped there on purpose, or by accident? Lee himself claimed that he didn’t understand how it could’ve happened. The couriers in charge of delivering orders were required to bring receipts when orders were safely delivered. It has been established that the orders found in the field were duplicates, and the original got to the intended confederate general. One Historian Wilbur D. Jones believes the culprit was Henry Kyd Douglas, a trusted courier who smoked cigars and whose “subsequent behavior raises a level of suspicion.”

Turning Point:

Having these orders readily available allowed the following course of events:

• Victory for the Union in the Battle of Antietam

• Lee’s defeat of this battle allowed President Abraham Lincoln gain the necessary political capital to sigh the Emancipation Proclamation

• Europe refused to recognize the Confederacy

• Lee withdrew his forces to Virginia which changed the course of the war and led to the eventual defeat of the Confederacy.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

source: Curious Events in History

We all know about the founding father John Adams, but did you know that his son John Quincy Adams was:

1. Was the first President whose father was also a President
2. First President elected without receiving a plurality of the popular vote
3. First President whose son was married in the White House

He also was the attorney, at age 76, for the slaves on the Armistad. He delivered an emotional eight hour appeal to the court asking the Africans be set free. Justice Story wrote to his wife about Adam’s compelling appeal: “extraordinary for its power, for its bitter sarcasm, and its dealing with topics far beyond the records and points of discussion.” The Supreme Court must’ve felt the same because they concurred and the Africans were set free. Adams must’ve had some affection for George Washington because he named one of his sons by the same name.

In 1620 the Mayflower left Plymouth, England and sailed across the Atlantic, and with it went the Pilgrims. But did you know that it also carried America’s first person to be convicted of murder? His name was John Billington.

Billington was not one of the separatist Puritans, the so called “Saints.” Rather, he belonged to the group of passengers who became known as the “strangers.” It is thought he left England to escape from his debts. His wife Elinor, and his teenage sons John, Jr., and Francis joined him on this voyage to the new world.

From the very beginning this family was trouble. One of his sons tried to blow up the Mayflower when he fired a musket near an open barrel of gunpowder. Had the barrel ignited we’d be reading another story about the first Pilgrims in our history books today. Historian George F. Willison believed, without question, that Billington was involved in the mutiny on the Mayflower which erupted when some passengers challenged the governing authority in their new land. This was preempted by the adoption of the Mayflower Compact, for which Billington was one of the signatories.

Shortly after the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth, John Billington was charged with “contempt of the Captain’s lawful command and opprobrious speeches.” His sentence was to have his neck and heels tied together. But Billington was later pardoned. He was implicated in the Oldham-Lyford scandal, a failed revolt against the Plymouth colony. Charges were later dropped due to insufficient evidence.

During the first winter in Plymouth, the typhus epidemic wiped out half the Pilgrim population. The Billingtons were the only family to not lose one family member in the epidemic. In fact, Elinor, John’s wife, was one of five women that survived. John and his teenage sons wreaked havoc in the colony and were notorious for their nefarious activities.

After 10 years in the colony, John’s crimes caught up to him. John got into a quarrel with John Newcomen, possibly over a woman, and shot him with a musket. This time the charges stuck. He was tried and found guilty “by plain and notorious evidence.” On September 30, 1630 John Billington became the first Englishman to be hanged in New England.