Another seasonal post from Balladeer’s Blog with Presidents Day approaching.
JAMES K. POLK
Conflict – Tennessee Unrest: Service – From 1821-1825 Polk served in the Maury County Cavalry unit of the Tennessee Militia. He retained his law practice and political activities throughout his service.
No official wars were fought during this period, so Polk and his comrades policed internal tribal violence among the Cherokee and the Creek. Periodic clashes between Native Americans and settlers had to be dealt with, too.
ZACHARY TAYLOR
Conflict – War of 1812: Service – In May 1808 Taylor enlisted in the U.S. Army as a lieutenant and by the June outbreak of the War of 1812 was a captain. Fort Harrison was under Taylor’s command and in September he led his men to victory defending the fort, the first American land victory of the war.
Promoted to major, Zachary took part in September campaigns into Illinois Territory and Indiana, fighting in November’s Battle of Wildcat Creek and other actions. Taylor spent 1813 at Fort Knox and in the spring of 1814 led troops in the Battle of Credit Island in Iowa. Continue reading
ANDREW JACKSON 
Conflict – War of 1812: Service – War was declared by Congress on June 18th and by November 1st, General Jackson was placed in charge of Tennessee troops for southeastern campaigns against the British and their Native American allies. By February 1813, his troops saw action all the way to Natchez. 
“If he had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. His grandmother was a typical white person. The Cambridge Police Department acted stupidly.”
With Presidents Day coming up in nine days Balladeer’s Blog will be taking a look at the military service of America’s Commanders-in-Chief. For presidents like Washington, Grant and Eisenhower it would take thousands of words to cover their military service so I will save them for separate articles of their own in the future. 
JAMES MONROE 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMES JOYCE! His works got me hooked in my teens when I really related to his character Stephen Dedalus as he rejected his religion and indulged what I call his “young and pretentious side” in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). I wore out my copy of Joyce’s novel Ulysses (1922) and continue to mark Bloom’s Day to this very day.
MERES FRANCAISES (1917) – This silent film was made and set during World War One. It starred the legendary stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, whose career spanned from 1862 to 1923. She was practically royalty when she deigned to appear in a few silent films. 
FROM JUNE 20th, 2018 – Even Snopes had to admit that the Obama-Child Traffickers scandal from 2014 was true. I ran this item back in 2018 because back then Democrat hypocrites were as usual throwing fits about illegal immigrants and President Trump’s policies toward them. (Snopes link below.) 
Back then when illegal immigrants were marching about “family separations” under Trump I ran reminders and photos from Obama’s term of children carrying signs saying “Obama, don’t separate me from my mommy” as a reminder that the same policies were in effect under Obama as under Trump. But, of course Democrat hypocrites only made a big deal about “family separations” once Trump was in office.
At any rate, here’s that 2018 item with Snopes confirming that Obama’s people were (supposedly accidentally) turning illegal immigrant children over to human traffickers: 
My recent blog post about the short-lived General Mills cereal mascots 
BRIDE OF FRANKENBERRY 
Time for another look back at a clash of cereal mascots. Previously, Balladeer’s Blog covered 
General Mills tried replicating their Monster Cereal success with a pair of cartoon World War One flying aces as mascots for two new cereals. Sir Grapefellow was a stiff upper lip British fighter pilot whose cereal featured oats and grape-flavored marshmallows called Starbits. Baron Von Redberry, clearly based on Germany’s Red Baron, represented a cereal with oats and berry-flavored marshmallows/ Starbits.
Here’s another blog post where I take a break from personally pointing out how the American Left’s unbearable pomposity and snobbery have driven away so many of us who used to consider ourselves part of it. This time my points are being made in a New York Times Op-Ed by Gerard Alexander, a professor of political science at the University of Virginia. 
Balladeer's Blog 