TECHNICAL PROBLEMS CONTINUE BUT AT LEAST I CAN DO RERUNS FROM YEARS AGO.
Balladeer’s Blog once again takes a look at a currently neglected conflict and some of the military personnel who served in it. Here’s a look at some of the Congressional Medal of Honor recipients from the Relief Expedition during the Boxer Massacres in China (1900).
CALVIN P. TITUS
Branch of Service: Army
Rank: Standard Bearer/ Musician.
Citation: “For gallant and daring conduct in the presence of his colonel and other officers and enlisted men of his regiment on 14 August 1900, while serving with Company E, 14th Infantry, at Peking, China. Musician Titus was first to scale the wall of the city.” He raised the American Flag from the top of that wall. (Pictured above.) NOTE: Titus previously served in the Philippine War (1899-1902) and subsequently in the Mexican Expedition (1916-1917) and Occupied Germany after World War One.
THE PESHTIGO FIRE – This piece of neglected history may be one of the most Balladeer’s Blog-ish topics in Balladeer’s Blog’s sixteen-year history. On October 8th, 1871 Peshtigo, Wisconsin burned down in a monumental conflagration that killed OVER FIVE TIMES AS MANY PEOPLE AS THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE KILLED! 
With Memorial Day Weekend fast approaching, Balladeer’s Blog does a seasonal look at a neglected aspect of American military history. Spare some thoughts today for the men who perished in this action. 
With the World War still raging, the other Allied Nations prevailed on President Woodrow Wilson to divert some American forces intended for the Western Front to Archangel and beyond, joining a combined army of Brits, Poles and White Russians. The fighting in North Russia dragged on past the end of the global conflict in November of 1918 into June of 1919. The fighting in Eastern Russia dragged on until January of 1920. In other words, if the Americans sent to Russia had instead gone to their original destination of France, their combat operations would have ended on November 11th, rather than continuing for more than a year of further bloodshed and loss of limbs from frostbite. All the more reason to remember the often-neglected troops who served there. 
THE FOURTEEN-YEAR POKER GAME – This legendary poker game in all likelihood never really happened but has come to embody the early 20th Century wildness of Thurmond, WV. During America’s coal boom Thurmond attracted the wealthy including mine and railroad tycoons. It became such a hub of gambling, drinking, prostitution and partying that it’s been called the Las Vegas of its era. 
From June 24th, 2020 – 
U.S. President: Ulysses S. Grant Vice President: Vacant. Henry Wilson had died on Nov 22nd, 1875 and the 25th Amendment requiring a new Vice President to fill any such vacancy would not be passed until 1967. Speaker of the House: Michael C. Kerr Chief Justice: Morrison R. Waite 
America’s 250th birthday is coming up in July, so over the next few months Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the anniversary years 1826, 1876, 1926 and 1976.
U.S. President: John Quincy Adams Vice President: John C. Calhoun Speaker of the House: John W. Taylor Chief Justice: John Marshall 
JANUARY 28th – 
Last March Balladeer’s Blog 
A TOURIST IN HAVANA (1908) – A documentary short depicting the sights to be seen by tourists in 1908 Havana. The director was Enrique Diaz Quesada, who founded the first film studio in Cuba alongside his brother Juan. This short debuted on September 15th at Havana’s Payret Theater. 
INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT GENERAL JOSE MIGUEL GOMEZ (1909) – Another newsreel, this one filming the inauguration of Magoon’s elected successor.
