Tag Archives: Neglected history

EVEN MORE MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS FROM THE PHILIPPINE WAR (1899-1902)

With the Memorial Day Weekend coming up, here’s another seasonal post looking at Medal of Honor Winners in the overlooked Philippine War from 1899-1902.

Medal of Honor picFRANK C HIGH

Branch of Service: Army

Rank: Private First Class 

Citation: May 16th, 1899. Near San Ysidro in the Philippines. PFC High was yet another member of the legendary unit Young’s Scouts to receive a Medal of Honor during the Philippine War.

Along with 21 other members of Young’s Scouts, Frank charged across a bridge that the Filipino forces had set fire to. The 22 men rushed under heavy fire to cross the burning bridge before it collapsed. In one of those “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction” moments the soldiers routed roughly 600 Filipinos from their entrenched position.

George W MathewsGEORGE W MATHEWS

Branch of Service: Army

Rank: Captain

Citation: October 29th, 1899. Near Labo, Luzon. Captain Mathews, an Assistant Surgeon, was tending to officers and wounded of his unit when he came under severe fire from the enemy. Grabbing a carbine he returned fire and drove off the enemy soldiers attacking the patients under his care.

I like to think he shouted “Say hello to my little friend Hippocrates,” but I’m kind of weird.

WILLIAM REMSBURG GROVE

Branch of Service: Army

Rank: Lieutenant-Colonel Continue reading →

14 Comments

Filed under Neglected History

FOOL KILLER: PART EIGHTEEN – SEPTEMBER OF 1919

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer picPART EIGHTEEN: In this issue the Fool Killer stated his mission in his newest incarnation (Or “regeneration” we could say with tongue in cheek.) was “the general overturning of all established institutions of every kind.” … “The Hour of Doom has struck for many of this old world’s pet institutions.” Quite a long way from his 1830s mission of driving the Devil out of the Tennessee Hills and killing fools who tried stealing the “hidden” gold of the Melungeons!

A look at the “fools” targeted by the Fool Killer in the September, 1919 issue of James Larkin Pearson’s publication The Fool-Killer: 

*** Astronomers claiming that an alignment of planets on December 17th, 1919 would cause a solar explosion visible from Earth, resulting in catastrophic storms and a devastating winter here. A nice touch of cultural kitsch is the way that, with the proposed League of Nations a topic of interest, the astronomers were calling the alignment “The League of Planets.” 

*** Democrat President Woodrow Wilson and his operatives who had tried to keep the Bullitt Report out of the public record. This situation came to light when William C Bullitt, Jr was testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about his mission to the Soviet Union in February and March of 1919. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge allowed Bullitt to enter his suppressed report into the Senate record.

           Pearson’s Fool Killer obviously shared his creator’s suspicion that the Wilson Administration wanted Bullitt’s findings suppressed because those findings put Lenin and the Bolshevik Government in Moscow in a better light than Wilson wanted. Continue reading →

18 Comments

Filed under Mythology, Neglected History

FOOL KILLER: PART SEVENTEEN – AUGUST OF 1919

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer 1910-1929PART SEVENTEEN: Resuming my look at James Larkin Pearson’s Fool Killer (Or Fool-Killer as he wrote it). In August of 1919 Pearson brought the Fool Killer (I prefer no hyphen) out of his latest hibernation with the words “After resting for two years the Fool-Killer goes on duty again.”

This time around the figure had nationwide exposure and with the enormous number of railroads criss-crossing the country by now he could get around more quickly than ever. 

In the previous installment I provided the background information on Pearson and his Fool Killer. This time around we can jump right into the “fools” who were the fictional figure’s August 1919 targets:

Fool Killer Gray Beard*** People still pushing Democrat President Woodrow Wilson’s claim that the World War (1914-1918) was fought to “Make the world safe for Democracy.” The Fool Killer would swing away at such people while pointing out the less-than-democratic nature of some of the Allied Powers governments from the recent conflict, especially England, Italy and Japan.

*** Bloated rich pigs – “plutes” as this Fool Killer called them, short for plutocrats – who try to blame the “class consciousness” of American laborers wanting better working conditions on the fairly new Bolshevik government in the emerging Soviet Union. (An especially idiotic claim by the plutocrats, since American workers had been striking, etc, for decades before the Bolsheviks took power.)  

Skull walking stick*** A preacher who publicly said that he “almost wishes sometimes that Jesus would come already.” The Fool Killer added a joke wondering how that preacher would feel if he was on a trip and his wife said that she “almost wishes sometimes” that he would come back from his trip already. (Pearson was, sad to say, very religious and often took shots at clergy members he found insufficiently “devout.”) 

*** White Russians (The fallen Russian aristocrats and their supporters).

*** Mossbacks (Narrow-minded conservatives. Think of the clueless, stuffy white guys in suits at National Review for just one example.) Continue reading →

12 Comments

Filed under Mythology, Neglected History

FOOL KILLER: PART SIXTEEN – JAMES LARKIN PEARSON

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer 1910-1929PART SIXTEEN: James Larkin Pearson, poet and newspaper man, carried on the Fool Killer tradition from 1910 to 1917, then again from 1919 to 1929. Pearson’s fellow North Carolinian Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans had written the Fool Killer Letters of the 19th Century so it’s appropriate that another Tar Heel continue the lore for so many years of the 20th Century.

James Larkin PearsonIn August of 1917 Pearson’s nationwide publication called The Fool-Killer changed its title and format because of America’s entry into World War One four months earlier. That change from the hard-hitting satire of Fool Killing was made to show solidarity while the war raged.

In August of 1919 Pearson changed the name back to The Fool-Killer and resumed the hard-hitting political satire. For us fans of Fool Killer lore we can put tongue in cheek and assume that the figure had gone into hibernation for a few years, like he had during the Civil War.   Continue reading →

16 Comments

Filed under Mythology, Neglected History

FLASHMAN OF ARABIA: LOST FLASHMAN PAPERS

henry cavill good flashmanFor Flashman Down Under, Flashman in the Opium War & Flashman and the Kings click HERE  

For Flashman on the Gold Coast click HERE  .

Balladeer’s Blog now moves on to another Harry Flashman adventure referred to but never completed before George MacDonald Fraser’s death.

Lee Horsley Flashman

IF HE WAS BRITISH, LEE HORSLEY WOULD HAVE MADE A PERFECT HARRY FLASHMAN.

Projected Title: FLASHMAN OF ARABIA

Time Period: 1852-1854

The Setup: Sometime in the second half of 1852 Harry Flashman at last arrives back in England from his travels which began in 1848. The scandals he fled have fallen into relative obscurity and he’s getting some positive acclaim over his recent experiences during the Australian Gold Rush and earlier participation in a wagon train across America.

In addition he’s finally gotten to see his son “Havvy” (not Harry), the child his wife Elspeth was pregnant with when his travels began.

The Story: The one and only Richard Burton, viewing Harry as a kindred spirit, reaches out via correspondence and personally to encourage Flashman to write some papers and deliver public talks about his journey through America and Australia. Always ready to play to his public, and now discovering the raconteur side of his personality, Harry writes a (very) bowdlerized account of his adventures of the past four years and even delivers a few talks at which he meets Burton in person.  

Burton's bookThe duo enjoy diving into the darker and more forbidden side of life where sex, booze and other diversions are concerned. Flashman happens to be with Burton in Egypt in early 1853 when the famous explorer begins his journey to Medina and Mecca disguised as a Muslim.

We will learn he originally invited Harry to accompany him, since our protagonist was fluent in the necessary languages and was well-versed in Muslim customs from his military service in Afghanistan in the early 1840s. Flashman would have initially turned down the offer and stayed behind in Egypt until, getting into his usual trouble from boozing, whoring and gambling he would wind up fleeing for his life. Continue reading →

32 Comments

Filed under Neglected History, Pulp Heroes

FOOL KILLER: PART FOURTEEN – 1909

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer cop USEPART FOURTEEN: FACTS FOR THE FOOL-KILLER (1909) by Ridgway Hill.

This rendition of the Fool Killer (I prefer no hyphen) is virtually a reinvention. It not only revises his garb and approach to his mission but it marks the first time the figure is depicted in action outside of the South.

Before I address Facts For The Fool-Killer I want to clarify something. I know that the Joel Chandler Harris tale Flingin’ Jim and His Fool-Killer was published in 1902 as part of The Making of a Statesman and Other Stories. However, that story – set in 1872 Georgia – does not feature the folk figure called the Fool Killer. The title refers to a piece of old grapeshot that Flingin’ Jim throws at people to kill them.

The victims of that “Fool-Killer” are a) William Dukes, an evil former plantation owner spitefully keeping a pair of young lovers separated and b) An unnamed black man who was trying to criminally assault Ann Briscoe, the heroine of the story. William Dukes’ brother receives a non-fatal beating from a hickory walking stick.  

Cop tall helmetFacts For The Fool-Killer finds the fictional character operating from Buffalo, NY and vicinity. The Fool Killer now wears the blue uniform and tall helmet of a turn-of-the-century policeman and wields a police officer’s billy-club in lieu of his usual club/ walking stick/ cudgel. Continue reading →

16 Comments

Filed under Mythology, Neglected History

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: MANY MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS STILL TRY TO DENY THAT IT HAPPENED

Remembering the April 24th Armenian Genocide carried out by the Ottoman Muslim Turks during World War One took on extra poignance this year following the Muslim violence against Christians in Sri Lanka recently.

Here is my seasonal post about the Armenian Genocide and the way that Deniers still refuse to come to grips with it: 

Another of the courageous Muhammad drawings for the upcoming May 3rd Contest.

Another of the courageous Muhammad drawings for the upcoming May 3rd Contest.

Here in the Western World we spring from the womb reaching for a microphone so we can vent about everything we find disgusting in our own nation’s past. I’ve always seen that as a virtue. We spend an enormous amount of effort forever examining and re-examining our past and masochistically thrashing ourselves for that past.

The Muslim World is the exact opposite. Their nations and culture seem largely incapable of introspection or honest debate. The Muslim World is AT LEAST as guilty as the West when it comes to Colonialism – in fact Islam had spread through blood and conquest throughout Africa and Asia and various Pacific Island nations AND was involved in the African Slave Trade centuries before the much-maligned Western World ever got a foothold there. Not only that but the Muslim World remains active in the Slave Trade to this very day.

Muhammad juggling the heads of the victims of Islamic beheadings.

Muhammad juggling the heads of the victims of Islamic beheadings.

The inhumane and barbaric attitude that Islam has toward women is every bit as bad as slavery, too, and it’s an attitude the Muslim World maintains long after those allegedly “Patriarchal” Western Democracies have moved on to more enlightened times. Islam’s harsh treatment of ethnic and religious minorities within its own borders far exceeds the abuses of the Western World, too.

Refusing to let their history books reflect any of these facts has been a big weapon for Islam.

American Democrats mindlessly and unquestioningly believe EVERYTHING in the incredibly biased histories that the Muslim nations have written about themselves. Democrats even buy into the ridiculous claim that everywhere Islam spread the indigenous inhabitants “happily and peacefully” converted to Islam. That’s as absurd as the old, OLD Christian claim that THEIR religion was spread happily and peacefully.

Yet another Muhammad drawing  entered in the May 3rd contest.

Yet another Muhammad drawing entered in the May 3rd contest.

The main difference is that in the Western World rational analysis of history, even when unflattering, eventually became a positive feature. In the Muslim World clinging to old prejudices and shutting off the mind to ANY alternate versions of the past is still adhered to.

Today Muslims are still trying to remain oblivious to the past. Too many are trying to deny their genocidal treatment of the Armenians during World War One. It doesn’t matter how well-documented that genocide was, the Muslim World denies it just like they continue to deny the Holocaust happened during World War Two.

Since the hilariously pretentious asses of Western Liberalism have backed themselves into a corner where they have to go on with their “Islam – right or wrong” attitude, unfortunately this genocide may get expunged from history books. At least from history books used in classrooms around the world when any Muslim students claim they are “offended” by the inclusion of the Armenian Genocide.    Continue reading →

10 Comments

Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

FOOL KILLER: PART ELEVEN – MORE MELUNGEON VARIATIONS

Fool Killer RedBalladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fess Parker as the Melungeon Fool KillerPART ELEVEN: MORE MELUNGEON VARIATIONS

In the previous installment I took a look at the Melungeon origin myth for the Fool Killer and the way it bore some resemblance to a figure from Portuguese folk tales that the so-called “Hill Portughee” brought with them. That tale also dealt with the creation of the club/ walking stick/ cudgel that the Fool Killer carried with him in many of his incarnations.

I finished off with the legends of the Fool Killer slaying “fools” who entered the East Tennessee Hills intent on mining or stealing Melungeon gold.

MELUNGEON VARIATION TWO: We’ll pick up this time with more of the oral traditions which supposedly started in the late 1830s or 1840s but weren’t set down in writing until the 1880s and later so there’s no way of verifying when they really began.

Skull walking stickThe area covered was still Eastern Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina. The Fool Killer roamed those regions, wielding his iron club/ walking stick/ cudgel topped with a skull crafted from Melungeon gold.

By now his mission had evolved to killing foolish Federal agents sent into the hills to try to shut down what Washington, DC saw as the “counterfeit” minting of gold coins by the Melungeons. The Fool Killer finished off any Feds that he caught confiscating those coins from merchants or arresting said merchants. Continue reading →

12 Comments

Filed under Mythology, Neglected History

FOOL KILLER: PART NINE – THE OXFORD TORCH-LIGHT LETTER (1878)

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer on cowcatcherPART NINE: This installment draws to a close the opening era of Fool Killer lore but we have much, much more to go after this. (At left is the figure riding a train’s cowcatcher like he often did to get around.)

This part exhausts the era of the Fool Killer Letters, seven of which survived from the Milton Chronicle newspaper, with a fragment of an 8th being quoted in the Southern Literary Messenger, and now we have this ninth (imitation) Fool Killer Letter from the Oxford Torch-Light.

Torch-Light Editor A.W. Davis is the assumed author of this letter which seems to have been written as an homage to Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans’ original Fool Killer Letters. The letter is much shorter than the usual correspondence from the fictional Jesse Holmes, as the Fool Killer claimed was his real name.  Continue reading →

13 Comments

Filed under Mythology, Neglected History

FOOL KILLER: PART EIGHT – THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer picPART EIGHT: The previous installment dealt with the last surviving Fool Killer Letter by Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans, Editor of the Milton Chronicle. That letter was from February of 1879.

This time I’ll go back to look at another Civil War-era reference to the Fool Killer Letters, to an excerpt from an 8th Letter which has not survived and to a publication running their own list of figures they’d like to see the Fool Killer slay.  

Southern Literary MessengerIn 1862 the Southern Literary Messenger quoted from a Milton Chronicle Fool Killer Letter, but without an exact date and without the whole context it’s not sufficient to count it as an 8th surviving letter.

Before I get into the details of Jesse Holmes’ (The Fool Killer’s) murderous activities in this account I will briefly explain that this Southern Literary Messenger article seems to be the source of confusion regarding whether the Fool Killer began his famous Civil War hibernation period in 1861 or 1862.   Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under Mythology, Neglected History