A Hodge Podge

 

   Sunday is a good day to wrap things up. While searching for a topic for today, I came upon a miscellany of loose ends. On this day in 1619 Elizabeth Stuart was crowned Queen of Bohemia. Now this Elizabeth was featured in my Friday post about the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament and kill the king. The conspirators planned to put the king's nine year old daughter, this same Elizabeth, on the throne and raise her as a Catholic to improve life for English Catholics.

   The plot was foiled and Elizabeth went on to marry a prince who was later crowned King of Bohemia. She was only queen for a year, because her husband lost a battle to the Austrians. She and her husband went into exile in Holland where she added eight more children to the six she already had.

   And completely unrealatedly, on this day at the beginning of the American Revolution, the Royal Governor of Virginia offered freedom to slaves who would fight for the British against the rebels. This was a popular move with slaves and many thousands attempted to join the British. At the end of the war, the governor took 300 slaves to England and dropped another 3,000 in Nova Scotia. Lincoln issued the same offer in the Civil War with greater success. 

   Still with the Civil War, on this day in 1861, General Ulysses Grant fought his first battle in Belmont, Missouri. Grant felt anxiety as the steamboat carried him and his troops down the Mississippi towards the Confederate camp. When they arrived for battle, the green Confederate troops quickly skedaddled. Grant learned a valuable lesson. His enemy was as afraid of him as he was of his enemy. Grant's troops, also green, were so elated they broke ranks and began going through the rebel's stuff and eating their breakfast. 

   This breakdown in discipline gave the Rebels a chance to regroup and now they were chasing the Yankees. Grant himself was almost captured and only got aboard the steamboat as it was pulling away from shore. The captain stopped the engines and pushed a plank to shore. Grant's horse had been killed in the battle and he was on an unfamiliar mount. But he was an excellent horseman and guided the horse down the bank and across the plank. Some valuable lessons learned by the green general.

  And finally, on this day in 1916 Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She was elected again in 1940. She was a pacifist and by this quirk in timing she was able to vote against America's entry into WWI and WWII. She is still the only woman ever elected to Congress from Montana.

Hodge Podge