Military History

Love this thread topic, the USA, Our military, veterans, Heroes that paid it all for us, as well as my Pappaw master sergeant Webb RIP, and my Dad Lt. Col. Thomas also RIP.
 
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While driving from DC to JMU I stopped and toured Manassas area...the site of the Stone Bridge really have me chills... knowing I was walking a very historical ground.
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My favorite war to discus is the Civil War. Been to a few of the Battlefields: Stones River, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Forts Henry and Donelson, Franklin, Manassas, Ft. Sumter, Mobile. Have seen reenactments at Jonesboro, Kennesaw Mtn. and the re-enactors from Ohio who bivouac at Stones River when they shoot their cannon. Would love to visit Pittsburg Landing, Vicksburg, Gettysburg and some of the battles between DC and Richmond. Also, would love to visit where Stonewall was shot. Probably our greatest battlefield commander.

Pitsburgh landing is just 20 miles away from my home. I had a great great grandfather that was an assistant surgeon for the 52nd Tennessee infantry at that battle. Oh the carnage he must have seen.
 
I worked with a guy in O.R. who had relatives in Knoxville during the war... there was a period of transition and ambivalence toward both the South and the North... this guy said his relatives didn't want to be involved and ultimately were captured in Knoxville while they were pitching pennies against a wall. May have been sarcasm, but I got a good laugh from that story.
 
I wish I could actually manage to get my hands on the paper, but once there was an article written about my family's involvement in the American Revolution. The title was something like,"The war as told by a weathered home.". Speaking of the house one of my family members lived in a long time ago, Nathaniel Brock and his wife Sarah Eaton. Occasionally I can find something written on them...or like a minute ago I searched and found about our connection to the same Brock's who started the Brock Candy Company. Brocks Started Candy Company, Served In U.S. Senate

Anyway, apparently he used his home as a sort of Field HQ at some point during the war. Where people gathered and the sick/injured were cared for by his wife. The house from what I hear was full of bullet holes. Someone built a small monument to him and his wife that read,"Nathaniel Brock: Farmer, Preacher, Woodman, Soldier under Colonel Thomas Elliott, 4th Va. Regiment. He lived and learned theology in Davie County 1785-1818. Sarah Eaton Brock, his wife, pioneers of the Yadkin whose remains are interred one mile SW in family graveyard. Coming from Va. 1785."

I've yet to have the chance to see it in person, but I hope to one day. I can't trace my history back much further, but I get the feeling we came from France. Because I found a ship log that said it was carrying French refugees and a guy named Moise Broc. Just Broc. Either people misspelled it or that is the original name. And from what I understand Moise means Moses. And there was another Moses later in the family. And they studied theology and some were preachers. And if we did come from France in 1700, we are Huguenots...or French protestants. Who were being persecuted at the time in France and many fled. I'm not sure, but I wish I could find a sure answer. I hear people often misspelled names of those arriving. Either that or I imagine they changed the name to a more English spelling. In the article above it says the same thing about a Moses Brock coming here in 1700 from France on board an English vessel.
 
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I wish I could actually manage to get my hands on the paper, but once there was an article written about my family's involvement in the American Revolution. The title was something like,"The war as told by a weathered home.". Speaking of the house one of my family members lived in a long time ago, Nathaniel Brock and his wife Sarah Eaton. Occasionally I can find something written on them...or like a minute ago I searched and found about our connection to the same Brock's who started the Brock Candy Company. Brocks Started Candy Company, Served In U.S. Senate

Anyway, apparently he used his home as a sort of Field HQ at some point during the war. Where people gathered and the sick/injured were cared for by his wife. The house from what I hear was full of bullet holes. Someone built a small monument to him and his wife that read,"Nathaniel Brock: Farmer, Preacher, Woodman, Soldier under Colonel Thomas Elliott, 4th Va. Regiment. He lived and learned theology in Davie County 1785-1818. Sarah Eaton Brock, his wife, pioneers of the Yadkin whose remains are interred one mile SW in family graveyard. Coming from Va. 1785."

I've yet to have the chance to see it in person, but I hope to one day. I can't trace my history back much further, but I get the feeling we came from France. Because I found a ship log that said it was carrying French refugees and a guy named Moise Broc. Just Broc. Either people misspelled it or that is the original name. And from what I understand Moise means Moses. And there was another Moses later in the family. And they studied theology and some were preachers. And if we did come from France in 1700, we are Huguenots...or French protestants. Who were being persecuted at the time in France and many fled. I'm not sure, but I wish I could find a sure answer. I hear people often misspelled names of those arriving. Either that or I imagine they changed the name to a more English spelling. In the article above it says the same thing about a Moses Brock coming here in 1700 from France on board an English vessel.
Fascinating. I've done some genealogy, mom's side goes back to the 17th century in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, I feel some were likely acadians who were deported to Louisiana following the French and Indian War.
 
Fascinating. I've done some genealogy, mom's side goes back to the 17th century in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, I feel some were likely acadians who were deported to Louisiana following the French and Indian War.

That seems likely. I imagine a lot of people up that far were French. Was Louisiana still under French control at that time? Because why Louisiana of all places?

I wish I could take that lead from Moses and find what his story was. I mean, he came over here alone. Must have been quite a tough thing to do. Leaving your country and having to go to a new one. How bitter, angry, or sad some of them must have been. I'd like to see where in France he came from.

On my mother's side, I didn't find out until a few years ago, we are related to the Dalton family. Same ones who were in the Dalton Gang. Dalton Gang - Wikipedia I probably know more about them than my father's side. As it only goes back to Moses. But the Dalton's I know came from England and were landed knights at one time. Dalton Castle - Wikipedia Though I can't tell if it's this one or what. When I search for Dalton England I get a couple of different places back. One in Lancashire and one in Cumbria.
And a cool Eagle's song written about it:
 
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I did a DNA test and I'm overwhelmingly British and Irish, with some French as well. However of folks who I've got shared blood with the majority are French, and most are from Louisiana.

It's hard to pinpoint with a time of fluid borders on the frontier and such, but many folks from the Maritimes went to Louisiana after the fall of Louisbourg and Quebec.
 
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I did a DNA test and I'm overwhelmingly British and Irish, with some French as well. However of folks who I've got shared blood with the majority are French, and most are from Louisiana.

It's hard to pinpoint with a time of fluid borders on the frontier and such, but many folks from the Maritimes went to Louisiana after the fall of Louisbourg and Quebec.

My dad swears we are Welsh, but I'm not finding anything on that. He believes so because he grew up in Briceville and his father was a coal miner. And apparently a lot of people around there were Welsh. As I guess the Welsh brought with them knowledge of mining.
 
Fascinating. I've done some genealogy, mom's side goes back to the 17th century in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, I feel some were likely acadians who were deported to Louisiana following the French and Indian War.
Pretty big French Huguenot population in SC low country. Wonder if any pre-Canadian French slipped down there an blended in?
 
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Pretty big French Huguenot population in SC low country. Wonder if any pre-Canadian French slipped down there an blended in?

Seems likely. Not just SC, but NC and VA also should have some more Huguenots. As I posted above one of my ancestors came from France in 1700 and landed in VA then moved to NC. The ship claimed to be carrying French refugees. Apparently they went to London first, then from London. And considering the period, that's when a lot of Huguenots were leaving France. I'd like to know more myself. The ship manifest read: "List of all ye passengers from London to James River in Virginia, being French refugees imbarqued in the ship ye Peter and Anthony, Galley of London, Daniel Perreau Commander."
 
Fitting place for this article... you are familiar with Oak Ridge, some of you, like me, have had the opportunity to work there...and know well the history leading to bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For me it was extremely interesting to visit both memorials at Hiroshima and Nagasaki a few years ago. While these devastating events preceded me by 3.5 decades, I was in awe of what I saw that day.

I was always interested in the weapons development activities in Los Alamos, and was fortunate to visit there as well. While there I heard the tales about certain scientists who had a great curiosity about the mechanism of fission. And in particular, two fellows who liked to experiment by "tickling the dragons tail"... that is to promote sufficient neutron generation to cause a near nuclear reaction... they had full control of the experiments, and were able to precisely limit the level of neutron generation and reflection... at least they thought there were in control, their downfall lies in poor planning in the area of "Engineering Control" (human error) i.e. they both f'd up... please read this article as it is very interesting.

https://nerdist.com/tickling-the-dragons-tail-the-story-of-the-demon-core/
 
It is with sadness that I report the death of the last of the Doolittle raiders.

Lt. Col. Dick Cole, USAF, took off on his last mission today (9 April) at the age of 103. Dick was Jimmy Doolittle's co-pilot on that mission.

A legend passes: Dick Cole, last of the Doolittle Raiders, dies at 103

Many years ago. I posted an account of the mission on these very pages.

Respect and Gratitude: the Doolittle Raiders - The Last Gathering

Doolittle is in the center and Dick Cole is to his immediate left

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Thank you Col. Cole, and Godspeed.
 
It is with sadness that I report the death of the last of the Doolittle raiders.

Lt. Col. Dick Cole, USAF, took off on his last mission today (9 April) at the age of 103. Dick was Jimmy Doolittle's co-pilot on that mission.

A legend passes: Dick Cole, last of the Doolittle Raiders, dies at 103

Many years ago. I posted an account of the mission on these very pages.

Respect and Gratitude: the Doolittle Raiders - The Last Gathering

Doolittle is in the center and Dick Cole is to his immediate left

View attachment 201311

Thank you Col. Cole, and Godspeed.
Just surviving that mission was a miracle.

I toasted them all last night.
 

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