Ok, it’s time to take a break from what the insane liberal thugs are doing. I’ll give them time for their heads to stop exploding. They now have a new thing to rant about with Ruth Ginsberg expiring. Let the battle lines be drawn on this one.
Have you heard the press conference from our Governor here in Florida? LOVED it. I seriously doubt you’ll see any November riots and destruction here; if only your governor has the set he has!
For those of you who have read my book, you may or may not recall in Chapter 41—Lemoore— I was absolutely bored to tears during my last year there. Sergeants were running the command, we did away with the Commander of the Guard. SNCO’s and officers stood Officer of the Day (OOD)—at home. The only time they got involved was when some airwing Command Duty Officer of the base (Navy Lt Cmdr) found it below him to have to speak to a lowly E-5, our Sgt of the Guard, and demanded to speak to me. Of course, that never happened, the OOD took care of him.
Bored beyond belief I began reading a lot and filled my library with books—mostly of military genre; one of books was the one titled here. Once the tour ended, it was back to the Corps and the reality of the hectic schedule of a field grade office—reading ceased.
After retirement came my book. Five and one-half years of constant 24/7 my editor and I beating ourselves to death. He was 2,500 miles away and we burned up the internet and telephone lines daily over grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. More often than not he was correct—without him the book would never have happened. Bless you Denny! When the book finally came to fruition in December 2012, the last thing I wanted to do in my life was read a damn book.
During the ensuing four more moves and garage sales I pretty much emptied my library. For some reason I saved the title book. I believe the reason was I grew up there—Baltimore. Now in my forever home and not much to do, I plucked this book off the shelf and read it. My first read since 2012, and it was great.
I leaned much from the book. One thing was I finally found someone who agreed with me—Baltimore and Fort McHenry are not on the Chesapeake Bay as everyone seems to believe. In fact, I’ve gotten into some heated discussion with folks, even some from Baltimore, who were convinced they were both on the Bay, some said they never heard of Patapsco River—really? They are on the Patapsco River. I grew up on Bear Creek which empties into the confluence of the River and the Bay at Sparrows Point. I spent my childhood camping, hunting, fishing, and crabbing the two with Dad and my friends. I know the area like the back of my hand.
As a retired military officer, I was amazed at the incompetence, sheer ineptness expressed by both Americans and British during this war. For those of us who have spent our time in hell—combat—we all know too well the best laid plans go to hell as soon as the first shot is fired, and adjustments are made in the heat of battle. However, during this war, there were no “best laid plans.” It amazes me we even came out of the war as survivors.
Not far into the book I got the shock of my life! Who on the British side orchestrated, planned, provide forces and orders for the conduct of the War of 1812? It was the Secretary of War and the Colonies—none other than Lord Earl Bathurst. Yes, he is one of my ancestors. I have a loose-leaf binder given to me by a Canadian named Bathurst who was for many years a diplomat in Washington, D.C. I befriended him through a strange set of circumstances while on active duty. He compiled an amazing history of the Bathursts all the way back to the 15th Century. I dug out his binder and sure enough there is Lord Bathurst. Sorry about that folks! LOL
If you are a reader I highly recommend the title book. It was printed in 1972 and is still available. I’m not making this recommendation because of the Lord. LOL I recommend it for its detailed study of the battles of Bladensburg, Baltimore, and Washington. There are amazing examples of the “Fog of War” often fraught with confusion, incompetence, and sheer luck—both good and bad. If you are a military person and a reader I believe you will enjoy it.
Footnote: As a young Marine I remember being told the reason the Brits didn’t burn Marine Barracks and the Commandant’s house was their respect for the bravery and soldierly virtues of the Marines at Bladensburg. Not true Marines. Sorry. LOL
Originally posted 2020-09-23 10:48:20.
