Thursday, July 21, 2011

WWII Okinawa: Confederates storming the ramparts at Shuri Castle

Image via The Feral Irishman
























Oh, my........
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Via Shannon

LEATHERNECK
VERBATIM POST
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This is the last photograph taken of LTG Simon B. Buckner, Jr., USA, right, whose father was Confederate BG Buckner, before he was killed on 18 June, observing the 8th Marines in action on Okinawa for the first time since the regiment entered the lines in the drive to the south.

By LCDR Joseph D Haines, Medical Corps, USN

Only the Normandy D-Day invasion surpassed Okinawa in its scope, preparation, and forces employed. More than 548,000 Americans participated in the Okinawa invasion on 1 April 1945, an Easter Sunday. Curiously, there was virtually no resistance as they stormed the beaches. They soon discovered that the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy had literally gone underground, having spent a year forcing Okinawan slaves to dig their underground defenses. Eighty-three days of fierce combat were required to finally defeat the Japanese.

The newly organized American 10th Army conducted the invasion of Okinawa. The 10th, commanded by LTG Simon Bolivar Buckner, was composed of the XXIV Corps, made up of veteran Army units including the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th Infantry Divisions, and the III Amphibious Corps, with three batde-hardened Marine divisions, the 1st, 2d, and 6th. LTG Buckner's tactics were summarized by his statement, "The main thing is to lick the Japs. It doesn't much matter where or how we do it."

One of the most significant milestones in the Okinawan campaign was the taking of Shuri Castle, the underground headquarters of the Japanese Imperial Army. After 2 months of fighting the Japanese, the 6th Marines and the Army's 7th Division were moving south, nearing Shuri Castle. MajGen Pedro del Valle commanded the 6th Marines. Following a hard fight at Dakeshi Town, del Valles Marines engaged in a bloody battle at the improbably named Wana Draw.

The draw stretched 800 yards and was covered by Japanese guns from its 400-yard entrance to its narrow exit. The exit provided the key to Shuri Castle. The Japanese were holed up in caves the entire length of the draw and had to be eradicated in man- to- man combat.

While the Marines batded through the mud and blood up the draw, the Army's 77th Division was approaching Shuri from the east. To the west, the 6th Marines were pushing into the capital city of Naha. Faced with this overwhelming force, Japanese GEN Ushijima's army retreated to the south.

On 29 May, Able Company, Red Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, commanded by South Carolina native Capt Julius Dusenberg, approached to within 800 yards of Shuri Castle. The castle lay within the zone of the 77th Infantry Division, known as the Statue of Liberty Boys. However, GEN Ushijima's rear guard had stalled the 77this advance.

Impatient, MajGen del Valle ordered Capt Dusenberg to "take that damned place if you can. I'll make the explanations." Dusenberg radioed back, "Will do!" Dusenberg's Marines stormed the stone fortress, quickly dispatching a detachment of Japanese soldiers who had remained behind. Once the casde had been taken, Dusenberg took off his hel- met and removed a flag he had been car- rying for just such a special occasion. He raised the flag at the highest point of the casde and let loose with a rebel yell. The flag waving overhead was not the Stars and Stripes, but the Confederate Stars and Bars. Most of the Marines joined in the yell, but a disapproving New Englander supposedly remarked, "What does he want now? Should we sing 'Dixie?'"

MG Andrew Bruce, the commanding general of the 77th Division, protested to the 10th Army that the Marines had stolen his prize. But LTG Buckner only mildly chided MajGen del Valle saying, "How can I be sore at him? My father fought under that flag!"

LTG Buckner's father was the Confederate BG Buckner who had surrendered Fort Donelson to then-BG Ulysses S. Grant in 1862. The Confederate Battle Flag flew only 2 days over Shuri Castle before the Stars and Stripes were formally raised on 31 May. Dusenberg's flag was first lowered and presented to LTG Buckner as a souvenir. LTG Buckner remarked, "Okay! Now, let's get on with the war!" Tragically, on 18 June, just days before Okinawa fell, an enemy shell killed LTG Buckner on Mezido Ridge while he was observing a Marine attack.

Author's Note: Supporting fact as may be found in I. VCersteiris Okinawa: The Last Ordeal, Crowell Company. New York, 1968.

"Rick Perry is a Trojan Horse of Statism cloaked in Tea Party rhetoric and Bible Buzzwords"

" Of every One-Hundred men, Ten shouldn't even be there,
Eighty are nothing but targets,
Nine are real fighters...
We are lucky to have them...They make the battle,
Ah, but the One, One of them is a Warrior...
and He will bring the others back."

- Heraclitus (circa 500 BC)
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Via Coordinated Illumination
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James Richard Perry

A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves. -Bertrand de Jouvenel des Ursins, usually known only as Bertrand de Jouvenel (31 October 1903, Paris – 1 March 1987) was a French philosopher, political economist, and futurist.

James Richard "Rick" Perry assumed the governorship of Texas in 2000 when he took over from George W. Bush who resigned to take the oath of office of President. He holds all records for Texas gubernatorial tenure. Perry has the distinction of being the only governor in modern Texas history to have appointed at least one person to every possible state office, board, or commission position which requires gubernatorial appointment (as well as to several elected offices to which the governor can appoint someone to fill an unexpired term, such as six of the nine current members of the Texas Supreme Court).

Perry was born in 1950 in West Texas to rancher parents. His father was a Democrat on the school board of Haskell County and was also a commissioner. Rick Perry graduated in 1972 from Texas A & M with a degree in animal science. After graduation, he was commissioned in the United States Air Force, completed pilot training and flew C-130 tactical airlift in the United States, the Middle East, and Europe until 1977. He left the Air Force with the rank of captain, returned to Texas and went into business farming cotton with his father. Sounds good so far, doesn't he?

Perry said that his interest in politics probably began in November 1961, when his father took him to the funeral of Sam Rayburn, (Mr. Democrat) who during his long public career served as speaker of the Texas House and the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1984, Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from a district that included his home county of Haskell. He served three two-year terms in office. He befriended fellow freshman state representative Lena Guerrero of Austin, a staunch liberal Democrat who endorsed Perry's reelection bid in 2006 on personal, rather than philosophical grounds.

Perry supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries and was chairman of the Gore campaign in Texas. In 1989, Perry announced he was joining the Republican Party. Perry is a member of the National Governors Association (NGA). Bill Clinton is the only member of the NGA who ever became president of the United States.

The Bilderberg Conference

Nonpartisan debt limit analysis report


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Dear Friend,

In the wake of the ongoing debate on the Federal Debt Ceiling many people have been contacting my offices asking for a good source of unbiased, current information on the subject. Frankly, our country is faced with making a selection between a number of unpleasant options, so having information upon which to judge those options is more important than ever.

How much of our current budget is being funded by taxes, and how much by new borrowing? What happens if we do not raise the debt ceiling? What happens if the debt ceiling is raised without dealing with the underlying causes of the rising debt? What happens if we default on our debt?

The House Republican leadership recently invited Jerome Powell - former Undersecretary of Treasury in the George H.W. Bush Administration - to present members of Congress with a nonpartisan debt limit analysis, and to present a fact-based look at what consequences our country will be facing without a resolution to the current budget crisis.

I am linking to the report here, so that the people of Eastern North Carolina can fully understand the magnitude of the current situation. I urge you to read the report and share this information with your friends and loved ones.

Sincerely,

J

Walter B. Jones
Member of Congress (NC-03)

Killer Whale v Jaws

Via Cousin Colby


Representative Allen West Will Not Apologize To Schultz

Via PUMABydesign


Fred: Eye-balling the Fifth Century

Fred Reed

When a country works reasonably well—when the schools teach algebra and not governmentally mandated Appropriate Values, when the police are scarce and courteous, when government is remote and minds its business and works more for the benefit of the country than for looters and special interests, then pledging to it a degree of allegiance isn't foolish. Decades back America was such a country, imperfect as all countries are, but good enough to cherish.

As decline begins, and government becomes oppressive, self-righteous, and ruthless yet incompetent, as official spying flourishes, as corruption sets in hard, and institutions rot, it is time to disengage. Loyalty to a country is a choice, not an obligation. In other times people have loved family, friends, common decency, tribe, regiment, or church instead of country. In an age of national collapse, this is wise.

A fruitful field of disengagement might be called domestic expatriation—the recognition that living in a country makes you a resident, not a subscriber. It is one thing to be loyal to a government that is loyal to you, another thing entirely to continue that loyalty when the Brown Shirts march and the government rejects everything that you believe in. While the phrase has become unbearably pretentious, it is possible to regard oneself as a citizen of the world rather than of the Reich.

Home schooling is an admirable form of disengagement for those who cannot physically expatriate. The primary schools once taught enough of reading and arithmetic, and little enough of medioccritizing propaganda, as to render them other than pernicious. Today, no. Here it is worth reflecting, contrary to governmental insistence, that schools are needless, at least for bright children. An intelligent child quickly reads several years ahead of his grade level, at which point school becomes only an obstacle. He will be savagely bored, regard his teachers as imbeciles, and learn nothing that justifies his being there but much that justifies being somewhere else. In the deepening twilight, home-schooling becomes almost a responsibility, a parallel to medieval monks copying Greek manuscripts.

'Nazi'-cop town 'firing' officers, stops paying mayor


Mayor Ed Foster of Quartzsite, Ariz., says his town is filled with massive corruption among government officials

The state of Arizona is now investigating allegations of massive corruption among government officials in Quartzsite, Ariz., the town that's the focus of worldwide attention after police forcibly removed a woman from speaking at a town-hall meeting, and where the mayor today says he's not being paid and most local police officers are wrongly being fired and have been ordered not to leave their homes.

"I'm no longer getting paid as mayor," said Ed Foster, the elected head of Quartzsite. "That's not a big deal, but it's in the town code that I get a stipend of $400. If they made a decision to withdraw my stipend, they have to do it in public, so just the decision to do it in private is another violation of the open-meeting law. It's just idiocy."

Quartzsite has become infamous since WND first publicized the ouster of Jennifer Jones, publisher of the Desert Freedom Press, over the vocal objections of Mayor Foster who pleaded with his own police not to remove her.

A video of the June 28 town-hall fiasco posted on YouTube has been viewed more than 100,000 times.

MORE

Man guilty of evading arrest: Mistaken for a burglar in his own home

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A Lufkin man convicted of resisting arrest in his own home after police mistook him for a burglar was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Marco Sauceda, 30, entered County Court-at-Law No. 2 Judge Derek Flournoy’s courtroom Wednesday morning wearing a tan button down shirt and navy dress slacks, but by the end of the day found himself in county orange.

Following a one-day trial and four-hour deliberation, a six-panel Angelina County jury concluded Sauceda was guilty of resisting arrest on March 15, 2009, while being pepper-sprayed, shot with a pepper ball gun and wrestled to the ground by nine Lufkin Police officers in his own living room, according to testimony.

In closing arguments Wednesday morning, Sauceda’s defense attorney, Ryan Deaton, chronicled how his client was wronged by Lufkin Police when they entered his home at 111 Finley St. on a report of a black male kicking in the front door, called in by a neighbors.

MORE.

Gunwalker: Phase Two hearings+

Via Sipsey Street Irregulars
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TUESDAY JULY 26th

Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border

Full Committee, Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 26th in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

This hearing will continue the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice's Operation Fast and Furious, a tragically flawed effort that is connected to deaths on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.

Witness list:

Mr. Carlos Canino
ATF Acting Attaché to Mexico

Mr. Darren Gil
Former ATF Attaché to Mexico

Mr. Jose Wall
ATF Senior Special Agent
Tijuana, Mexico

Mr. Lorren Leadmon
ATF Intelligence Operations Specialist

Mr. William Newell
Former ATF Special Agent in Charge
Phoenix Field Division

Mr. William McMahon
ATF Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations
(West, including Phoenix and Mexico)

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a

Spenditol :)

Via American and Proud


National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 07-20-11

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Injustice Everywhere

VERBATIM POST
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Here are the 20 reports of police miscoduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Wednesday, July 20, 2011:

  • Charlotte NC family wins $10mil jury judgment against Taser Int after son died when tasered by police [0] http://bit.ly/pOBaoR
  • Sevierville TN cop gets deferred sentence in plea deal for ramming cruiser before arrest in domestic case [0] http://bit.ly/q1RfDV
  • Meanwhile, one of the Blount County TN deputies who arrested him is being investigated after video shows him repeatedly punch & kick that Sevierville cop during that incident [1] http://bit.ly/q1RfDV
  • Moreover, that same Blount Co TN deputy being investigated for beating that cop on video also being sued for the fatal shooting of a 61yr-old in the back 5x [0] http://bit.ly/qhGwQw
  • Baltimore MD city council calls for review of cop lawsuits ahead of $100k settlement to a 65yr-old beaten by cops [0] http://bit.ly/nWNWY2
  • New York NY (Staten Island) cop arrested on multiple charges for allegedly writing false citations to pad overtime [0] http://bit.ly/nPkV9c
  • Sonoma Co CA sheriff settles ACLU immigration suit by promising to implement enforcement & detention reforms [0] http://bit.ly/mVc7tv
  • New Castle PA cop suspended 60 days w/o pay and removed from K9 unit after his police dog died in hot cruiser [0] http://bit.ly/p8cbbP
  • Maui HI cop sentenced to fine & probation for stealing $500 from woman he illegally searched & falsely arrested [0] http://bit.ly/nWICwU
  • Santa Fe Co NM sheriff take plea deal for embezzling equip & bulletproof vests & selling them on e-bay for profit [0] http://bit.ly/oLN3pT
  • Miami Beach FL police lieutenant demoted in relation to cop’s ATV joyride crash that injured 2 people [1] http://cbsloc.al/qXqtrF
  • Monroe NC cop suspended while under investigation on allegations he took indecent liberties w/15yr-old girl [1] http://bit.ly/nSgNdG
  • Baltimore MD cop arrested on multiple charges for firing gun at her ex-boyfriend’s home & his guest’s car [1] http://bsun.md/qPQAGH
  • Jacksonville FL cop resigns after violating probation when charged w/battery of woman who wouldn’t stay in his cabin[0] http://bit.ly/nCklT2
  • San Antonio TX park cop arrested for deadly conduct, possession of brass knucks & other charges in domestic case [0] http://bit.ly/ouqREu
  • Massachusetts state trooper arrested for assault on allegations he strangled his girlfriend & threatened her w/gun [0] http://bit.ly/pqL9MK
  • Carrizozo NM hires ex-Farmington cop who resigned after DV incident & had history of at least 22 misconduct probes [0] http://bit.ly/reItwN
  • Hempstead NY police detective indicted on multiple charges for allegedly covering up theft of gun before he retired [0] http://bit.ly/qgsMlx
  • Hemostead NY cop suspended w/o pay after arrested on allegations he was dealing prescription painkillers [0] http://bit.ly/n451LB
  • Toledo OH cop fired for lying & another demoted over vehicle chase & use of force incident that wasn’t reported [0] http://bit.ly/nZ7llp

That’s it for today, stay safe out there.

Battle of First Manassas

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North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
www.ncwbts150.com
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Battle of First Manassas:

"The six weeks that intervened between Bethel and First Manassas were weeks of ceaseless activity. Regiments marched and countermarched; North Carolina was hardly more than one big camp, quivering with excitement, bustling with energy, overflowing with patriotic ardor. The Confederate army under Generals Johnston and Beauregard was throwing itself into position to stop the "On to Richmond" march of the Federal army under General Irvin McDowell. In this great battle, so signally victorious for the Confederate arms, North Carolina had fewer troops engaged than it had in any other important battle of the armies in Virginia.

Col. W.W. Kirkland's Eleventh (afterward Twenty-first) regiment, with two companies -- Captain Connolly's and Captain Wharton's -- attached, and the Fifth, Lieut.-Col. J.P. jones in command during the sickness of Colonel McRae, were present, but so situated that they took no part in the engagement.

The Sixth [North Carolina] was hotly engaged, however, and lost its gallant colonel, Charles F. Fisher [Fort Fisher on the Cape Fear would be named for him]. When this regiment arrived at Manassas Junction,

the battle was already raging. Colonel Fisher moved his regiment forward entirely under cover until he reached an open field leading up to the famous Henry house plateau, Fisher's presence was not even suspected by the enemy until he broke cover...and with commendable gallantry, but with lamentable inexperience, cried out to his regiment, which was then moving by flank and not in line of battle, "Follow me," and moved directly toward the [enemy artillery] guns.

At this juncture Capt. I.E. Avery said to his courageous colonel, who was also his close friend, "Now we ought to charge." "That is right captain," answered Fisher, and his loud command,
"Charge!" was the last word his loved regiment heard from his lips. In prompt obedience the seven companies rushed up to the guns, whose officers fought them until their men were nearly all cut down and their commander seriously wounded. But the charge was a costly one. Colonel Fisher, in the words of General Beauregard, "fell after soldierly behavior at the head of his regiment with ranks greatly thinned." With him went down many North Carolinians "whose names were not so prominent, but whose conduct was as heroic."

One of the companies composing the Sixth came from Rowan county, and Colonel Fisher himself had long been a conspicuous citizen of Salisbury. From 1851 Fisher had been convinced that secession was inevitable, and after the election of Lincoln he had begun the organization of a volunteer regiment among the young men in the western part of the State, particularly in the counties adjacent to the North Carolina Railroad. The Sixth Regiment, equipped from Fisher's private purse, left its training camp in North Carolina on July 10, and had been at the "front" barely ten days when fate assigned its commander a rendezvous with death. Charles Frederick Fisher was an eminent figure in State politics during the first half of the century, and had been editor of the Western Carolinian at Salisbury and in 1855 had succeeded John M. Morehead as president of the North Carolina Railroad.

The Sixth lost 73 men in killed and wounded. This battle ended the fighting in Virginia for that year [1861]. North Carolina, however, was not so fortunate, for the next month saw [Northern forces descend] upon its coast." (Confederate Military History, D.H. Hill, Jr., pp. 21-23)

www.ncwbts150.com

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Battle of First Manassas

Skull Discovered at Pearl Harbor


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An excavation crew recently made a startling discovery at the bottom of Pearl Harbor when it unearthed a skull that archeologists suspect is from a Japanese pilot who died in the historic attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

Archaeologist Jeff Fong of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific described the discovery to The Associated Press and the efforts under way to identify the skull. He said the early analysis has made him "75 percent sure" that the skull belongs to a Japanese pilot.

He did not provide specifics about what archaeologists have learned about the skull, but said it was not from one of Hawaii's ancient burial sites. They also contacted local police and ruled out the possibility that it's from an active missing person case, said Denise Emsley, public affairs officer for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii, which was being inundated with media calls Wednesday about the skull from international news organizations.

The items found with the skull, which was determined not to be from a Native Hawaiian, provided some clues: forks, scraps of metal and a Coca-Cola bottle Fong said researchers have determined was from the 1940s.

Fifty-five Japanese airmen were killed and 29 of their aircraft were shot down in the attack, compared with the 2,400 U.S. service members who died. No Japanese remains have been found at Pearl Harbor since World War II.

Let's go! Buford, Wyoming, Pop 1, 82052

Caldwell County’s “Little Rebel”

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“For all the hardships on the home front, support for the war was still strong enough in the spring of 1862 to allow the original companies raised in Caldwell to easily refill their ranks. Avoidance of the stigma of being drafted and the desire to bond with friends and relatives who had been the first to enlist played a major role in drawing older men into the army.

But at least as important was the fear of being seen as an effeminate coward by the young women, nearly all of whom were impassioned Confederates. In addition to sewing and weaving clothes for the troops and sending off packages of food, household items, and bandages, young women served as the Confederate army’s most effective recruiters.

Laura Norwood, [Walter Lenoir’s] twenty-one year [old] niece, took pride in referring to herself as a “little rebel.” She was among the young women who presented a company flag to the Caldwell Rough and Readys when they left Lenoir for the war. Writing Walter in April 1862, she assured him that “never will I be defeated, never, under the Sun!” For her and countless other young women, the war was a heroic adventure in which the “generous, the brave, the self-denying, self-forgetting, the fearless, the true-hearted, the daring, the unyielding to temptation, in a word the True!” risked all in the defense of country and loved ones. She need hardly have added that no coward could ever claim her love.

[Other Southern women] found reason enough to steel themselves when they read or heard of Yankee atrocities committed on Southern soil. Unlike Laura, Walter’s sister Sarah was a reluctant Confederate at the onset of what she called this “cruel war.” But her nephew Nathan Gwynn, home recuperating from a wound in the winter of 1862, convinced her of the need to endure whatever sacrifices were called for. “It makes my heart ache and my blood boil to hear Nathan tell about those Yankees!” she wrote Walter. “I could not believe the newspapers! But I have to believe him! Surely our army would not do so, in the Northern States. They would not harm the women and children and destroy the churches.!”

(The Making of a Confederate, Walter Lenoir’s Civil War, William L. Barney, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 69-70)

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Caldwell County’s “Little Rebel”

States are Sovereign Nations

Via Jason

George Washington's Commission as Commander-in-Chief

Via What Would The Founders Think?

Dr Benjamin Church Jr

VERBATIM POST
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I was sifting through some old notes today and came across this and thought I would post it. It's George Washington's commission from the Continental Congress, dated June 17th, 1775, appointing him as General and Commander-in-Chief of the army of the "United Colonies." Washington was unanimously selected as the Commander-in-Chief on June 15th. He accepted on June 16th, and the commission was drafted and signed by John Hancock as President and Charles Thomson as Secretary on the 17th.

John Hancock had ambitions for this post and was very perturbed when John Adams, with Samuel Adams' concurrence, nominated Washington. Hancock thought himself somewhat of a military man and liked to refer to himself as "Colonel Hancock." He, indeed was appointed as "Captain of the Company of Cadets with the rank of Colonel" in the Massachusetts militia in Boston. This was largely a ceremonial post as the unit was called the "Governor's Guard". The only real military experience Hancock had was to lead the company of cadets on parade through the streets of Boston. Hancock's first act after his appointment was to advertise for two fifers in the Boston papers, presumably to accompany him as he marched through the streets. General Gage revoked this commission shortly after he arrived in Boston in May of 1774. Later in February of 1776 Hancock was appointed a Major-General in the Massachusetts Militia.

Charles Thomson was born in Ireland but emigrated to the colonies as a young boy. He later made his home in Pennsylvania and was referred to by John Adams as the "Samuel Adams of Philadelphia." Thomson served as secretary of the Continental Congress throughout its existence and his name appears, as secretary, on the Declaration of Independence. Thomson's tenure as secretary was not without problems as members sometimes had problems on the manner in which Thomson recorded their remarks. On one occasion, James Searles a delegate and friend of both John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, started a cane fight on the floor of the Congress by attacking Thomson after alleging that Thomson had misquoted him in the Minutes. Both men received slashes to the face. Who says that a secretary's position is without danger?


Washington's Commission

Rules of Chess, Etcetera