75 years ago today

30th August: Rapunzel.
In 1862 in Northern Virginia, however, Major General John Pope was about to get his long awaited comeuppance. Lee was ready to take the offensive against the man he had come to despise, for his over confident bombast and disregard and disrespect of Virginia and the men he had come east to command.
Not heeding his subordinates’ requests for caution, Pope tried once again to break Jackson’s battered Corps(one Brigade did break, but others plugged the gap). On the union far left were only two brigades of Infantry and they were to be assailed by ten times their number. Three Southern Divisions, Hood’s, Kemper’s and Jones’ crashed onto the field, making short work of the outnumbered Northern troops.
Pope did well to recognise the danger when it appeared and sent four Brigades from three different Divisions to hold at Henry House Hill on his left. Remember this was ground fought over 13 months ago, by much the same men and officers, although most were now promoted.
This time around there would be no rout. Understandably, there was much jubilation on the side of the Southerners and a great loss of morale on the Northern side. This sense of martial superiority, begun last Summer  at 1st Manassas, was to continue and come to a head on the field of Gettysburg another Summer from now.

Thank you Aequitas.
Did not know about the strength always being 10000.

@Cromwell_Dude:

What would you have done had you been Hood or another general in the West?

If I was Hood I would have shadowed Sherman deep into Georgia and attempted to counter attack him near Savannah while his supply lines were at his longest.

July 16th 1212: the important battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, in Andalucia,  was fought and won by the Christian armies of Spain and Portugal. It was also Pope Innocent III’s fourth Crusade( 2 had been to the Holy Land and the other against the Albigensian heretics). It was a great feat to get the warring and jealous kings of Aragon, Navarre and Portugal to fight alongside Castille, but it was very necessary. The Moors had been on the Iberian Peninsula since the Arab chief Tarik crossed at what is now Gibraltar, in 711AD.
The battle did not see the eviction of the Moors from Spain, but it was the beginning of Spanish resurgence, which would culminate  with Ferdinand and Isabella’s capture of their last stronghold, that of Granada in 1492.
Never again did Europe have to fear from Muslim invasion from this direction.
The next wave would come from the East and towards Constantinople and then Vienna.

@wittmann:

I try my best to use gargantuan as much as possible these days.
I know it means so much to all of us.

sounds like a gargantuanish plan to me wittmann… :-)

@wittmann:

Today, the 4tb March, in 1193 the great Saladin died.
he was the greatest Muslim commander of his time, maybe ever.

So the best was 820 years ago….

Punk is not a man.

Was the famous “Iceman” of the Italian Alps a killer, victim or avenger? Will we ever know?

SOURCE :
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0811iceman11-ON.html