I’m back from New Haven, where I hung out with Fletch and Lauren at the “Big Game,” which is the annual battle between Yale and Harvard’s football teams. It was pretty great, not the least because we didn’t spend a single minute actually watching the game. Rather we wandered a parking lot stuffed to the [...]

Posted in History, Redskins, Sports

I think I’ve posted something like this before, but what the hell: it’s Freedom Day!

Happy America day!

Reading that (which, for the lazy among you, is a detailed look at the rhetorical skill with which our Declaration of Independence was drafted) reminded me about how there are two sides to this special day. And I know [...]

Posted in History, Writing

Joel Achenbach posted his Washington Post Magazine column, which describes how huge a disaster the War of 1812 was:

How bad was our war management? Well, until recently there were three levels of wartime incompetence: Bad, Very Bad and War of 1812 Bad. Contemplate the fact that, in August 1814, the very refined first lady of the United States was forced to flee the White House and spend the night on the lam, hauled by carriage on dark country roads and finally deposited in a tavern to be hectored by fellow refugees from Washington.

Dolley Madison was, in truth, a hero, having stuck it out at the White House to the last possible moment (and having saved the famous portrait of a grim, humorless George Washington). Not so brilliant was the performance of the general assigned to protect the capital, William Winder, who had a gift for dithering around and running away. Historian Henry Adams wrote, “When he might have prepared defences, he acted as scout; when he might have fought, he still scouted; when he retreated, he retreated in the wrong direction; when he fought, he thought only of retreat; and whether scouting, retreating, or fighting, he never betrayed an idea.”

Posted in History 2 Comments »