Wednesday, June 15, 2016

BLOODY JACK Chapter Twenty-One

I was amazed to discover that London in 1888 - a city of 5.6 million people - had only 63 recorded murders – including 9 abandoned newborns and the 5 victims of Jack the Ripper. That is a rate of less than 1 murder for every 200,000 people. In modern day London (2014) there are more than 16 murders for every 200,000 people – about the same number as New York City, but less than the 13 in Los Angeles or the 23 murders per 200,000 residents of Houston or Dallas, Texas.
Of course a lot of murders went unrecognized in 19th century London. Was a death murder by poisoning or a result of ingesting spoiled meat or polluted water? The police had no way of telling, and coroners were not required to have a medical license until well into the 20th century. Suspicious deaths of professionals and the wealthy were investigated. 
But a worker on the London docks, a scullery maid, a “hawker” who sold trinkets in the street, a porter at the Spitafield Market or a middle aged prostitute, when these working class were mugged on Whitechapel Road, garroted into unconscious, knocked senseless outside a pub or left bleeding and robbed in a dark alley, these crimes were rarely reported to either the police or the newspapers. One researcher has discovered that according to official records, no women in Whitechapel had their throats slashed during all of 1886 or 1887. That contention seems so unlikely as to be absurd.
It wasn't that the officials did not know what they were dealing with, even if they could not give it a name. “The Spectator” had speculated as early as the middle of September, “...the motive was blood thirst,— that is, the crime itself was its own impelling cause”. The magazine added that knowing the details of the victim's life was “...of comparatively little use, for it usually helps only to detect motive, and here the motive is...useless as an aid to identification” But, The Spectator admitted, there were a few things that were know about the killer. “He must...know that district of Whitechapel well...And he is not a man to excite by his mere appearance...or his victim would not have gone with him...Those seem the only facts fairly clear, and they...scarcely help the police, and they do not help the population at all...” But this last time, the killer had left a new clue behind.
The latest victim was Catherine Eddowes,  a 46 year old cheerful prostitute who was a loud and argumentative drunk, and had been in police custody at the Bishopgate station until 1:00 a.m. that Sunday morning. As she left the station house, her last words to the desk sergeant were a cheery “Goodnight, old cock.” She was a ten minute walk from Mitre Square. At 1:45 that Sunday morning she would be found in the square, killed in the now classic Ripper fashion. She had been first strangled from the front, and once unconscious or dead was lowered to the ground where her throat was slashed. Then and only then was she mutilated.
Her inquest started on Thursday, 4 October, and Dr. Frederick Gordon Brown, the City Police Surgeon described the condition of her body. “She lay on her back. Head turned toward her left shoulder. Arms at her side...Clothes were pushed above her abdomen, Thighs were naked..Abdomen exposed. Bonnet at back of her head...
"Face disfigured. Throat was cut. Intestines were drawn out and placed over right shoulder. Another section of intestines were placed between left arm and body. Clotted blood on pavement near left side of neck...Fluid blood under neck and right shoulder.” Dr. Brown did not share with the public that her vagina, her womb and part of one kidney had been removed and taken away by the killer. But he did add, “My attention was called to the apron - it was the corner of the apron with a string attached...”.
City of London Detective Sergeant Daniel Halse had also noticed the apron, because “a piece of her apron was missing. About half of it. It had been cut with a clean cut.”  They were ubiquitous in Whitechapel, (Above, left) used by the working poor women to protect their dresses. Dr. Brown even had the opportunity to compare the section found on the dead woman, with another piece of white cloth found on Goulston Street, in Whitechapel. “I fitted the piece of apron,” he told the inquest, “the seams of the borders of the two actually corresponding - some blood and apparently fecal matter was found on the portion found in Goulston Street"
Goulston Street was a north south byway which connected the east west running Wentworth to the Aldegate High Street.  Like George Yard, it had undergone a slum clearance project, with the worst slums on its northern end cleared out and replaced in 1887 with the Brunswick Buildings, new “model dwellings”. 
And it was in the open entryway of numbers 108 to 119 Brunswick Buildings on Goulston (above), near the corner of Wentworth, that the majority of the white cloth apron had been discovered just before 3:00 a.m. that Sunday morning by Police Constable Alfred Long – 1 hour after Catherine Eddows was discovered murdered, and no more than 1 hour 15 minutes after the murder had been committed.
PC Long had passed this same doorway at about 2:20 a.m. while walking his beat, and he was positive the bloody cloth had not been there, then. A careful reading of all accounts makes it clear the apron was not far inside the doorway, but in the open, visible to anyone.  Other police officers, moving by prearranged plan to blanket the area between the murder scene and Whitechapel, questioned all the men they saw, and saw no one suspicious. 
Specifically, Detective Sergeant Halse had come down Goulston, passed the same doorway about 2:25 a.m. and also saw nothing and no one. So the killer had come this way sometime between 2:30 and 2:55 a.m. It reinforced the belief that the killer had escaped Mitre Square -  just over the border of the City of London - by retreating into Whitechaple, where he felt safe. Where he lived.
The most direct route would have been to exit Mytre Square (above, lower left)  next to the Great Synagogue, then turn south on Duke Street to Aldegate High Street, turn right and walk past the Aldegate East Underground Station before turning left, heading north up Goulston street to where the apron was found (above, red dot).  That path was the most public, the mostly heavily covered by police. 
Or the killer might have gone north on Duke Street, cut east to Houndsditch Street, jogged south 1 block to Grave Lane,  then south to the short New Goulston Street, or jogged north to Turn Alley, ending opposite 108-119 Goulston Street (above, blue circle). However he had jogged, turned and hidden in the dark, he had remained unseen while the alarm was raised all around him.  Walked briskly he could have covered the distance in about ten minutes. Moving carefully, Detective Halse had done it in 20 minutes. And we know he beat the Ripper to the Goulston Street because the bloody apron fragment was not there when he passed the spot at about 2:15 a.m..
The most logical explanation for taking the apron was to carry away his trophies, the organs stolen from Catherine Eddowes. But the missing organs were never found - overlooking the infamous kidney mailed to George Akin Lusk (above), the 49 year old self-made Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, which was probably just another journalistic publicity stunt.  The organs were in that entryway and stairwell with the killer, sometime between 2:20 a.m. and 2:55 a.m. - a 35 minute window. 
And they left with the killer. Only the bloody apron fragment remained behind. But how did he carry the organs after he left this entryway? Did he live in the new buildings? Every resident was questioned, all the apartments and buildings were searched. It seemed clear the killer paused here, to transfer his stolen goods to another container or bag. But where did he go from here?
The question was never fully asked because of what PC Long discovered next.  Scrawled on the door jam above the bloody apron was a message written in chalk - “The Juwes are not the men that will be blamed for nothing.’   What it meant was not and is not clear, other than being antisemitic and written by a non-native English speaker. And different officers remember the wording differently. 
They reacted to the message differently, as well.  Basically, the City of London Police wanted the message left right were it was until it was light enough to be photographed. The Metropolitan Police, in whose area this was,  wanted it washed away, at once.
In a couple of hours (it was not approaching 4:00 a.m.)  Goulston Street would be filling with Jewish and Gentile peddlers and Gentile and Jewish customers.  When they heard about the murder and saw the writing, a riot would be a real possibility. Except of course for other nasty writings scattered around Whitechaple. 
The issue was settled at about 5:15 a.m., when Sir Charles Warren, head of the Metropolitan Police arrived on Goulston Street (above).  He ordered the writing to be washed away at once. And that was when all hell broke loose, breaking right on top of Sir Charles' head.
- 30 - 

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

THE SPITTING LYON

I can prove the regularity of Senator William Blount's intestinal functions, because his enemies in the U.S. Senate depended on them. Their trap was sprung on a Tuesday morning, while Blount was visiting “The Necessity” behind Philadelphia's “Congress Hall”. The Senatorial conspirators gained time because Blount had to go all the way downstairs and out to the little shed, to do his business. But they need not have rushed because he took his time – such things should never be hurried – and by the time he returned the letter had been read and William Blount's political career was toast. It was Monday, 3 July, 1797, and if he were not so arrogant (and regular) Senator Blount (below) might gone on to great things. I'll bet even the “Spitting Beast of Vermont” wished he had.
“Dear Cary”, the letter began, “I wished to have seen you before I returned to Philadelphia,...I believe  the plan...will be attempted this fall...(and) in a much larger way then we talked about....I shall probably be at the head of the business on the part of the British...You must take care...not to let the plan be discovered by...any other person in the interest of the United States or Spain...I am, and etcettera, William Blount.”
The plan was the invention of John Chisholm, who owned a tavern (above) across the street from Senator Blount's Knoxville, Tennessee mansion. Chisholm figured it was only a matter of time before Spain would be forced to sell their American colonies to France. And if France controlled Louisiana and Florida, they might deny American ships access to New Orleans. That would bankrupt all the western farmers. So Chisholm planned was to use local militia and Creek Indians to capture Pensacola and New Orleans, in the name of the British Empire - who would then promise to allow Americans to use New Orleans as if they owned it.
It was a fantasy of course, but the more Senator Blount thought about this idea, the more he thought it was his idea - particularly after he had improved it by creating a well paid job for himself as a British agent. So Blount wrote the letter to James Cary, who was a translator with the Creek Indian nation in eastern Tennessee. Senator Blount expected Cary to convince the Creeks to join the conspiracy. Instead, Cary shared the letter with his bosses in the War Department, who immediately shared it with President John Adams. Adams was a Federalist and he saw a chance to embarrass his own Vice President, Thomas Jefferson, who presided over the Senate (above) and was also the leader of the opposition party, the Democrat-Republicans - of whom Senator William Blount was an important member.  So Adams sent a copy of the "Dear Cary" letter to Federalists in the Senate, but insisted it be kept secret until Senator Blount could do nothing to stop the public reading of the letter. Blount's toilet trip provided that opportunity.
By noon half of Philadelphia (above) wanted to hang Blount as a traitor, and the other half was trying to deny they had ever met him . The President's wife even said it was too bad America did not have the guillotine. Senator Blount was arrested trying to slip out of town. Dragged in front of the Senate he denied writing the letter. He was arrested anyway and posted bail. And once fee he hightailed it back to Knoxville – where the anti-government conspiracy had made him something of a hero. A week later the Senate voted 25 to 1 to expel him. For the next six months both parties downstairs in the House of Representatives, Federalists and Democrat-Republicans, tried to make the impeachment of Senator Blount work for them in the upcoming 1798 Congressional elections. And that is how our story came to involve an expectorant infused Congressman from the Green Mountain State.
His name was Matthew Lyon, and he had been a Second Lieutenant in the Green Mountain Boys when they captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1776. The next year General Horatio Gates ordered Captain Lyon to take 60 men north to the Onion River. And just as they arrived, word came of a party of 500 Indians coming to attack them. Lyon said later, “The soldiers considered themselves sacrificed”, and they decided to retreat.  Despite Lyon trying to talk his independent minded soldiers to stay, Gates still ordered Lyon courtmartialed.   He lost his command, but he was not reduced in rank. Captain Lyon later fought bravely in the battles of Bennington and at Saratoga, rising to the rank of colonel. After the war he twice ran for election to Congress from Vermont, and failed when the courtmartial was used against him. Third time was the charm, however, and in 1796 he won, running as a radical Democrat-Republican. Two years later he was even re-elected.
And that was how Lyon ended up delivering a speech from the well of the House chamber on Tuesday, 30 January, 1798, chastising Connecticut Federalists for not defending the honor of their citizens by impeaching Senator William Blount. That suggestion brought Federalist Connecticut Congressman Roger Griswald to his feet. As Lyon stepped away from the podium, Griswald, in his best snarky voice, asked if Lyon would be defending the people of Connecticut with his wooden sword.
Now, Lyon never had a wooden sword. Occasionally, an officer convicted of cowardice would be required to wear a wooden sword, as a way of embarrassing him before the army. That had not happened in Lyon's case, because he was not accused of running from the enemy, but was tried for not maintaining discipline among his men. General Gates' later career provided ample evidence of his cowardice and incompetence, as Lyon's later career provided evidence of the reverse. But that was reality, and politics is about image - just ask John Kerry who was Swift Boat'ed over 200 years later.
Well, Lyon had been hearing this Federalist smear since the war. It had been used to defeat him twice in his congressional campaigns. And hit in the back of the head with it, the Green Mountain boy in Lyon reacted instinctively. He spun on Roger Griswald, and spit in his face. We can assume it was pretty disgusting logy. The forty year old Lyon was a tobacco user, and mouth wash and dentistry were still in their infancy. And then, having expectorated his peace, Lyon turned his back on Griswald again. In the words of an historian, from that moment “No man in the whole Republican party...(not even) Thomas Jefferson...was so hated and despised (by Federalists) as Matthew Lyon.”  Griswald went ape and charged at Lyon.
Cooler heads from both sides rushed to separate the two. And then, this being Congress, the argument about the traitor Senator Blount became about the “spitting Lyon” and the hot head Griswald. Federalists wanted Lyon censured for “gross indecency” - for spitting on a college - making him the first Congressman honored with an ethics charge.  Democrat-Republicans wanted Griswald censured for the insult,  making him the second Congressman so honored. In the end, both charges were dropped. So two weeks later, it got worse.
On Thursday 15 February, Roger Griswold entered the house chamber carrying a cane he had been loaned by a friend. He walked directly to Matthew Lyon's desk, and began beating the Democrat-Republican with the stick. Covering his head, Lyon struggled to his feet, and retreated toward the fire pit, meant to take the morning chill off the chamber. He grabbed a pair of tongs from the wood pile, and began an insane fencing duel with his attacker (above). Again, cooler heads separated the two
The spitting only made the attacks on Matthew Lyon's honor louder. One bad Federalist poet even manged to include the insult into an ode to a theatrical Boston pig. “You boast your little pig can spell the hardest word; But did your little pig ever wear a wooden sword?....Though your piggy screws his snout in such learned grimaces, I defy the squeaking lout to spit in Christians’ faces...,Then tell us no more of your little grunting creature, But confess that the LION is the GREATEST BEAST in nature.”  As I said, he was a bad poet.
The Spitting Lyon so angered the Federalists members of Congress,  it made it easier for them to pass both the Alien and the Sedition Acts, the second of which was signed on 14 July, 1798, six months after the assault by and on the “Spitting Lyon.”  It's actual title was “An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes” (above), the crimes being writing or publishing anything false or malicious against members of the government.  It also forbid the defendant from pleading the truth of their writing. Three months later, on 10 October, Matthew Lyons was convicted under the Sedition Act, and sentenced to four months in jail.
But Representative Lyon had the last laugh.  Twice.  First he was re-elected from his jail cell, with 55% of the vote. Then, the Presidential election of 1800 was a tie, and thrown into the House of Representatives. The contest became a 35 ballot knock down drag out between Democratic Republicans Jefferson and Aron Burr, engineered by the lame duck Federalist majority. The issue was finally settled on the 36th ballot, when the Federalist Representative from Vermont abstained. This allowed Matthew Lyon, the Democrat-Republican from Vermont, to cast the deciding ballot making Thomas Jefferson Third President of the United States.
So it turned out, Senator Blount's act of betrayal did not end up preventing Jefferson from winning the White House. The arrogant Blount did not witness the victory, having died in his home (above) during an epidemic in March of 1800. The next year Matthew Lyon moved to Kentucky, and won election to Congress from that new state six times, finally retiring in 1811, and dying in 1822. The Spitting Lyon, the Green Mountain Beast, was then buried in the Blue Grass state (below). And what a shame we have allowed his memory to fade, in part because we insist upon neutering our "founding fathers" - denying them and us both our shared humanity, warts and all. The lessons are usually in the warts, you know.
- 30 -

Monday, June 13, 2016

QUOTES


''I would have made a good Pope.''
President Richard Nixon

"We have men and we have rocks in plenty, we have everything.”
Dost Mohammad Khan;

A gaggle of GOP bigs
All went zag in a nation that zigs
A definitive rout
And they can’t figure out
They’re the 21st century’s Whigs


Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature
Kin Hubbard
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear..
Thomas Jefferson

In 1905, T Roosevelt told Congress “There is no enemy of free government more dangerous and none so insidious as the corruption of the electorate.”

Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.
John Godfrey Saxe 19th century American poet


The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Russell

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
Mae West
*
It's not the men in your life that matters, it's the life in your men.
Mae West
*
Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.
Mae West
*
It is better to be looked over than overlooked.
Mae West
*
I've been things and seen places.
Mae West
*
Getting married is like trading in the adoration of many for the sarcasm of one
Mae West
*
An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.
Mae West
*
She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success, wrong by wrong
Mae West
*
When a man gets up to speak, people listen, then look. When a woman gets up, people look; then, if they like what they see, they listen.
Mae West
*
When women go wrong, men go right after them.
Mae West
*
"Our passions......... are good servants but bad masters".
Sir Roger L'Estrange

Money makes a good servant, but a bad master.
Francis Bacon


To say "I love you" one must know first how to say the "I".
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Who is John Galt?
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

What is man? He's just a collection of chemicals with delusions of grandeur.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own destroyer - and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

The fortune my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of the spirit.
Ayn Rand Antham

To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else.
Ayn Rand, Anthem

I swear by my life and my love of it that I shall not live for the sake of another man nor ask another man to live for mine.”
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
*
Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
*
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
H. L. Mencken
*
Midas, they say, possessed the art of old, Of turning whatsoe'er he touch'd to gold; This modern statesmen can reverse with ease – Touch them with gold, they'll turn to what you please.
John Wolcot
*
He's not a Republican, he's a Republican't.
Author Unknown
*
History: An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
Ambrose Bierce
*

George Crespigny Brabazon Vivian, 4th Lord Vivian, DSO TD (21 January 1878 — 28 December 1940) was a British soldier who served with distinction in both the Second Anglo-Boer War and World War I.

On 1 August 1903 Vivian married Barbara Cicely Fanning. They had a daughter, Daphne Winifred Louise who was born on 11 Jul 1904 and a son, Anthony Crespigny Claude Vivian, 5th Baron Vivian, born on 4 March 1906. They divorced in 1907. The co-respondent was Alfred Curphey.

Divorce Court File: 8023. Appellant: George Crespigny Brabazon Vivian, Lord Vivian. Respondent: Barbara Cicely Vivian, Lady Vivian. Co-respondent: Alfred Curphey. Type: Husband's petition for divorce

South Africa, 1906
Tuberculosis reaches epidemic proportions in South Africa.
2 May — Lord Alfred Milner, British colonial secretary and the High Commissioner for Southern Africa, returns to Britain.
6 May — British troops kill over 60 Zulus during a punitive expedition near Durban

Curphy squandered his wife's moderate means, talked Mellon into a $20,000 loan,...moved into Mellons Forbes street home...In 1904 she told Mellon she wanted a divorce...Mellon offered Cuphy $20,000.....Curphy returned in 1908...Mellon gave her an allowance of $20,000 a year...in 1909 Mellon offered Nora income from a trust fund of $600,000 trust fund, with a down payment of $250,000...joint custody but children must never see Curphy and Nora together....1909 the children saw them together...1910 Mellon insisted that children live only with him...Mellon had the divorce laws changed allowing for a private hearing before a judge....Nora described Mellon's lawsuit as “Gold fighting against one lone woman. Gold may take my babies from me.” ,

Never tell a story because it is true: tell it because it is a good story.
John Pentland Mahaffy


  1. Tax shelter promoter sets up two companies, Company A and Company B and funds each company with $50. Company A buys a briefcase for the $50.
  2. Client comes to promoter and says, "I have a $10 million capital gain." Promoter says, "No problem, I can eliminate that gain for you by generating a $10 million loss to offset your gain."
  3. Promoter devises the following plan:
  1. Client purchases the $50 briefcase from Company A by paying Company A $1,000,050
  2. Client pays $50 in cash. In addition (here's the tax shelter part), Client "pays" another $10 million by signing a promissory note (a promise to pay) payable to Company A for $10 million in 30 years . For tax purposes, Client purchased the briefcase for the cash payment and the promissory note, so the tax cost for Client's briefcase is $1,000,050.
  3. Client then sells the briefcase to Company B for $50. Thus, economically, Client is made whole; Client paid $50 for the briefcase and sold the briefcase for $50. However, Client's tax basis in the briefcase was $10,000,050 and by selling the briefcase for $50, Client incurred a $10 million loss! That loss will then be used to offset Client's $10 million capital gain, effectively zeroing out his tax liability.
  4. Assume that Company B then sold the briefcase back to Company A for $50. Promoter is ready for his next client now that Company A has the briefcase and Company B has $50, and the pattern can be repeated.


Hitler visits a lunatic asylum, where the patients all dutifully perform the German greeting. Suddenly, Hitler sees one man whose arm is not raised. "Why don't you greet me the same way as everyone else," he hisses at the man. The man answers: "My Führer, I'm an orderly. I'm not crazy!"

The true Aryan is as blond as Hitler, as slim as Göring and as tall as Goebbels.

An adjutant bursts into Görings office: "The Reichstag is on fire!!". Göring checks his watch and says: "What, already?"

Two men encounter one another on the street, and the first one says: "Nice to see you out again. How was in the concentration camp?"
The second men replies; "It was great. Mornings we got breakfast in bed, with our choice of freshly ground coffee or cocoa. We did some sports, and then there was a three-course lunch with soup, meat and dessert. After that we played some board games and took a nap. And after dinner, they showed movies."
The first man can't believe his ears. "Wow! And the lies they spread about the place. Recently I was talking to Meyer, who also spent some time there. He told me horror stories."
The second man nods seriously and says: "That's why he got sent back."

Hitler and Göring are standing atop the Berlin radio tower. Hitler says he wants to do something to put a smile on Berliners' faces. So Göring says: "Why don't you jump?"

A factory worker, Marianne K., was executed for telling this joke. Her husband had been killed in Stalingrad.

If Hitler, Göring and Goebbels were on a ship in a storm and the ship would sink, who would be saved? Answer: Germany.

Hebdomadal, refers to something that occurs every seven days

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.


Bafflegab: (deliberately) unintelligible jargon, esp. as used for the purposes of obfuscation by politicians.
Flapdoodler: a charlatan, a politician, a speaker of portentous but empty words.
Flip-flopper: A person, esp. a politician, who (habitually) changes his or her opinion or position.
Heeler: a hanger-on who performs tasks for a politician or political party in the hope of personal aggrandizement.
lollie boy: a politician’s ‘gofer’.
Mr. Nyet: any person (esp. a politician in the Soviet Union) noted for having a negative or uncompromising attitude.
Pollywog: a person (esp. a politician) who is considered untrustworthy.
Quockerwodger: a politician acting in accordance with the instructions of an influential third party, rather than properly representing their constituents.
Rent-a-quote: designating someone (esp. a politician) who may be relied upon by the media to provide a comment, esp. one expressing a strong or contentious opinion, either in any circumstances or when a particular issue is being discussed.
Snollygoster: a shrewd, unprincipled person, esp. a politician.
Tirekicker: a politician or other decision-maker, one who discusses and debates, but fails to act.


Sunday, June 12, 2016

THE FIRST DAY Chapter Twenty-one

I think the Army of the Potomac got lucky that muggy Wednesday morning, 1 July, 1863. With the death of the brilliant Lieutenant General John Reynolds, command of all troops in and around Gettysburg dropped onto the pompous puritanical epaulets of the next ranking officer on the battlefield, Major General Oliver Otis Howard (above) . 
Known as “The Christian General”, at 32 years of age Howard was an arrogant, xenophobic religious bigot whose incompetence had smashed his own XIth Corps just 2 months earlier, at Chancellorsville (above)  The Episcopalian Howard successfully scapegoated his own Lutheran emigrant soldiers for the disaster, and the joke in the rest of the army became -   the “Dutchmen” who had once boasted “I fight mit Siegle” - their first commander – now chanted “I run mit Howard.” He called them cowards. And this was the man now in charge of the entire battle.
But this was lucky for the the 9,000 German emigrants of the XI Corps,  quick- marching up the Emmitsburg Road. Their command now passed to one of the most amazing men tossed up by the American Civil War – the be-speckled and thoughtful firebrand, Major General Carl Shurz (above). During the 1848 revolution, the teenage Schurz was chased out of his home in the German Kingdom of Hanover. He snuck back into Prussian controlled Germany to break his teacher out of Berlin's Spandau prison. Together they then escaped to Austria. Then Carl moved on to France, then to Britain, and in 1852 to America. He brought to his new country a hatred of slavery, a devotion to civic responsibility and the idea of “Kintergarden” for all children. At about 11:30 that morning, on Cemetery Hill, 70 feet above Gettysburg, Shurz got his orders from the pompous and pugnacious General Howard.
The Federal I Corps, fighting under 41 year old Major General John Newton, seemed to be containing Heth's 5,000 man rebel division along McPherson's Ridge – for now (above). But the rebels were reported moving toward the open right flank, along the Mummesburg road. Howard ordered Shurz to occupy the 600 foot high Oak Hill with the 3,000 men of Shurz's own 3rd. division, now commanded by fellow German born revolutionary 38 year old Brigadier General Alexander Schimmelfennig. He also ordered the 2,400 men of the 1st Division under 28 year old New York born boy-faced Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow to “...connect with the Third Division” at Oak Hill, and guard the Carlisle Road due north of Gettysburg.
Major General Schurz immediately rode to scout his new position on Oak Hill. He found it loomed over the Mummesburg Road and was perfect for artillery (above). 
Unfortunately, while he was gone, Howard ordered the Corps artillery reserve and the remaining troops - the 2,700 men of the 2nd Division under General Adolph von Steoinwehr - to remain atop Cemetery Hill (above), in reserve. From there they would secure the vital hill, but could offer no support to the rest of the XI Corps. 
Worse, Shimmelfennig's men did not reach the outskirts of Gettysburg until half passed noon. Their forced march had left them weary, but Shurz immediately led them through town and west on the Mummesburg Road, over Oak Ridge – the northern extension of Seminary Ridge - toward Oak Hill.  
But just after 1:00 p.m. Shurz was surprised to find Confederate artillery and infantry already atop the hill (above) and digging in.
The 7,900 men under Major General Robert Emmet Rodes (above) were the advance of Lieutenant General Ewell's rebel III Corps. And by 12:30 p.m., with the 5,000 men of Heth's division south of the Chambersburg Pike, the rebels had 12,000 men on the field,  giving them a slight advantage against 10, 000 federal troops on or soon to be on the front line - not counting the XI Corps reserve. And scouts from Colonel Devin's cavalry brigade reported the 5,000 men of Early's division coming down the Carlisle Road. They were expected to reach the battlefield by mid-afternoon. The Army of Northern Virginia was about to repeat by accident their brilliant flank attack at Chancellorsville. Sensing this, Shurz pulled Schimmelfennig's division back to Oak Ridge, and had them dig in. This forced Newton's I Corps, to pull back and dig in a new main line along Seminary Ridge. And Shurz instructed Brigadier General Barlow to extend Shimmelfennig's right flank across the Carlisle road with his 2,400 man division. Everything had to happen in a rush.
Not long after 1:00 p.m. Henry Heth finally threw his strength at McPherson's ridge south of the Chambersburg Pike – The 2,500 man brigade of Brigadier General James Pettigrew (above), along with the remnants of Archer and Davis' brigades. Pettigrew's attack found McPherson's Ridge weakly defended, and continued on up Seminary Ridge, where they ran into the new Federal line. Rushing to join the assault, Major General Rode's hastily threw Brigadier General Alfried Iverson's 1,300 man North Carolina brigade against Oak Ridge. All rebel attacks were thrown back with heavy causalities, in particular Iverson's assault. 
Captain Lewis Hicks, related the destruction of his 20th North Carolina regiment. "We carried three hundred in(to) action."  A Federal regiment opened fire on the their flank and 15 minutes later the regiment surrendered, with just 62 men returning to rebel lines.  Wrote Hicks, "In the absence of white flags the wounded men hoisted their boots and hats on their bayonets to show their desperation. The firing continued about ten minutes, our firing ceased and the Federals moved on us to effect our capture". .
Lieutenant General A.P. Hill and Lieutenant General Richard Ewell immediately began preparing to launch a second assault, including now Early's division, which was just arriving on the Carlisle Road. And while they were putting together the elements of the assault – just after 2:00 p.m. - their boss, General Robert Edward Lee (above),  commander of the Army of Northern Virginia,   arrived via the Chambersburg road. He was at first infuriated – or as infuriated as he allowed himself to be in public. He reminded General Heth of his order to avoid engagement. And then he dropped the issue, in part – probably – because there was a battle in progress and things were changing quickly, and in part because he knew he would have probably done the same thing, Heth had done. It was one of the reasons Heth was one of his favorites.
On 30 June, Ewell's Corps, and in particular Jubal Early's division, were vulnerable to being cut off. Pushing into Gettysburg on 1 July would put Heth's division 10 miles closer – half a day's march - to welcoming those men safely back into the fold. And finding Federal infantry in Gettysburg, between Early's 5,000 men and the rest of the army, was all the more reason to push them out.  Lee understood that. And in any case the battle Heth had brought on, was going Lee's way.  Lee approved a general assault as soon as the troops were ready.
Francis Barlow (above) and his division arrived via the Emmitsburg Road about an hour before Lee's arrival, and by 2:00 p.m.  He had put his men into the battle line assigned, defending Shimmellfiinig's right flank, and blocking the Carlisle Road. But the baby faced Barlow was no less a religious bigot than Howard and vented in letters his contempt for the “beery and impenetrable Germans”. He carried a cavalry sword (above), which he used to beat the backs of stragglers on the march and in battle. Said a subordinate later, "He looked like a highly independent minded newsboy...his features wore a familiar sarcastic smile…”
The action along McPherson (above) and Oak ridges left the Harvard graduate free to make his own decision. Which was usually dangerous for his soldiers.
With cavalry warning of Early's advance, Barlow decided to push the 1,100 men under Brigadier General Leopold von Gilsa, and the 1,337 men of  Brigadier.General Adelbert Ames,  700 yards forward of the line he had been assigned (above)  - into the vertex of a nut cracker, atop a low broad mound known as Blocher's Knoll.  And in doing so he disconnected from the Federal line on Oak Ridge.
At about 3:00 p.m. Pettigrew's brigade launched an assault against Seminary Ridge while Rodes sent his division at Oak Ridge. The Federal line held again. But then, about 4:00 p.m. Brigadier General John Gordon added his 1,800 man brigade, alongside Brigadier General Henry Hay's and Colonel Isaac Avery's brigades  of  1,000 men each, and Colonel Eugene Waggaman's 1,000 Louisiana Tigers - all attacking Barlow's Mound (above), from 2 sides at once.  Boy-faced Barlow would later insist his Germans broke and ran. But the man doing the attacking, General Gordon,  later wrote, The enemy made a most obstinate resistance until the colors of the two lines were separated by a space of less than 50 paces, when his line was broken and driven back,..." 
General Barlow himself was badly wounded, and  2 of his despised Germans tried to carry their commander from the field. The sarcastic newsboy wrote later, with no sense of irony, "One of them was soon shot and fell. . I then got a spent ball in my back which has made quite a bruise. Soon I got too faint to go any further and lay down. I lay in the midst of the fire some five minutes...A ball went through my hat as I lay on the ground and another just grazed the forefinger of my right hand. "  Barlow would be captured and would eventually be exchanged, to fight again..   
Then, about 4:00 p.m. the Federal battle line began to peel away from Seminary Ridge. The battered First Corps made a fighting withdrawal, across the valley, to Cemetery Ridge. As they did the XI Corp did the same, having suffered 50% causalities. Still they became known as "The Flying Dutchmen". There was panic in the streets of Gettysburg, but its size has been overrated. A brigade of the von Steoinwehr's division went forward to cover the retreat at a place in Gettysburg called the brickyard. After blunting  in Gettysburg, and then pulled back to defend the northern tip of Cemetery Hill, and next to it Culp's Hill. But the situation on the Federal side had changed,
At about 3:00 p.m., just about the same time the rebels were launching their assault on Seminary Ridge, 39 year old Major General Winfield Scott Hancock arrived on Cemetery Hill, empowered to take command of the battlefield.   
Immediately upon receiving word from Howard - about noon -  that he had assumed command at Gettysburg, General Gordon Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac,  had dispatched Hancock to Gettysburg with orders to replace the bigot from Maine. And now, over Howard's objections, Hancock did just that, inspiring confidence in the exhausted men.
Perhaps the most important order that Hancock issued that evening, at about 5:00 p.m., was to send exhausted the remnants of the I corps to the left, to occupy the 180 foot high Culp's hill.
Culp's Hill is the tallest position above Gettysburg, overlooking Cemetery Hill and Ridge by 100 feet. A "hollow" or saddle connects it to the 70 foot high Cemetery Hill.   And as dusk settled over the weary survivors at Gettysburg, the key to coming battle shifted to these two rocky mounts.
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