Historical tidbits

[Mister D]

I had no idea there had been a battle in central Asia between the Arab Abbasids and the Chinese. The Chinese lost (badly).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Talas

[Captdon]

I just explained to you why McClellan probably hesitated.

What Zenta has to do with this is anyone's guess.

I respectably disagree about McClellan. He was a great organizer but never believed he had a superior army because of bad Intelligence. He fought at because Antietam Lee foolishly attacked him.

He could never get past the idea that Richmond was the objective and not Lee's army.

[Captdon]

Yeah, marriage was a big part of dynastic strategy. It's just a very different mentality. A territory's ruler was often not from the land he ruled. Charles, for example, was raised in what is not Belguim. When he became King of Spain in 1516 and Holy Roman Emperor a few years later he didn't even speak Spanish or German respectively.

English King George I was a German who never learned English. He spoke German and French.

[Captdon]

It's a charming show but Ancient Aliens is starting to annoy me. "Ancient Astronaut theorists" have this weird hostility to the Catholic Church and make a lot of bizarre claims about it. Usually, it's just the tired canards about their hostility to science and knowledge. That's tolerable. I'm not sure if this was an older episode but they claimed the RCC burned down the Library of Alexandria thus setting human knowledge and science back "thousands of years". Enough is enough. According to the ancient sources, the library in question was destroyed during the respective assaults on the city by the troops of Julius Caesar in 48 B.C. and/or Aurelian in the late 3rd Century. These goofballs are mistaking the Serapeum, which Emperor Theodosius ordered destroyed in 391 AD, with the library which was long gone by then.

Alien enthusiasts lose me when they can't explain why the aliens couldn't cut stone blocks the same size and didn't show Earthlings about cement.

[resister]

On thanksgiving day around 1905 all but 3-5 buildings in downtown Arcadia went up in a blaze. Tall wood structures right on top of each other, not a good idea, especially knotty yellow pine.

[Kacper]

On thanksgiving day around 1905 all but 3-5 buildings in downtown Arcadia went up in a blaze. Tall wood structures right on top of each other, not a good idea, especially knotty yellow pine.

Seems like I heard of something like that happening in West Virginia a few years back. IIRC, some druggies being evicted ended up burning down or damaging just about everything in a couple blocks in some small town or the other.

Edit to add video.

[Mister D]

I respectably disagree about McClellan. He was a great organizer but never believed he had a superior army because of bad Intelligence. He fought at because Antietam Lee foolishly attacked him.

He could never get past the idea that Richmond was the objective and not Lee's army.

I don't think we disagree to any great extent. McClellan's great strengths laid in his capacity for organization and his charisma. He inspired the men. He was also consistently misled by bad intelligence. My point was that I think it's plausible that he shrank from annihilating Lee's army at Antietam (McClellan attacked at Antietam) because he had a certain sympathy for the south and hoped for reconciliation. I think General Howe had a similar disposition. He could have annihilated Washington's army in New York but didn't.

[Mister D]

English King George I was a German who never learned English. He spoke German and French.

True, House of Hanover. The British army had contingents of Hanoverian troops.

[Captdon]

I don't think we disagree to any great extent. McClellan's great strengths laid in his capacity for organization and his charisma. He inspired the men. He was also consistently misled by bad intelligence. My point was that I think it's plausible that he shrank from annihilating Lee's army at Antietam (McClellan attacked at Antietam) because he had a certain sympathy for the south and hoped for reconciliation. I think General Howe had a similar disposition. He could have annihilated Washington's army in New York but didn't.

Yea, I got it backwards. I was thinking of the cornfield and got lost.

[Mister D]

Yea, I got it backwards. I was thinking of the cornfield and got lost.

Have you been there? Cool place. It's small and most of the action was in a relatively small area. You can walk from the Cornfield to the end of the Sunken Lane with no problem. I sometimes had trouble situating myself at Gettysburg.