I just watched Skippy’s lame-ass justification for his failed Iraq war and policy.

Let’s recap, shall we?

We’re going to send another 21,000 troops over there, thereby escalating the war in the hope of imposing our definition of democracy and settling a civil war through military means, propping up a puppet government that has no popular support along the way (never mind that with an all-volunteer army that’s already stretched too thin, we’re really jeopardizing our national security in order to pursue a failed policy)….

We’re going to spend zillions of dollars trying to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people by trying to give them jobs when this is about political power and revenge for years of …

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I’ve just discovered–and added a link for–John Maass’s excellent blog, A Student of History, and commend you to it.

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And, last, but certainly not least, here is the report of Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer, commander of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, of August 22, 1863:

In compliance with instructions received from the headquarters of the 3d division, I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my command in the engagements near Gettysburg, July 3d, 1863:At an early hour on the morning of the 3d I received an order, through a staff officer of the brigadier general commanding the division, to move at once my command and follow the 1st brigade on the road leading from Two Taverns to Gettysburg.

Agreeable to the above instructions my column was formed and moved out on …

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Since it’s been something like 60 days since Andy Eitman last posted anything on Strike the Tent, I’ve deleted the link to his blog. If he resumes posting of any substance, I will consider reinstating the link. For now, though, it’s gone.

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My blogging software tells me the URL’s of the referring web sites when people visit this site. It gives me the last ten URL’s to visit the site. I occasionally check them just to see where folks are coming from when they visit. Tonight, I spotted a name of a site that I didn’t recognize: 110th Lancer, Chris Swift’s “tirades on cavalry and armor.”

Here’s the description from the web site: “110th Lancer is just stories about Armor and Cavalry from me, Christopher J. Swift, who spent 11 years in American Armor units. Some is historical some is just opinion.” As a veteran of the armored cavalry, Chris brings an interesting perspective to the study of cavalry operations, and …

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Col. Stephen D. Mann normally commanded the 7th Michigan Cavalry. However, Colonel Mann was not in command of the regiment at the end of the Campaign for reasons that remain unclear to me. This is Major Newcombe’s report:

At Hanover, Pa., on the 30th of June, the regiment having the advance of the brigade in its rapid return from Abbottstown was thrown into position on the left of the turnpike to the left and front of Battery M, 2d U. S. Artillery. Two squadrons were dismounted and advanced as skirmishers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel [Allyne C.] Litchfield. In the progress of the section of the action the regiment was moved to the right of the town as a …

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This is the report of Col. George H. Gray of the 6th Michigan Cavalry. Gray was a prominent lawyer and railroad man who was assigned to command the newly-formed 6th Michigan Cavalry in the fall of 1862. He had to resign his commission in the spring of 1864 due to health problems, but he was in command of his regiment at Gettysburg. Here is his report of the Gettysburg Campaign:

On the morning of June 30th this regiment, with the 5th, occupied Littlestown, Penn.; while Company A was on a reconnaissance toward Westminster, the remainder of the regiment (nine companies) proceeded to Hanover. On approached the last named place we came upon the enemy’s skirmishers, whom we drove to their …

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In 1981, while looking for something to read that I could take with me to the summer camp where I spent the summer as a counselor, I discovered a series of three paperback books called “The Brotherhood of War” by W. E. B. Griffin. Telling the story of the U. S. Army in the North African and European Theatres of World War II and some of the fighting in Korea, these novels were riveting, and I gobbled them up. Griffin is veteran of the Korean War, and has to be close to 80. His son co-authored one of his recent titles, and is apparently being groomed to carry the torch when the father’s time comes. Hopefully, the son will …

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After Col. Russell A. Alger and his lieutenant colonel were both wounded, and after the senior major, Noah Ferry, was killed on East Cavalry Field at Gettysburg, the next senior officer was Maj. Crawley P. Dake. Dake put together an extremely cursory review of the activities of the regiment for the rest of the campaign–an itinerary, really. E. A. Paul published it in The New York Times, and it also appears in Michigan in the War. It has been published twice since then, once by me as an appendix to At Custer’s Side: The Civil War Writings of James Harvey Kidd, and it also appears in the Broadfoot Supplement to the Official Records. In spite of its …

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Col. Russell A. Alger commanded the 5th Michigan Cavalry for much of the war. Alger, of course, went on to become Secretary of War in the McKinley Administration, where he oversaw the Spanish-American War. According to Alger, he wrote a contemporaneous report of the 5th Michigan’s role in the Gettysburg Campaign, but that the report was lost. Consequently, in 1882, John Robertson, the adjutant general of Michigan, requested that Alger re-create his report. The 1882 report appears here:

In compliance with the former request from your predecessor, General Townsend, asking for a report of the 5th Michigan Cavalry Vols., for the “Gettysburg Campaign,” as none for the regiment is on file in the War Department, I have the honor to …

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