King Henry's horse

          One day, King Henry VIII was just sitting around. Having nothing else to do (he was between wives at the time), he decided to hear the pleadings of several prisoners who wanted to appeal their death sentences. Henry was the King, you know, and once in a while he had to do a little King work.

          So came to the court a man twice convicted of stealing bread. The criminal lost a hand for his first conviction and was about to lose his head for the second. Bread was worth a lot of dough back then.

          “Your Royal Highness,” the two-time loser began, “the Kingdom should not lose my services for I can make horses talk.”

          “Really,” asked the King. Henry was a sporting man and he figured he could really make hay with a talking horse. “Could you make my horse talk?”

          “Of course, your Royal Highness.”

          “And how long would this take?” the King asked.

          “It usually takes a year,” the one-handed felon replied.

          “Well then,” said Henry VIII. “Bring me my horse a year from now. If he talks, you may live. Otherwise, off with your head.”

          The guard charged with walking the criminal to the royal stables laughed at the soon-to-be free convict as they traversed the distance. Only a fool would make such a deal with the King, the guard sneered.

          “Well, as I see it, three things can happen,” the poor little man told the guard. “I might die before a year is up. Or the King may die. Or,” the wretch told the guard, “the horse might talk.”

          It is not always easy to remain optimistic. But sometimes, when I feel optimistic, I think to myself, “Or the horse might talk.”

          You never know.

          Thanks for reading.

Mustangs, Cobras, Snake and Jones

Here is a classic Mustang.

          I took in a terrific car show today, a collection of Carroll Shelby cars on the property of the Wally Parks Museum in Pomona, California. A parking lot full of Mustangs, Cobras, GT 40s and some of Shelby’s other race cars. There was at least one Dodge Viper.

          Just a terrific collection of classic, high-horsepower vehicles. There was a 2013 edition Mustang, too, and that thing was a real treat to see.

          I have a few images here of some of the cars.

          Mustangs are a great favorite of mine, especially the old GT 350 and GT 500 models. Great old cars and the ones my friend and I saw were in terrific condition. Most of them were in perfect or very near perfect condition.

Parnelli Jones in a Cobra.

          Racing Hall of Famers Parnelli Jones and Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme were there and they participated in a parade of some of the cars around the grounds. Jones, of course, was one of the greatest race car racers of all time and he was an accomplished sports car racer. Prudhomme is one of the best drag racers of all time, but people don’t realize how big a fan he is of all other forms of racing. ‘Snake’ is also one of the coolest men alive.

A Cobra. The thing looks fast even when standing still.

          If you don’t like Mustangs, Cobras or anything with horsepower, there is still the nostalgia of the day. Remember when the engine compartment of a car was easy to work in? The cars we saw today are cars I’ve always enjoyed. They remind me of an era now passed by.

          Once in a while I’ll hear a car go by and the sound of the engine will make me smile. I heard that sound a lot today and I grinned. I grinned a lot.

          Thanks for reading. I hope you grinned today, too.

My pal, Bucky Weber, is in awe of those Goodyear tires. I guess he liked the car, too.

No Bragg, just fact

            Among the most vilified figures in the saga of the American Civil War is Confederate General Braxton Bragg. A West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican War, Bragg usually goes down in history as a failed army commander and a political favorite of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

          Fair enough. Bragg managed to give up nearly the entire state of Tennessee without a fight during the summer of 1863. Out maneuvered constantly by Federal General William Rosecrans, Bragg repeatedly retreated that summer and capped his non-violent military methodology by giving up the key railroad city of Chattanooga through abdication.

          There is plenty to criticize in the body of Bragg’s work. He was not popular with his troops or with his unit commanders.

          But closer scrutiny reveals something else about Bragg’s tenure as commander of the Confederate of the Army of Tennessee: He was not well served by either his Commander-in-Chief or the men Bragg commanded.

          Bragg’s request for help from Confederate President Jefferson Davis was answered when Davis sent General Daniel H. Hill from the Army of Virginia, Robert E. Lee’s army, to Bragg’s Army of Tennessee.  There Hill joined, among others, the unhappy General Leonidas Polk.

Polk, it turned out, was disinclined to follow orders. First at the botched affair at McLemore’s Cove and then days later at Chickamauga, Polk routinely ignored direct orders from Bragg or obeyed orders so slowly as to render his service non-existent.

The pair managed to delay the Confederate attack scheduled for daylight on September 20, the second day of the battle of Chickamauga. They delayed the attack for hours. That delay may have cost the Confederates a chance to cut off the Federal retreat toward Chattanooga.

Finally, both Hill and Polk signed a letter to Davis requesting the president remove Bragg from his post after the victory at Chickamauga. Other commanders in the Army of Tennessee, including James Longstreet, signed the letter as well, sure, but it strikes the observer that Hill, Polk and even Longstreet performed at a level below what could have been expected from them by their commander.

The soldiers in Bragg’s army fought with great tenacity when their wing- and corps-level leaders finally started following orders. No Civil War battle was harsher or more difficult than the blood-soaked struggle at Chickamauga. Even the soldiers of Polk’s right wing, when they finally moved forward, fought very effectively and drove the Union troops in front of them from the field.

But the Army of Tennessee’s costly victory at Chickamauga could have won much greater results had Polk and Hill been in the mood to follow direct orders from their commanding officer. That those orders were ignored probably cost thousands of Confederate lives and might have cost the gray coats a chance to retake the important city of Chattanooga.

Even Longstreet, who spent his years after the end of the war sounding wisely critical of Bragg, Lee and other Confederate leaders, could have performed better at Chickamauga.

Braxton Bragg was not a wise leader of men. But had his wing- and corps- level commanders served with a better level of professionalism in September of 1863, Bragg might have a better reputation today.

Thanks for reading.