StanleyWheeler

 David Larson's One Crowded Hour: The Little Bighorn weighs in at over 400 and 60 some pages, so it's not a light read. For those of you new to U.S. History who have never heard of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall, Reno, Benteen, or Custer, I can't imagine how you've remained ignorant of one of the most exciting and controversial episodes of the Old West and The Indian Wars. Here are the facts, not all of which are without dispute: In June of 1876, the U.S. Army sent three columns into Montana Territory after Sioux and Cheyenne who had left the reservation.  ( Note , t he autographed book giveaway is down to the last two days. Enter now to win ).  Custer led the Seventh Cavalry in one of these columns and his scouts found a large Indian village camped along the Little Bighorn River. The natives were not only restless, finding that no casino plans had been formalized, they were expecting blue-coated guests. Thousands of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho had gathered for the d...

   In June of 1809, about 40 miles from Vienna, while Napoleon's main force and those of Austria's Archduke Charles maneuvered for battle on the Danube, Eugene de Beauharnais commanding French and Italian troops engaged Archduke John near Raab. John had deployed his troops--mostly militia and landwehr with cavalry and artillery--in a defensive position behind the Pancza stream. Beauharnais attacked and after a back and forth battle for the farm at the bridge near the center, concentrated fire from the French guns drove back the Austrian artillery and allowed the French cavalry to ford the river and threaten John's left flank. The French then retook the farm again and John was forced to withdraw. We replayed this battle, and finally finished it yesterday. In the photo above, taken on the next to last turn, the French are on the left and the Austrians on the right. Our battle differed in the details from the historic conflict. First, I enhanced the quality of a couple of the ...

  Le Chateau au Chat Gris has passed over the horizon. Not to worry; the cat is fine. This weekend we left Byzantium to visit family and look into a replacement for the 1999 Rattling Battle Wagon. The latter is now up for sale, and I'll be cruising in La Longue Carabine Rouge.  The sunset of the chateau is a sad event. Most of our children grew up there. The youngest may not even remember our other homes - and she just got married. Another daughter and Les Freres Corses lived there with us for a year or two and then for another year after we left for Byzantium. We didn't get to enjoy our last trips to the place because we were busy moving our belongings and hauling off the accumulation of debris--discarding memories. Stuff accumulates in life, and it's a constant struggle to decide which items can still be of service, which are so attached to memory that they can't be discarded, and which ones should've been sent to the trash at least two moves ago. We had a lot of ...

  I finally did it. I submitted a manuscript for a contest. If all goes well, I'll still be ecstatic about the publication in November of my adventure book for boys, Accidental Pirates , and may forget to be too disappointed if my manuscript isn't well received. On the other hand, because there's always another hand, I remain cautiously optimistic about the manuscript. It's a great story with gobs of action/adventure (which is really the thing I do best, well, except for witty banter--of which there's also a plethora), with a timely subject. I consider it a love note to America and to literature. Speaking of the boy's adventure book, it's still in editing. My structural edits were well received, so it has moved on to the next phase. Let's get to the book reviews. I've got two here. Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun by Charles Hudson provides a fascinating look into Hernando de Soto's exploration of the American south in the mid 1500s. Tremen...