CULTUREFRONTIER - Key Persons
Was he a king? Evidence suggests that indeed he was. Perhaps one of the last non-Christian Kings of the Anglo-Saxon period. Some think it may be the final resting place of Raedwald, the last of the pagan Anglo-Saxon Kings. He was the first to convert to Christianity but still kept a pagan temple. It is believed that the woman buried on the couch in Mound 14 may have been his widow.
The dating of the mound fits the period of his reign. The wealth and far-off connections that he is thought to have during his reign, would support the richness of goods that were found at the site.
David Crockett was born in Tennessee on August 17, 1786. At age 12, he was hired as an indentured servant for a ranch in Virginia, as his family was very poor and in debt. This was the beginning of his life on the frontier. In 1806, he married his first wife. They had three children together. One of which, John Wesly Crockett, eventually became a U.S. Congressman. After his wife died, he later remarried and had three more children.
In 1802, Crockett started his war career under General Andrew Jackson in the Creek War, a conflict between Native Americans, the United States, and European powers over land rights. Soon after, he followed Jackson into the War of 1812, a conflict between the United States and Great Britain about soldier imprisonment and trade rights.
In 1818, Crockett began his political career. He started as commissioner for Lawrence County, Tennessee. Then in 1821, he successfully ran for the Tennessee General Assembly. Crockett was known for advocating for the rights of poor settlers. In 1827, he defeated his political opponents for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, still a champion for impoverished farmers. He was in and out of office until 1835. He lost popularity when he tried to dismantle the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and voted against the 1830 Indian Removal Act.
During his last term, Crockett penned his autobiography, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett. He promoted his book for a few years, possibly to build support for his future political career. On this tour he said his famous quote to a crowd in Nacogdoches, Texas,
"I told the people of my district that, if they saw fit to re-elect me, I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not, they might go to hell, and I would go to Texas."
The fact that the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers followed Davy Crockett to Texas is a misconception. In reality, he only came with a few friends and his nephew.
He had hoped to restore his political career and saw opportunity in Texas. In Tennessee, he had gained popularity for participating in war and wanted to mirror this previous rise to fame in Texas. Joining Texans in the battle against Mexico was an excellent occasion. Crockett's vision did not end with Texas, in his autobiography he described his goal of eventually running for U.S. President. Texas was to serve as a re-launching point for his political career. Unfortunately, Crockett would never have the chance to run for another political office.
In 1836, Crockett arrived in Texas. He wrote home to his children describing Texas as, "the garden spot of the world." He described the lush land, plentiful timber, and beautiful streams. He spoke about hopefully getting elected to help write the Texas Constitution. From this letter, Crockett made clear his admiration and intentions for Texas.
A few weeks after Crockett's arrival to the Alamo, Santa Anna and his army arrived. On March 6th, 1836, the Battle of the Alamo began and lasted 90 minutes. Once all of the Texas soldiers were killed, Mexican General Santa Anna instructed his soldiers to pile the bodies and burn them. The remains were not examined until nearly a year later. Reportedly, the ashes were placed in a coffin and buried near the Alamo. However, the final resting grave was unmarked and cannot be located today.
Davy Crockett's death would later become Tennessee's call for action to fight in the Mexican-American War. This war started over a boundary dispute in Texas. Tennessee enthusiastically sent volunteers in part to avenge Crockett's death. The United States only called for 2,800 soldiers from Tennessee, but 30,000 responded.
The tale of Davy Crocket lives on. David Crockett is a complex character described as an "honorary Texas frontiersman" and best known as a Tennessee member of the U.S. House of Congress. He represented Manifest Destiny ideals and poor farmers' aspirations.
Tennessee and Davy Crockett played a large role in the evolution of Texas. Texas may not be the state it is today without the continued assistance from the Tennessee Volunteers in the Texas Revolution and the Mexican-American War.
Job Titles:
- Rococo Architecture - the Ornate and the Extravagant
Dr. Heather Menz, a historian and anthropologist, holds a PhD in Anthropology with a focus on European Archaeology. Her research spans the ... More
Job Titles:
- Civil Rights Leader and Founder
Héctor Pérez García was born in Llera, a municipality of Tamaulipas, Mexico, on January 17, 1914. His parents, José García and Faustina Pérez, worked as teachers. Dr. García's family, like hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, were ultimately forced from their homes due to the instability and violence wrought by the Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1917). They settled in Mercedes, a city near the US-Mexico border.
Dr. García and his siblings, José Antonio, Clotilde, Cuitláhuac ‘C.P.', Xicotencátl, Emelia, and Dalia, were supported by their parents to complete their High School education and pursue college degrees. So great was their dedication that Dr. García' father would publish a book called ‘Lea y Escriba' (Read and Write) in 1952 to support early education.
For the rest of his life, Dr. García served as a prominent advocate for the Mexican American community, working to repeal poll taxes, fighting against bills that would harm the community, and working to promote education in Texas. For his work he was given a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, the Equestrian Order of Pope Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II in 1984, and a posthumous Aztec Eagle by the Mexican government in 1998. Dr. García died in Corpus Christi on July 26, 1996, and was buried at Seaside Memorial Park. His funeral eulogy was read by President Bill Clinton. His legacy lives on in the American GI Forum, and he is remembered in the Mexican American community for the work that he did to fight for equality.
Gustavus Adolphus could not stand by as Protestantism was marginalized in Germany and the Holy Roman Empire gained ascendancy. In June 1630, he crossed the Baltic Sea, leading an invasion of Pomerania with a well-prepared army of 40,000 Swedish soldiers, augmented by some Scottish mercenaries. Szczecin and Frankfurt an der Oder were the first cities to fall to his forces. The following year, Saxony joined as a Swedish ally, prompting the Count of Tilly, who led the Catholic forces, to attack. This led to the Battle of Breitenfeld in September, near what is today Leipzig. The result was a resounding victory for Gustavus Adolphus.
Hannah is a writer and teacher. She enjoys making an often boring school subject into something engaging and interesting to her students. ... More
Jake Leigh-Howarth is a writer dedicated to making history more accessible to the general public. He is a regular contributor to Ancient ... More
Job Titles:
- S Final Days in the War and Post - War War Crimes Trial
- S Leadership and Health Struggles in 1944
- S Role in Hitler 's Ardennes Counter - Attack Plan
Joachim Peiper was a highly notorious SS officer who served during the Second World War. He was convicted of war crimes committed by his troops at the "Malmedy Massacre" during the Battle of the Bulge German counter attack in December 1944. Until his violent death in 1976 (most likely at the hands of French anti-Nazis) he remained an unrepentant supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. In the decades after the Second World War he has become almost the definitive cliché of an aggressive, ruthless SS officer.
In October, the LAH reorganised again, as a panzer division. Peiper was made Lieutenant Colonel in January 1944 and given command of the 1 st Panzer Regiment. At this point, health check ups showed he was suffering from combat exhaustion and made to take leave.
Returning to the regiment - then in Belgium - in April 1944, he set about a harsh regime of training for the new recruits to the LAH. He was a strict disciplinarian, reportedly executing four young soldiers for stealing chickens.
The division stayed in Belgium during the first months of fighting in Normandy after the 6 th June D-Day landings - part of Hitler's fear that Normandy was a feint. The LAH arrived in Normandy on 6 July and was instantly in action against the Americans. But there were more health problems - perhaps a natural feature of someone who has been in extensive combat operations over a period of years. Peiper contracted jaundice in late July and on 2 August was sent back to Germany for rest, not to rejoin the regiment until October.
Since the failed Allied airborne operation "Market Garden" in mid-September, Adolf Hitler had been pondering opportunities for a large-scale counter-attack on the western front. Using the best of the reserves and resources at his disposal he created two new armies - one of them a panzer army, stacked with SS formations - and readied them in and around the Ardennes forest, which, at this point in time, was thinly held by inexperienced American troops.
With his background - fanatical, highly decorated and ruthless - Peiper was a natural choice to be at the forefront of Hitler's great Battle of the Bulge gamble. He had already been sounded out - planning staff had asked him how long it might take to drive an armoured force eighty kilometres at night. Pieper took a Panther tank and tried it himself before reporting back. His force - Kampfgruppe (battle group) Peiper - was charged with punching through the American lines and reaching bridges on the Meuse river more or less at all costs - even if it meant pushing German troops out of the way. The kampfgruppe was reinforced, including with the 501 st heavy tank battalion equipped with Tiger I and Tiger II "King Tiger". Failure could not be countenanced.
But the mission was a tough one. Even if American resistance was relatively weak initially, muddy dirt tracks, rugged forested and hilly terrain, winter conditions and the requirement to move thousands of troops and vehicles all at the same time were challenging enough. Fuel and ammunition was also limited - the advancing panzers were hoping to capture Allied supply dumps along the way. Fanaticism alone would probably not be sufficient.
Peiper was decorated again, despite his failure and was sent to the eastern front - by now, this meant Hungary. By the end of the war, in May 1945, the LAH was ordered to surrender to the Americans (rather than face almost certain execution at the hands of the Soviets). Peiper ignored this and set off for home on his own. He was arrested by the Americans later that month and charged with war crimes during the Battle of the Bulge - specifically in and around Malmedy (the actual site of the massacre was a crossroads at Baugnez).
Peiper and 73 former SS co-defendants protested innocence. Peiper argued that the Belgian civilians had been partisans. There were many irregularities in the court proceedings - many of the defendants had been beaten, intimidated and given mock trials - but the immediate post-war mood towards the SS was unsympathetic, to say the least.
Peiper was sentenced to death. In 1951 this was commuted to life imprisonment. In 1956 he was released on parole. Undercover networks of ex-Nazis found employment for him at Porsche for a time. But he chose to keep a low profile and moved to a remote part of eastern France - perhaps a curious choice for a convicted Nazi war criminal - where he worked as a freelance translator, under the pseudonym "Rainer Buschmann". He was guarded about his SS past, but was not entirely anonymous - he even chose to speak to journalists on occasion. His identity leaked out. Following some derogatory comments about France, he began to receive threats and warnings from local Frenchmen who may have been resistance fighters during the war. On 14 July - Bastille Day - 1976, there was an armed stand-off between Peiper and a dozen Frenchmen. Details are unclear, but, after a shootout, Peiper's house was burnt to the ground and Peiper's blackened, shrivelled, corpse found inside. The coroner's cause of death for the badly burned body was given as smoke inhalation.
After the slaying of Goliath, and subsequent defeat of the Philistine army, Saul would no longer allow David to return to his family home in Bethlehem. According to the book of Samuel, David became very close friends with Saul's son, Jonathan. David then obeyed Saul's commands and went out on every mission upon which he was sent without question, and he quickly became a national hero of the Israelites. One day, while returning home, Saul heard the people of Israel exclaiming that "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands" (1 Sam 18:7).
Upon hearing the praise being heaped upon David, Saul became jealous of the boy and his popularity. Saul's envy caused him to attempt to kill David by throwing a spear at him, which would set off a long series of events that would lead to David leaving Israel, and Saul hunting him and trying to kill the Bethlehemite on multiple occasions. David may well have been killed by the king had it not been for his friendship with the king's son. Jonathan was determined to help David survive the king's wrath, which occasionally aroused Saul's anger against his own beloved son. Indeed, Saul was so determined to kill David that he slaughtered the Levite priests who had sheltered him.
Saul Tries to Kill David with His Spear by Guercino, 1646, palazzo Barberini, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica
David would eventually outlast Saul and become king of Israel. Refusing to attack God's anointed, he allowed Saul to live even though he had multiple opportunities to kill him. On Mt. Gilboa, Saul and his sons, including David's close friend Jonathan, met a grisly end. Once again fighting the Philistines, Saul's sons were killed. According to the Bible, Saul was then struck and severely wounded by an arrow, and subsequently fell on his own sword. The Philistines found the bodies of the king and his sons the next day. They beheaded them and hung their bodies on the walls of the city of Beth Shan, but the bodies were quickly removed by Israelite crack troops, burned, and buried near Jabesh.
Private Felix Longoria was born in Three Rivers, Texas, on April 16, 1920. He served with the 27th Infantry in the Pacific, where he was killed in action in the Philippines on June 16, 1945. His remains were repatriated to Texas in January 1949. His widow, Beatriz Longoria, contacted the Three Rivers Funeral Home to arrange for a wake for her husband, who would be reburied in the Longoria family cemetery in Three Rivers.
Marie Louise was a marriage of convenience also meant to cement relations between Napoleon and a formerly hostile Austria. She strongly protested the betrothal but was soon won over by Napoleon's charm. She gave birth to Napoleon's son, nicknamed the King of Rome.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct History Professor
Matthew Avitabile is an Adjunct History professor at SUNY Oneonta. He received his Masters in European History in 2010 and Bachelors in ... More
Napoleon Bonaparte was transfixed with stories of ancient conquerors such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. The young man who learned French as a second language would create a reputation as grand and lasting as his heroes of antiquity.
Priscilla Escobedo is a Certified Archivist and historian who is dedicated to researching and celebrating the everyday stories of the past. Using ... More
Job Titles:
- Unknown Artist, National Portrait Gallery
In another indication of her corrupted mind, those close to her reported how Elizabeth was also bedeviled by visions of her weak, frail body.
Her behavior also became increasingly unpredictable, with one observer claiming that a playing card with a nail driven into its head was found on the queen's chair.
Another account relates how the queen stood in her private quarters for close to 15 hours because she was terrified that if she lay down she would never get up again. She purportedly collapsed onto a cushion-strewn floor for four days before her attendants finally managed to shepherd her into bed.
To top it all off Elizabeth refused to be attended or bathed, preferring smelly isolation to courtly duties.
Tim Foxley is a British and Swedish citizen, living in southern Sweden. He is a freelance political and military analyst, with a ... More
Vladimir is a writer and a history teacher from Serbia. He holds a Master's degree in World History. He loves writing short ... More