Infinite Wisdom

"Senator, if you are interested in that officer's advancement, the best thing you can do is never mention his name to me again. Good-bye."

La Triviata

• During the French and Indian War, on average about 20-percent of military aged white men in New England served under arms, in some colonies rising to a third, whereas the Southern colonies averaged about 12½-percent.
• When the Florentines hired Leonardo da Vinci to do a mural commemorating their victory over the Pisans at Anghiari (June 29, 1440), the great artist was given a lengthy essay on the battle by his friend Niccolo Machiavelli, who, in his status as secretary of war for the republic had, not co-incidentally, signed the artist’s contract .
• Each day World Classical Radio, a web-based station (www.beethoven.com) marks noon Eastern Time by airing "The Star Spangled Banner," often using a recording on which the tune is played on what is believed to have been David Crockett's fiddle.
• While on campaign in Germany in 213, the Roman Emperor Caracalla (211-217), made a point of marching in the ranks with the ordinary legionaries, grinding his own grain and baking his own bread “like a common soldier.”
• When the U.S. Navy sent five battleships to join the Grand Fleet in November of 1917, it selected older coal-burning vessels, because of a severe shortage of fuel oil in Britain.
• Austrian troops investing Genoa in 1746 disregarded the advice of the local peasantry to select an excellent camp site, with the result that hundreds of men and horses and tons of equipment were lost when a heavy rainfall caused a flash flood on the River Polceverra.
• Of 431,978 men officially listed as having taken part in combat during the Vietnam War, only 116,641 (27-percent) had been drafted, though of the 47,378 who died as a result of combat, 17,725 (30.4 percent) were draftees.
• The total amount of “prize” awarded the officers and “people” of the Royal Navy during the French Wars (1793-1815), was some £30 million, today easily the equivalent of £25 billion!

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