Infinite Wisdom

". . . kill as many officers as possible, but, for God’s sake, spare the generals."

La Triviata

• To mark the end of his first semester at the Virginia Military Institute, Cadet George S. Patton, Jr., spent Christmas Day of 1903 at the grave of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, contemplating the warrior’s life while eating figs.
• During the Second Century, at the height of the Roman Empire, officers were rarely ever posted to the same legion twice during their careers, apparently in order to reduce the possibility of developing undue influence with the troops.
• Reportedly, Napoleon had a pet gazelle that he kept at his palace at Malmaison, which he had trained to chase the ladies of the court upon a certain signal, and seemed to get great pleasure from watching them trying to run in their elegant gowns and precious jewelry.
• It appears that although on occasion Greek hosts ran into the tens of thousands – and perhaps 100,000 at Plataea (479 B.C.) against the Persians – typically during the “Golden Age” in the Fifth Century B.C. armies ran to only about 2,500 hoplites, plus some cavalry and perhaps archers or slingers.
• In 1929 Germany’s reparations debt to the Allies was restructured to 137.3 billion gold marks, payable in annual installments through 1987.
• The worst disaster in maritime history occurred in 255 B.C., when, shortly after overwhelming the Carthagians in the Battle of Cape Hermaea, a Roman fleet of 464 war galleys – including over 100 newly captured prizes – was wrecked in a storm off Pachynus (Cape Passero), Sicily, with the loss of some 380 ships and reportedly 150,000 men .
• Although invited to attend President Roosevelt’s war message to Congress on December 8, 1941, Chinese Ambassador Hu Shu required the personal assistance of Senator John Connelly of Texas to enter the Capitol building, because security guards thought he looked like a Japanese spy.
• Spanish Lt.-Gen. Miguel de Alava, appears to have been the only man present at both of Britain's great decisive victories over Napoleon, the naval Battle of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805), when he was a frigate captain with the Franco-Spanish fleet, and at Waterloo (June 18, 1815), when he was serving as an aide to Wellington.

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