Infinite Wisdom

"One of the first lessons that battle impresses upon one is that no matter how large the force engaged, every battle is made up of small actions by individuals and small units."

La Triviata

• In October of 1901 the U.S. Army conducted field tests of an automobile “wagonette” produced by John B. Walker, later the first president of the Automobile Manufacturers Association, which were supposedly capable of transporting four fully equipped troops with three days’ supplies up to 100 miles in 12 hours over existing roads, but proved utterly unsuitable to the task, though nevertheless representing the first American experiment with motor transport.
• Among his many other distinctions, Giuseppe Garibaldi, the "Hero of Two Continents" – was an accomplished seaman, and the first captain of the first Piedmontese steam ship, the Salvatore, a coastal freighter commissioned in 1855.
• Following Prussia’s defeat by Napoleon in the War of the Fourth Coalition (1806-1807), a military reform was initiated that began with the purge of some 100 generals, over 600 field grade officers, and 4,000 other officers.
• In each world war only one National Guardsman was permitted to command his division for the duration, Maj. Gen. John F. O'Ryan of New York's 27^th Division, 1917-1919, and Maj. Gen. Robert S. Beightler, of Ohio's 37^th, 1940-1945.
• An analysis of the reports about women discovered serving disguised as men in the French Army late in the seventeenth century suggests that most of them were taller than the average man of the period.
• Suetonius, the ancient source of much gossip about the Caesars, reports that the great Julius’ horse had toes.
• Having been captured by the British in November of 1942, Generalleutnant Ritter von Thoma, of the Afrika Korps was invited to dine by Bernard Law Montgomery, which prompted Winston Churchill to remark, “Poor von Thoma! I too have dined with Montgomery.”
• The oldest surviving military organization that served in garrison on Governor’s Island, in New York Harbor, is The King’s Royal Rifle Corps, raised in the colonies in the mid-eighteenth century, which did a tour in the island fortress during the Seven Years’ War as the Royal Americans, later the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and is now embodied in The Rifles.

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