You know of Molly Pitcher. Do you know of Betsy Doyle?

November 5, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

On November 22, 1812 the British, at Fort George, were cannonading the Americans at Fort Niagara. George McFeeley was the American commander and several days later made his official report to Brigadier General Smyth.
Within the report McFeeley noted: “…An instance of extraordinary bravery in a female (the wife of one Doyle, a private in the United States Artillery, made a prisoner at Queenston,) I cannot pass over. During the most tremendous cannonading I have ever seen, she attended the six-pounder on the mess-house with red hot shot, and showed fortitude equal to the Maid of Orleans…”.
In an act of female heroism during combat, much like the work of Molly Pitcher (although considered folklore by many historians), Betsy Doyle played a notable role. A mother of four whose husband was captured at the Battle of Queenston & held as a prisoner by the British, after some gunners were wounded Betsy stepped in to help. The Americans were loading “red hot shot” into their guns to fire at Fort George. Betsy helped bring the shot from the fireplaces downstairs to the guns.
The December 16, 1812 issue of the “Boston Patriot” is one of few newspapers which reported this event.

Acts of female involvement in combat are rarely reported. Here is a nice one.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor… Great Headlines Speak For Themselves…

February 18, 2016 by · Leave a Comment 

The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with the HONOLULU STAR BULLETIN – 1st Extra! printed on December 7, 1941:Blog-12-14-2016-Pearl-Harbor-Attack

They put it in print… The Vietnam Crisis… before it was a crisis…

March 23, 2015 by · Leave a Comment 

One of the attractions of collecting old newspapers is the ability to look at history with the benefit of hindsight. Many times writers were right on the money when it came to predicting events in the future; many times they could not have been more wrong. Both views offer interesting reading.

Not long ago we came across a report of what would become a scar on the military history of the United States, specifically the lengthy war in Vietnam. A “Los Angeles Times” newspaper as early as March 25, 1965, some ten years before the Vietnam War would Blog-3-23-2015-Vietnam-Crisisofficially end (Saigon fell on April 29, 1975) had a headline announcing: “VIET CRISIS GROWS“. This report notes that Red China was committed to sending troops to fight in Vietnam if the Americans persisted in their growing involvement, and that they would: “…fight together with the South Vietnamese people to annihilate the U.S. aggressors.”  This is in response to the event of 3 weeks prior when the first American combat troops arrived in Vietnam, joining a force of 23,000 American “advisers”.  American involvement in the Vietnam War would only continue to grow for another 8 years.

I am sure almost no one who read this newspaper in the spring of 1965 could have guessed the future complexity and duration of American involvement in Southeast Asia. This issue constitutes half of what I would call “bookend newspapers”, or a pair of newspapers which report the beginning and end of noteworthy events.

The Traveler… deaths of General Pike and Major Stoddard… recruiting…

June 3, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 

Today I traveled to Hartford, Connecticut by the way of the American Mercury dated June 1, 1813. There I found  an extract of  letter from an officer to his father. He writes from Sacket’s Harbor pertaining to the Battle of York, “We arrived at this place last evening from Niagara. The body of General Pike was with us. He was killed by the explosion of a magazine, on which a vast collection of stones, shots, and other missiles were collected. I was wounded; but, thank God, not dangerously….”.

Also reported in this issue is the Siege of Fort Miegs and the death of Major Stoddard. “…I am sorry to inform you that Major Stoddard died the night before I left the Rapids, of a lock-jaw, produced by a slight wound from a fragment of a shell which struck him on the thigh…”.

The back page of the issue carries a “New Corps Enlisted For One Year!!!” advertisement. This contained a quote from an European political writer “…The Americans are active in their person: they are enterprising; they are brave; and, which is of vast consequence, they are, from education and almost from constitution, SOBER, a virtue not at all less valuable in the Army than it is in domestic life…”.

~The Traveler