Infinite Wisdom

"We must know that war is common to all and strife is justice, and that all things come into being through strife necessarily."

La Triviata

• Although generally regarded as a bastion of the aristocracy, in 1859, on the eve of the unification of Italy, only about 30 percent of the officers in the Piedmontese Army were noblemen, far lower than the proportion in most European countries, and many company officers were former enlisted men.
• Cher Ami, the intrepid carrier pigeon of the famed “Lost Battalion” of the 77^th Division in the Argonne Forest in October of 1918, died of his wounds at Fort Monmouth on June 13, 1919, and his remains are today on exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
• When in the field the Comte de Saxe (1696-1750) always traveled with a theatrical troupe – partially to enjoy the show and partially to enjoy the actresses – and it was usually at the conclusion of a performance that his subordinates learned whether a battle was imminent, for after curtain call, one of the starlets would appear to announce the name of the play for the following night, but would occasionally say, “Gentlemen, there will be no play tomorrow for the marshal gives battle” before explaining what was scheduled for the day after that.
• When someone admitted to favoring a republican form of government to Tsar Alexander I, the Autocrat of All the Russias promptly replied, “I am too, but my profession is against it.”
• Seeking to cut costs, during the winter of 1696-1697, the Duke of Sesto, commanding the Spanish Army in Lombardy, declared that cavalrymen who owned their own horses could go home on leave for the winter, whereupon 300 troopers ceased using royal steeds and bought their own.
• Dining one evening at Brighton with a large party, including the U.S. minister, King William IV (r. 1830-1837), who had served with the Royal Navy in America during the Revolutionary War, remarked that it was “a matter of serious regret to me that I had not been born a free, independent American” and added that he “considered Washington the greatest man that ever lived.”
• Although a highly successful commander, when civil war broke out between Octavian and Marc Antony in 32 B.C., the Roman general Gaius Asinius Pollio – originally a partisan of Antony – decided to retire, becoming an historian while supporting himself by operating a brick works; though his books have been lost, great numbers of his bricks can still be found in Rome
• Apparently, as a young man, Otto von Bismarck contemplated entering British service in India, but changed his mind because, “I asked myself what those fellows in India had ever done to me.”

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